This Boston Children’s Museum Virtual Tour Guide includes ideas for at-home activities and video links to make the virtual field trip interactive and fun for your kids.
Complete with walking directions and Google Street View links to help you navigate, this guide will provide everything you need to bring the fun of the museum into your living room.
About the Boston Children’s Museum
The Boston Children’s Museum was founded in 1913 and is the second oldest children’s museum in the world.
The museum features 3 floors of exhibits with lots of hands-on science, health and fitness, cultural, environmental, and art activities, as well as collection artifacts on display throughout the museum.
Tips for Visiting Boston Children’s Museum Virtually
If you aren’t familiar with using Google Street View, take a look at my post on how to navigate in Google Street View for tips.
While you should be able to easily navigate from one exhibit to the next, just in case you have trouble with it, Google Street View links are included in the guide at the start of each exhibit.
The Google Street View tour of the museum was done in December 2012, so you won’t be able to virtually walk through any areas or exhibits that have changed since then.
To prepare for your Boston Children’s Museum virtual tour get to know the layout of the museum by looking at this map. Print the map out or keep it open in another tab while you virtually walk through the museum to help you learn your way around.
This guide contains ideas and links to activities that you can set up at home for each exhibit. You will want to look at each of these activities to see what you need to make before you do this virtual tour with your kids.
The guide also contains links to videos related to the exhibits or activities. After you do a virtual walkthrough of an exhibit, have your child watch the video to give you time to set up the activity for them.
These videos and activities are geared to school-age kids, but you can come up with different ideas for younger kids too. Read this article about making virtual tours interactive for kids to learn how to easily come up with your own activities for virtual trips.
Start Your Boston Children’s Museum Virtual Tour
Give your kids a glimpse of what the museum has by watching this video before you begin your trip.
Once they have finished the video you can take a look at the outside of the museum with a couple 360° pictures here and here, then head inside by clicking here.
The Boston Children’s Museum virtual tour starts at the admission desk. Walk past the desk and head into the gift shop first.
Science Playground
When you exit the gift shop turn right and walk down the hall until you reach the Science Playground room.
The Science Playground has 3 unique hands-on exhibits inside, Bubbles, Investigate, and Raceways.
Bubbles
Turn left and enter the Bubbles exhibit first.
Bubbles is an exhibit where kids can explore and investigate how to create bubbles of all sizes with a variety of tools.
Watch this video to learn how to make your own bubble wands with pipe cleaners and plastic straws. Then have your kids make their own before heading outside to try them out.
Another at-home activity idea is to make a giant bubble wand, which you can learn how to do on this video. Or you can just go outside for a bit and play with whatever bubble accessories you have.
Investigate
Resume your virtual tour by going back to the middle room in the Science Playground exhibit, Investigate.
Investigate is full of nature items for kids to investigate and explore, including a turtle aquarium that kids can crawl under to get a belly side view.
Have your kids watch this video about turtles while you set up the next activity.
For this exhibit you can easily make your own Investigate discovery boxes, similar to the ones set out on the table in the center of the room. Just find nature items, like rocks, seashells, leaves, twigs, or toy insects, and place them in a box with a magnifying glass.
Raceways
Once your children have finished investigating, head to the last room from the Science Playground exhibit, Raceways.
This small room is full of golf balls and different tracks for kids to play with them on, including a ski jump track.
Have you kids watch this video to learn about force, while you set up your own ball ski jump track with these instruction from busytoddler.com.
Kid Stage
When you exit the Science Playground exhibit, turn right and walk down the hallway until you reach the KidStage.
This mini auditorium hosts half-hour performances with music, singing, and dancing that kids can get up on stage and be a part of.
Show your kids what performances they have here. Then have them watch this live performance of the Three Little Pigs video before performing the play themselves with this script and printable masks.
Once your children have finished their performance, exit the exhibit and walk back down the hallway the way you came from.
Climb
Turn right just past the stairs to check out the giant climbing structure.
The New Balance Foundation Climb exhibit is a 3-story climbing structure made of nets and curved platforms.
Walk around the exhibit to check it out. To get a better look at it you can walk back to the bottom of the stairs. Then click on the button for the second and third floors on the right side of the Google Street View screen.
Once you have gotten a good look at this enormous climber go back down to the first floor.
Kid Power
Walk to the front of the structure where the windows are. Turn right and walk to Kid Power.
This two-floor exhibit is full of fun activities to keep kids active and teach them to be healthy.
After you have checked out the activities on the first floor, head up to the second-floor part of this exhibit by clicking on the 2 on the Google Street View screen or clicking here.
Have your kids watch this video on fueling the body while you set up some active activities for them.
Test out how high your kids can jump by setting up your own “Reach Up and Jump” game. Just cut out circles of paper with numbers one 1-12 on them and tape them to the wall.
Depending on what you have at home, you could also set up a basketball net, have them test out their power on an exercise bike, play a round of Just Dance, or use any other toys/equipment you have at home for physical activity.
Once your kids have worn off some energy, exit the exhibit by walking down the pathway beside the front windows.
PlaySpace
Once you reach the main hallway, turn left and go into PlaySpace.
This exhibit is for children 0-3 years old only, with several different play areas set up throughout it.
If you have kids that are young enough to play in this exhibit you could set up a train set, marble mazes, baby pool with large balls, small climbing structure, or any other toys you have at home similar to what’s in the exhibit.
If your kids are older, just have this watch this video tour of the exhibit before taking a look around.
Peep’s World
Walk down the hallway until you reach Peep’s World.
This exhibit is based on the cartoon Peep and the Big Wide World and has a large water play area and a sand play area.
Have your kids watch this video of the shows theme song before you enter the exhibit. Then, after looking around, they can watch the episode Current Events.
While they are watching the video, set up your own water play area. If you don’t have a water table use a large bowl or a storage container, or under-bed storage tote. Give your kids measuring cups, measuring spoons, and funnels to play in the water with.
For older kids, who aren’t as interested in water play, have them do this sink or float activity.
Another activity for this area you can try, if you have a sandbox or sensory table filled with rice or something similar, is to hide small toys in it and have the kids use paintbrushes to find them.
Countdown to Kindergarten
Exit at the back of the Peep’s World exhibit, past the sand area, through the small hallway that leads to Countdown to Kindergarten.
This room is set up like a small kindergarten classroom to allow preschoolers to see what big school will be like. It even has an area set up like a school bus for them.
Instead of watching a video in this room, get out your kid’s favorite storybooks (or their favorites from kindergarten if they are older). Have your kids take turns pretending to be the teacher and reading it for story time.
Then set out any activities you have at home that would be found in most kindergarten rooms, like puzzles, alphabet letters, and mega blocks.
Leave the exhibit through the front entrance passing by the bus on the left side as you go.
The Common
Right next door is an entrance to The Common, a large room with games like musical chairs, various table games, a light table, and a shadow wall.
Have your kids watch this video to learn how to make shadow puppets. Then set up your own shadow wall by pointing a flashlight at a blank wall.
If you have any other games like Tic Tac Toe, set them out for the kids to play too. Or, for a more active game, set up some chairs to play musical chairs.
Arthur and Friends
Continue down the hall to Arthur and Friends.
The Arthur and Friends exhibit lets kids act out scenes from the popular Arthur books and TV show. There are several areas for kids to play in including an airplane, Arthur’s kitchen, his classroom, and the Dr’s office.
Before you enter this exhibit, play this Arthur theme song video.
If you have any Arthur books, take a virtual walk around this exhibit comparing the play areas to the scenes in the book of the same locations. If you don’t have any Arthur books, or want another activity idea, let your kids try one of these online Arthur games.
KEVA
When you exit the exhibit, there is one more exhibit on this floor down the hall to the left.
This room is now the KEVA exhibit. But at the time the Google Street View tour was made it was a special exhibit called BIG & Little.
This exhibit is not available to virtually tour, which makes it difficult to get to the next exhibit which you enter through KEVA.
The Gallery, Art Studio and Johnny’s Workbench
Instead of trying to navigate to the next room, just click here to enter The Gallery .
The Gallery is the main part of this room and has art hanging up that you can zoom in on to view.
Behind the art gallery you will notice an empty room, which is where the STEAM center is now. While you can’t see this room in the Boston Children’s Museum virtual tour, you can still do a STEAM activity if you want. For some quick STEAM activity ideas check out this article.
Art Studio
The Art Studio is located inside the Gallery. This is where kids can go to make crafts and artwork inspired by other exhibits throughout the museum.
To find a fun art activity you can do at home check out the Boston Children’s Museum YouTube channel.
Johnny’s Workbench
Johnny’s Workbench is an exhibit that lets kids get familiar with common tools and work with them in a safe environment.
After you look at the tools and activities available in this area have your kids watch this video on workshop safety. Then you can set up one of these DIY tool activities from the Family Handy Man website.
Construction Zone
Now it’s time to head up to the third floor by clicking on the 3 on the right side of the Google Street View screen. Then walk down the hallway until you reach Construction Zone.
The Construction Zone is full of things for kids to use to build, as well as things to climb and other construction activities.
Have your kids watch this video about building paper structures. Then give them some newspaper and tape to make their own.
For kids who are too young to enjoy this activity, set out other construction toys. Foam or wooden blocks, Lincoln Logs, Lego, or any other building toy you have will work. Ask your kids to build a house or other structure.
Global Gallery (Explore-a-Saurus)
Down the hallway on the left side you will see Global Gallery.
This is another exhibit that you cannot walk through with Google Street View, as it is no longer there. This space is now where the Explore-a-Saurus exhibit is.
Boston Black: A City Connects
Across from Global Gallery is Boston Black: A City Connects.
Boston Black, set up like a little town, is an exhibit that highlights the diversity within Boston’s Black community, shares the history of Black people in the city, and encourages conversations about race and identity for families.
Have your kids watch this video about the history of black women’s hair. Make your kids their own braiding boards with these instructions from happyhooligans.com so they can practice braiding. They can also watch this video to learn how to braid.
Some other fun activity ideas (if you have the toys for it) could be setting up a little café with toy dishes, a market with some toy food and a toy cash register, or a beauty salon with a hair styling doll head and hair accessories.
Japanese House
Now it’s time to head to the last exhibit. Continue to the end of the hallway to the Japanese House on the right.
The Japanese House was reconstructed in Boston by Japanese carpenters. It highlights Japanese customs, art, family life, and more.
The Google Street View tour in this exhibit is not very well done. Luckily the museum has its own virtual tour that is much easier to navigate and explore this exhibit.
Start by watching this introduction video. Next learn more about Japanese houses by clicking this link and watching the third video “Visit the Japanese House with Professor Lippit”. Then take your tour of the house here.
More Activity Ideas
For more at-home activity ideas you can use to make your virtual tour of the Boston Children’s Museum more fun check out the Museums Tinker Kit Activities sheets, Tinker Kit Family Guide, and Daily Activities page.
My Boston Children’s Museum Virtual Field Trip Review
When I planned this virtual trip for my kids, I had no idea how long it would take us to do all the activities. Typically, we only spend around three hours at our local children’s museum, which isn’t nearly as large as this one.
Our virtual trip to the Boston Children’s Museum ended up taking us five and a half hours to complete. My kids loved the activities I set up for them. Some they even kept out to play with for the rest of the week.
Both of the kids were fully engaged in all of the activities and enjoyed doing the virtual walkthrough to see what the museum had to do.
Of course, they both want to go there in real life as soon as we can travel again too.
I hope your kids have as much fun as mine did on their Boston Children’s Museum virtual field trip.
If you’re looking for other children’s museums you can walk through with Google Street View, I unfortunately haven’t found any yet. But you can do a short Indianapolis Children’s Museum virtual tour by watching all of their Museum in Minutes videos on YouTube.
If you’re interested in doing an amusement park or aquarium virtual tour, check out my Monterey Bay Aquarium Virtual Tour Guide and my Canada’s Wonderland Virtual Tour Guide too.
Don’t forget to let me know in the comments below how your Boston Children’s Museum virtual tour turned out, and if you found any other fun activities to do at home.