I have heard about this fabulous children's musuem for years. We finally decided to take a long weekend and check it out. What an amazing place. There are 5 levels of fun. Our kids are 6 and 10 and had a great time. There is so much that you need more than 1 day. There are also visiting exhibits like Bob the Builder and Sesame Street. The new dinosaur area is a whole museum in and of itself!

Parking is free. You can bring food into the lunch room area or eat at the cafeteria which has sandwiches/pizza and a Burger King. The location was easy to find and is about 4 miles from downtown.

Some highlights - a rock wall, planetarium, Dinosphere, mummy, Carousel, theatre and steam engine. Many of the daily activities require you to obtain free tickets (rock wall, planetarium and theatre shows). Other activities only take place on two or three days a week. There is also a play area just for preschoolers/babies.

Every exhibit has related books and computer stations and coloring stations attached to it. If your child is into dinosaurs be sure to spend time at the dinosaur art gallery on level 2. They can create their own masterpieces. You could spend a day just playing the computer games affiliated with each exhibit.

We loved it! I've lived only 2.5 hours from Indy and never knew it was here. We bought a family pass and plan to return several times this year. I've never been anywhere like it. It was like an indoor amusement park with tons of activities and games. Great learning experiences. My daughter is six, but they have something for every age even the adults in my group loved it! One bit of advice, go to the basement floor first and get complimentary tickets to the theater and planetarium, because certain show times fill up fast.

If you find yourself in Indianapolis with toddlers or even older kids, this is a must see! We recently visited the museum & found the kids were worn out before we even got to see a small portion of the museum! There's lots of hands on activities & 4 floors to roam. We really only got to see the first & 4th floor. On the 4th floor there's a carosel, building area, water play, a playhouse to climb in, pretend play houses & much more. On the bottom floor there's a huge dinosaur attraction where kids can dig like archologists and experience the rain forest. There's also a real life size train & play trains as well. So much to see!

This is the third time we've been to the Children's Museum and it seems to get better each time. There is an exhibit on Norman Rockwell that is fantastic. It is one of the exhibits that adults will really enjoy. My children are 5 and 7 and didn't spend as much time in this exhibit as I would have liked. I believe Norman Rockwell runs through Jan of 06. The dinosaur area has been added since the last time we were there; it's an area adults will appreciate as well. We will continue to make trips to the Museum every year.