Category Archives: family friendly

Touring Boston – What to Know About Visiting the Isabella Steward Gardner Museum with Children

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Before moving to Boston I participated in a book challenge at my local library and as part of it I ended up reading “The Gardner Heist” a book about an unsolved major art heist.  The book was interesting but hearing about how the museum responded to the heist was even more facilitating.  

I’ll summarize:    
Two people broke into the Isabella Steward Gardner Museum one evening dressed as police officers. They did a smash and grab and stole a total of 13 art works from various rooms in the museum before escaping.  To this day they haven’t been found. 
What I found even more interesting is that in Isabella’s will she said she wanted her estate to become a museum, but because she had put so much time and effort into each of the rooms of her estate nothing was to be moved or changed.  Ever.  If there were changes made then she would no longer allow her house to be opened as a museum.
What that means is that while walking in the museum you will occasionally see empty picture frames on the wall. Since the curators are not allowed to change anything they have simply left the empty frames in their spots on the wall awaiting the day when the paintings might be recovered.  
I thought it made the walk through the museum so much more fun having read the book first and slowly dawning on the realization that this was the museum I had read about and then looking for the empty frames.  Some are fairly subtle and some are impossible to miss, but it makes for a unique viewing experience for sure.  

Things to Note: 

1) Price 
$15/Adult (Students with ID $5)
18 and under Free
2) Stroller Friendliness 
Stroller are permitted… kind of.  You can bring a single stroller, but double and oversized strollers are not allowed and can be checked in at the coat check.  This is unfortunate, but necessary because some of the entry ways are fairly tight and your not going to be able to fit through them with a huge stroller. 
3) Kid Friendliness
Semi kid friendly.  In the sense that children of all ages are welcome and encouraged to come and learn more about art, but there are a lot of things that might be tempting for little hands to touch that aren’t suppose to be touched.  

Summary & Rating ★★★★☆

Four Stars.  If I was just going as an adult I would have given this a solid five stars because I thought the price was fair (especially since we’re students) and the museum was gorgeous. Plus having the additional background from my heist book made the whole thing a bonus as we saw the empty frames and the realization that this was the place I had read so much about dawned on me.  However, keeping little hands away from delicate works of art is not an easy feat and it’s something you should certainly keep in mind if you want to go with little ones.   
Have you been here before?  If so I’d love to know more about your experience and any tips or tricks you have in the comments section below. 
Isabella Steward Gardner Museum 

25 Evans Way
Boston, MA 02115

Phone:
General Information: 617 566 1401
Box Office: 617 278 5156
Website: http://www.gardnermuseum.org/

Hours:
Open daily from 11 am to 5 pm
Thursday until 9 pm
Closed Tuesday

Touring Boston – What to Know About Visiting the Museum of Fine Art (MFA) with Children

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MFA > ICA about a million to one.  No Contest.

The Museum of Fine Art (MFA) had a free day on Saturday with a bunch of cultural events to celebrate the Year of the Horse.  I thought we should go check it out because we’ve tried to make it to the MFA a bunch of times and somehow we just never get there.  This time it was free and on a Saturday.  Also… we needed to get in about 3 days of skipped “Get Fit” workouts minuets.  So we walked. 2 miles there and 2 miles back.  It was 20 degrees outside.  Weather.com said it felt like 8 degrees.

We bundled our son up good with lots of blankets, his coat, two hats and his stroller windshield and set off. I tried to convince my husband to turn back because I was cold, for about the first mile, but he kept telling me it wasn’t that bad, and the baby wasn’t complaining, and we could make it. So we kept walking.  The sidewalks and the path through the park that we were suppose to take were all covered in snow so we enjoyed a chilly detour, but we made it.

I thought the museum was fantastic, though we only ended up seeing fraction of it because it didn’t seem like the best place to let Mr-wiggly-buns-I-want-to-touch-everything run free.  We started by seeing the ancient Egypt stuff.  The have a ton of artifacts thanks to the museums connection with Harvard and the many excursions they’ve funded.  It was cool and crazy to see the ancient Egyptian writing and tombs.  I love the little glimpses into the life of other cultures hundreds of years old.

Then we took a tour of the Greek statue gallery.  If I was a bajillionair I would totally have a statue gallery.  I love walking among the stately figures carefully carved from stone.

Finally we took a brief tour of the ancient Chinese artifacts, since that was the reason for the free exhibit that day, and they were also fantastic.

All in all I loved it and we will definitely go back another day because my husband said there are tons and tons of paintings that I missed seeing this time around.

Things to Note:

1.  Price
$27/Person – Adults
$23/Person – Students
Free – 17 years old and younger depending on the day

*For youths ages 7–17, admission is free during weekdays after 3 pm, weekends, and Boston public school holidays; otherwise admission for youths is $10.

FREE DAYS – Wednesday nights after 4 pm, admission is by voluntary contribution (suggested donation $25). The Museum is free to all visitors on the following Open House days: Monday, January 19, 2015 (Martin Luther King Jr. Day Open House); Saturday, February 21, 2015 (Lunar New Year); and Monday, May 25, 2015 (Memorial Day Open House); Monday, October 12, 2015 (Fall Open House).

2. Kid/Stroller Friendliness
We were able to bring our stroller without a problem, but there were a lot of people there (probably because we went on a free day) and space was often tight.  A number of the exhibits are safe from tiny finger being behind cases, but there are many that are merely roped off so if you’ve got a little one you’ll need to watch them like a hawk.

3. Size
This museum is huge.  I don’t think you should expected to be able to take it all in in one day.  There are tons of floors and tons exhibits to see and they are all amazing.

Summary and Rating: ★★★★★

Five Stars.  I though this place was breath taking and there is so much to see and so much to learn about.  It’s fairly expensive if you pay to go, but totally worth seeing and great to go on the discount or free days.  We had a really good time with our toddler and I’d like to go again when he’s a little bit older and better at not trying to touch everything.

Have you been here before?  If so I’d love to know more about your experience and any tips or tricks you have in the comments section below. 

Museum of Fine Arts Boston
465 Huntington Avenue
Boston, MA 02115

Phone: 617-267-9300
Website: http://www.mfa.org/

Touring Boston – What to Know About Visiting the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) with Children

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I kept seeing these things for the Institute of Contemporary Art Boston (ICA), like that it’s open free to the public on all Thursday nights between 5-9pm and that the last Saturday of every month is family day and families and kids get in free, and that the library has a bunch of passes that you can pick up to see the museum for free.  I have known about and forgotten and been reminded again of these things for probably about a year.  For the last 3 Thursday’s we’ve been trying to go, but something always comes up, my husband has to work late, someone offered to drive me grocery shopping (it’s a big deal when you don’t have a car) or it’s so cold outside that I don’t think the baby would stand for a mile walk along the pier…. etc.

It looked like my husbands next couple of Thursdays were booked and I finally put my foot down.  We were going to see this Art Gallery if it killed us.  So Saturday, after our son’s nap, we went.  It was actually the perfect day for a walk downtown, it was in the mid 40’s with only a little wind, and since we got a wind shield for our stroller the baby didn’t mind the walk at all.

I love seeing Boston, the buildings are fantastic and walking along the water front is always interesting and exciting.  I was thrilled to note the museum is right on pier, so we would get a great water front view as we walked to it.

We carried our son around the museum looked at the different pieces they had.  One of the wings was closed as they are working on getting a new exhibit up, but they gave us free tickets to come again because of it, which was great.

I think the most memorable installment was a video clip of extreme closes up of models licking a piece of glass covered with different candies.  It was gross, fascinating, a little bit sexual, but mostly like a train wreck that you can’t look away from.

Our son did okay initially, but he started getting bored and impatient of being carried a few rooms in.  He was too busy to walk with us and we didn’t want him bugging the other people so we had to cut our trip short.  I wish we had gone during family day so he could have blended and interacted with the other kids and I would have felt less guilty for annoying other people… perhaps will have to use our return tickets for family day.

They had one room toward the end that was just a glass wall with a view of the harbor where we felt safe setting our son down.  He made a real effort to get their glass good and smudged, but the view was lovely nonetheless.    If I worked there, that is where I would take all my breaks.

We finished out trip and played on the grass near the ICA for a little bit to get out some energy.  Unfortunately, I realized the lawn was so covered with bird crap that it looked like it had been aerated, so I had to cover our son’s hands with his coat and watch him carefully while he walked.  He passed out the minute we got him back situated in stroller.  All in all in was a fantastic day.  I loved having family time and getting to be out and about exploring this fascinating city.

Things to note:

1.  Getting There
I have no idea where you would park there, since we didn’t have a car I didn’t even look, but it was a nice, less than a mile, walk from the “T” which worked out well for us.  The website mentions that there is parking around it but that it cost upward of $20…

2. Price
$15/Person – General Admission
$10/Person – Student
17 and under free

FREE for all every Thursday from 5 to 9 PM during ICA Free Thursday Nights. Special hours: From Oct, 10, 2015 to Jan 24, 2016, Free Thursdays will start early at 4 PM in conjunction with Leap Before You Look: Black Mountain College 1933–1957.

Free admission for up to two adults accompanied by children 12 and under during Play Dates, offered on the last Saturday of the month, except December.*

3. Hours
Tuesday and Wednesday: 10 AM – 5 PM
Thursday and Friday: 10 AM – 9 PM
Saturday + Sunday: 10 AM – 5 PM

Closed Mondays, except on the following national holidays: Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Presidents’ Day, Memorial Day, Labor Day, and Columbus Day.

4.  Stroller Friendly
You can easily bring a stroller into the place.  It’s big and open.  A few of the exhibits you’ll have to leave the stroller to enter but we found it to be easy to do.

5.  Kid Friendliness
Go during one of the free kid Saturdays.  We didn’t and I wish we would have.  I felt bad having a toddler there who wanted to walk around and was fairly disruptive to the other patrons who seemed really into their contemporary art.  I would have felt much better about taking our son if there were a bunch of other kids and if the people going knew that kids would be there… plus its free on kids day so it’s kind of a win/win.

Summary and Rating: ★★★★☆
Four Stars.  The museum itself was really nice and state of the art. The walk to it was gorgeous.   It was stroller friendly and it seems like they are really trying to make sure children are welcome there.  The draw backs are that this is a nice art museum which can make having young children there a struggle.  I think we would have had a better experience going during family day where we would have felt less disruptive. Also the museum looked huge from the outside, but we saw all the exhibits fairly quickly from the inside, as I mentioned one of the wings was closed for a new instillation so we might have been missing out on a big portion of the museum but it was quite a bit smaller than other ones we’ve been to, like the Isabella Steward Gardner Museum or the Museum of Fine Art.

Have you been here before?  If so I’d love to know more about your experience and any tips or tricks you have in the comments section below. 

Boston Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA)

100 Northern Avenue
Boston, MA 02210

Phone: 617-478-3100
Website: http://www.icaboston.org/

Family Friendly Boston/Cambridge – Unexpected Places to Visit on the MIT Campus – MIT Colored Floor Exhibit – Sol Lewitt: Bars of Color within Squares

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MIT is fairly well know for its long hallway that connects multiple buildings together (better known as the infinite corridor). Less well know, and what I actually think of more as a hidden gem is the Sol Lewitt: Bars of Color within Squares Art Exhibit.

You can find this giant exhibit by walking the infinite corridor to its east most end, where you hit a T shape and are forced to turn either north or south.  If you turn south and walk a few paces (maybe twenty) there is a short five foot entry on the west side of the hallway.  If you get there between 9am-5pm you can open the door to the MIT physics department and the gorgeous colorful U-shaped atrium.

The atrium is fairly empty during the day and a great spot to visit during the cold glum days of winter.  I have taken my son there multiple times during the winter when we were going crazy from being stuck in our apartment but he had a slight cold or runny nose and I didn’t want to go to the playroom or playgroups and risk infecting other kids.  This was at least a bright, warm space where he could move around a little bit and we could get out of the apartment.

Things to Note:

1) Price
Free

2) Kid Friendliness
Pretty kid friendly.  I brought my son there as a baby and toddler and he was more than happy to crawl/run around.  However the exhibit circles a bunch of class rooms so this is not a place to be super rambunctious, to scream, or be loud and crazy.  Also you’ll be walking across the art exhibit and they ask that you not do anything that might damage it so keep that in mind.

3) Stroller Friendliness
I’ve brought a stroller here many times.  I usually walk it on the outskirts of the tile exhibit and park it by the benches near the south wall while my son explores the colors.

Summary and Rating: ★★★☆☆

Three Stars.  It’s a nice place to go for some variety in the winter.  It’s free, warm and bright, but it’s not a place that is super interactive or a place that my 3 year old son can really let loose.  If you’ve got younger children, like crawling babies this makes for a fantastic afternoon visit.

Have you been here before?  If so I’d love to know more about your experience and any tips or tricks you have in the comments section below.

MIT Sol Lewitt: Bars of Color within Squares Art Exhibit
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
77 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02139-4307

Website: http://www.mit.edu/~lvac/percent/lewitt.html

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Touring Boston – What to Know About Visiting the New England Aquarium with Kids

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The New England Aquarium is one of those places that seem to show up on all of the “Top Things to do in Boston” list so of course we had to check it out.

The New England Aquarium is in a huge building near the Boston Harbor. The center of the aquarium is characterized by a giant, round, multi level tank filled with all manner of sea life.  There is a spiral incline that follows the tank and at each level there are also smaller tank exhibits on the outside walls.  The vast majority of the aquarium is housed in one huge room with lots of paths leading in different directions so you can easily access what interests you.

Things to Note:

1) Price
Fairly expensive. $27/Adult, $18/Children, 3 and under free.  However if you’re a Boston local check out the library for discount passes.

2) Stroller Friendliness
Super stroller friendly.  There is tons of space to maneuver a stroller around and the walks ways up to each level are huge ramps, but if you get there and decide you don’t want to take your stroller along they also have a free stroller check at the entry.

3) Child Friendliness
Again super friendly.  This place was built for children to explore and while most of the things to do are visual (look into the tanks and various fish) there are also some interactive areas with buttons little ones can push as well as two different tanks where you can touch live sea creatures.  (Thankfully hand washing stations and sanitizer and everywhere near the stations)

4) Crowds
This is a really popular destination and every time we’ve been the place has been crowded, I think it comes with the territory, however the exhibits are spaced out enough that we’ve never had a problem seeing the things we were interested in, though we have had to wait a few minutes to “pet” the sea creatures in the petting area.

Summary and Rating ★★★★☆

Four stars.  The giant fist tank and penguins are super fun to see but without a pass/discount this place is quite expensive. We’ve been to the aquarium a couple of times, it’s a great activity during the cold winter months when you need to get out of the house and walk around someplace warm. We always enjoy seeing the sea creatures, but the crowds paired with the big open space and low lighting makes my son feel the need to dash around like a mad man until he is worn out and cranky so most of our visits have been short lived.  :/

Have you been here before?  If so I’d love to know more about your experience and any tips or tricks you have in the comments section below.

New England Aquarium
1 Central Wharf
Boston, MA 02110

Phone: 617-973-5206
Website: http://www.neaq.org/

Hours:
Fall-Winter Hours
Monday – Friday 9 am – 5 pm
Saturday – Sunday 9 am – 6 pm

Summer Hours
July 1 – September 7 (Labor Day)
Sunday – Thursday 9 am – 6 pm Friday – Saturday 9 am – 7 pm

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