6 Bright Ideas For Philadelphia With Kids

Read About Philadelphia with preschoolers and Our favorite Philly dining.

I like revisiting certain places periodically as Tiny Traveler grows. Seeing the evolution in her interests makes these trips more memorable. Nearby Philadelphia is one of these places. Over spring break we decided to see how age 7 compared with her visit at age 4.

Growing out of Please Touch

It was clear (if a little sad) that she’s getting too mature this giant children’s museum that enthralled her as a preschooler.

The world of Alice in Wonderland was still her favorite and where we spent the most time. She rode the carousel. And she had fun building with big blue foam blocks, maneuvering a bulldozer to lift plastic balls from a pit, and shooting rockets in the room that’s all about motion. The craft room always has something going on for kids of many ages.

Still, even the exhibits she liked didn’t hold her interest as much as they once did. Two hours here was plenty.

Growing Into the Franklin Institute

On the other hand, She’s hit the perfect age for the Franklin Institute, probably the best science museum we’ve been to.

She liked the KidScience room, which explores air, water, wind and light and is just for 5- to 8-year-olds.

She had a great time pretending she was on a Magic School Bus trip as she climbed inside a human heart and crawled all over brain neurons. We made a human circuit in the Electricity room and she recorded her own weather forecast as we passed through the Changing Earth.

The Amazing Machine looks a little dull at first, but she could have spent hours here turning gears into machines and making devices move in different ways.

Even with the museum staying open late for spring break there was a lot we missed.

Note: A Groupon for Please Touch saved us about 40% off admission. And our AAA membership gave us a discount at the Franklin. These are two great resources to keep in mind no matter where you go.

A Magical Discovery

The Philadelphia CVB suggested the Magic Garden on South Street as an activity that would please both parents and kids, and they were so right!

An artist took a retail space and backyard and spent about a decade covering every available inch with mosaics of tiles and mirrors, ziggurats of glass bottles, Peruvian statues, bicycle wheels and any other odd bits that struck his fancy. It’s part genius and part crazy and makes you say, wow!

The ticker seller gave TT a scavenger hunt that sent her searching high and low for animals, birds and mermaids. On our way out we exchanged her pencil for a tattoo designed by the artist.

Art After Dark

The Philadelphia Art Museum stays open until 8:30 on Friday nights and offers live jazz and light food. The jazz was great but way too loud for TT. While we did see other families dancing and eating, we didn’t linger in the main hall.

The fellow who sold us our tickets recommend the impressionists collection, the Brancusi statues and the Asian galleries for kids and he was mostly right.

We spent a lot of time talking about light in the impressionist paintings, guessing what time of day and what season they showed. And we moved closer to them and further back to see how they changed. Brancusi intrigued her. And she found a small wing of eclectic American art imaginative and amusing.

Note: If your kids aren’t jazz fans either, try the museum on a Sunday, when it offers its family programs.

Trying American History…Again

It’s hard to resist the wealth of America history Philadelphia offers, but I think it’s best for kids ages 9 and up, about the age kids start learning history in school.

We visited the Independence Visitors Center across from the Liberty Bell, which I recommend. Two free movies they show are about 25 minutes long. The one we saw focused on the lives of real young people on both sides of the revolution. TT was curious but didn’t entirely understand it. We also watched a guy give a demonstration on a hammered dulcimer. He asked for requests, so I joking asked if he knew “Hotel California.” And he did!

We also picked up free, scheduled tickets to tour
Independence Hall. I find it thrilling to stand in the room that yielded both the Declaration of Independence and the Constituion, but I’ll admit it was incredibly boring for her. While waiting for our tour, we ventured into a small side exhibit that explored the interest and influence the founding fathers had on science and nature, especially Franklin and Jefferson. She actually enjoyed it and I think she learned from it.

A Philadelphia Culinary Adventure

We never visit the city without stopping to shop and eat in the Italian and Mexican markets in South Philadelphia. Share a roast pork sandwich from George’s but leave room for tacos from any of several purveyors (and cannoli, of course).

We bought a huge bag of surprisingly good tomatoes for $2 from one of the produce guys on the street. We smelled the amazing cheese shop before we saw its well-curated selection, including rich Italian styles you don’t see everywhere. We discovered a butcher that specializes in game and picked up some boar to make Ragu with (his house-made sausages looked good, too). Our last stop was a pasta shop where we watched them crank out fresh fettuccine for us.

We picked up cannoli and mascarpone-filled éclairs at Isgro’s bakery for the car ride. Then drove home to cook our South Philly Feast.

We’ll be back.

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