Keep It Local: Play Work Build at the National Building Museum

It had been a while since we'd been to the National Building Museum -- we seem to have outgrown the kids room a bit and aren't quite up to the regular exhibits just yet. But mom and I went last week with some buddies to check out the new "PLAY WORK BUILD" exhibit and were thrilled to find an interactive exhibit that was well suited to a wide age range of kids. I made a beeline for the giant light table (mom wants one!) and played for a bit with the mini Imagination Playground. Then mom directed me to the regular people-sized Imagination Playground and I was hooked. I mostly liked stacking, climbing, and defending my structures from the advances of children smaller than me. But I also spent some time building a ship with mom.  The "room" housing the Imagination Playground is pretty awesome and is set up so that you can even build onto the walls. It would be a perfect padded room.

Mom tried to lure me over to the interactive video screen where you can "knock down" virtual building blocks, but I wasn't that interested. We did make a loop back to check out the Tinker Toys and Lincoln Logs, about which mom was pretty psyched. We went on a weekday morning right at opening time (10 a.m.) and it wasn't crowded at all.

We are big advocates of the Building Museum membership -- besides our National Zoo and Mt. Vernon memberships, it's the only other one we regularly renew.  If you're not a member, admission is $8/adults and $5/youth (2 and under are free).  The exhibit is set to stay at the NBM until next November and we're sure to be repeat visitors. Also, KidFriendly DC recently posted a more in depth review, which is worth checking out.

that would be mom judo kicking some blocks. very gracefully.

not too shabby.