Long Island Children’s Museum features hands-on displays
Kidsday reporters, from left, Mary Gennari, Elijah Davidson, Andrea Napoles and Sebastian Quigley-Dunning try out the climbing maze at the Long Island Children's Museum. Credit: Kidsday / Pat Mullooly
Do you like rock climbing, bubbles, and earthquakes? If you do you should go to the Long Island Children’s Museum in Garden City. There is something to do for everyone.
We got to go to the museum to try out the climbing maze. It was like a big obstacle course. It is low to the ground so you can’t stand as you go through the maze; you have to crawl. There are rug hills and pathways that lead to dead ends, and there are some that lead you to the finish. There are no clues along the way, so you have to figure it out. There are also some hidden spots where you can stop and chill out if you need a break from crawling. We recommend not wearing shorts when you go. It can give you rug burn.
Spencer Luckey and his company, Luckey Climbers, designed this cool climbing maze, which is fun to explore and also to “hide.” There are neat little areas where you can rest while climbing, and we found those places fun just to stretch out or check our phones and listen to music.
There are a lot of other really cool things to see and experiment with at the museum. You will probably not want to wear a very nice outfit because there are a lot of liquids in the museum that can get all over you. The best parts of the museum were the bubble room, the earthquake simulator, the communication room, and the noise room.
The coolest thing about the bubble room is that you can be in a giant bubble. You stand in this machine and a bubble rises over you. There are even more cool things than the giant bubble. There is also a bubble sheet and bubble wands that you can get your hands on. That’s the cool thing about the museum. You get to touch and experiment with the displays.
In the earthquake simulator, you have to create a building with foam bricks. They are about a foot long. Then you get to knock them down and rebuild it. This is cool because you get to crash into the wall with your friends or you can even meet other kids you don’t know. It feels just like when a community gathers after an earthquake.
We also really enjoyed the communication center and the noise room. You get to call each other on the phones. There is also a Braille machine and an old switchboard that was once used to make phone calls. Also, right next to the communication center is the News 12 area. You get to choose a topic that you like and talk about it as if you are on the news. For example, you can talk about the Olympic races or things like that. You can also pretend that you are on the radio!
There is also a noise room with noisemakers and instruments like the drums. Most of the instruments were percussion. It was really interesting because there were some instruments that we had never even seen before. We couldn’t believe that we were able to play the instruments.
The Long Island Children’s Museum is the best kind of museum. You get to play and explore with all of the displays. It’s such a fun place to learn new things with your friends. There is also a really cool gift shop where you can bring home some of the things you really liked. We really recommend that you go visit. Have fun exploring!
11 Davis Ave., Garden City; 516-224-5800, licm.org
