Weekday Adventures: Kidzu Museum – Chapel Hill, NC

We took another homeschool field trip this week. We went to Chapel Hill, NC to visit the Kidzu Children’s Museum. I found a Kidzu Groupon that allowed 4 of us to get in for essentially half price. I’ve seen a lot about Kidzu on social media over the past few years and have been wanting to take the boys for a while. It was actually a much shorter trip from our house than I was expecting, it took less than 40 minutes for us to get there and a little bit longer to get home because we hit some rush-hour traffic. We left our house around lunchtime hoping to avoid some of the morning crowd. It was a little busy when we arrive a little before 1 pm but within 30 minutes most of the people with small children left (nap time). (It was just me and the three older boys as Abel was at home taking a nap with Joe.)

The museum is located in a mall-type shopping center. In the shopping center is a movie theater, a few specialty shops, A Southern Season, Chick-fil-a, a pizza place, and Maple View Ice Cream. Kidzu was much smaller than I was expecting. We visit Marbles in Raleigh frequently and the entirety of Kidzu is about the size of one exhibit at Marbles, although they do pack in a lot of fun into that tiny space. The areas were divided up nicely and all of the toys and play structures were of great quality. It was beautifully decorated with vibrant original artwork that complimented each play space.

The Makery was probably our favorite spot. It has special hours and didn’t open until 2 pm but the boys loved it. They did science experiments, and crafts played with tools, colored, and much more. I really liked that they have different themed activities on a daily basis. The activities were led by friendly staff members that gave children the space to create within the space’s guidelines. I personally liked the Make It, Don’t Take It rule where you can create whatever you want but you don’t get to take it home, instead, they put it on display. It keeps my house from becoming cluttered and the kids feel proud to display their work on the shelves.

Overall, it was a great trip and I recommend anyone that is in the Chapel Hill area to check it out. The regular pricing is a little high, $7.50 per person but I think the Makery itself makes it worthwhile. They do offer memberships which again are on the high side, I think a 6-person membership which our family would need costs around $175 a year. We pay $100 a year for our Marbles membership and we certainly get our money’s worth out of that museum since it’s so close. Basically, get the Groupon deal if you want to go.

After we finished playing we ate some Maple View Ice Cream and strolled around the shopping center a bit before heading home.