The Discovery Museum and Witt Stephens Jr. Central Arkansas Nature Center

Chelsea needed to be dropped off at the 4 H Center in Little Rock.  It is a LONG drive to Little Rock, and we all had to load up to take her, so I thought it would be fun if we went to The Discovery Museum while we there.  We had never been there before, and because we have passes to MASM our admission was free.

The hardest part for me was finding parking.  When you drive a 15 passenger van, you just can't park it anywhere!  Downtown Little Rock has a few free parking areas, but the ones closest to the museum were already full, so we parked in a parking garage.  It cost $1.50 per hour to park.  I do not like parking garages, but luckily found a spot that I could get the van in and out of easily.

The Discovery Museum was down the road and across the street.  It has a lot of fun hands on exhibits for children.  The children had a wonderful time!  All of the exhibits were different than the ones they are used to at MASM so everything was new and exciting!  There were four main sections.

Upstairs there was a large room, Discovery Hall, with several hands on discovery exhibits.

Here are some of the pictures I took in there.

The next area, Amazing You, had exhibits that were all about the human body.

While I had the boys in that area, Chelsea took the girls into the special area, Room to Grow, for kids 6 and under.  It was really cool!  They had lots of hands on activities for little ones.  There was a story corner, magnets, blocks, an area to dig in, a stage with costumes to dress up in, monkey bars, a rock climb, playhouse, pirate ship, and more.  Plus they even had a room for nursing mothers in there.  Lily and Emelia loved it!

 Chelsea took a few pictures on her phone, but I don't have those here.  I did get one picture when I went to get them so we cold go downstairs.

Downstairs in , Earth Journeys there were more fun things to do!  There were fun hands on exhibits, animals to look at, and a room with a tornado simulation (loud and scary!  not for young children.)

The Tinkering Studio (where you can build special things) is only open in the afternoon so we did not get to go in there.

We spent about 2 hours at the Discovery Museum.  I would not make the drive just to go there, but if we have to be in Little Rock for something else, we will definitely go again!  The children wanted to go back today!!

The Witt Stephens Jr. Central Arkansas Nature Center is right next door.  The admission is free.  My children love all of the programs and activities we have done through Arkansas State Parks and I knew they would want to go in.  It was a neat little place.  The children were impressed, and the price was right :) I was glad we stopped in.  If you are visiting downtown Little Rock, it is definitely worth visiting.