Josie and I are taking this edition of Put Down The Tablet on the road for a trip to the Strong National Museum of Play, located in downtown Rochester! The Strong Museum has been open to the public since 1982 and now has over 282,000 square feet of room for historical exhibits and interactive children’s activities. Originally founded with the toy collection of Rochester native Margaret Woodbury Strong, the museum has only gained in stature over the past 40 years and is the only collections-based museum anywhere devoted solely to the study of play.
The Strong Museum is set up very cleverly: while the kids are having fun driving interactive race cars or winding their way through a ‘dizzy’ hallway, the adults can relive their own childhood looking at exhibits that highlight the history of toys and play. We checked out some of the many permanent exhibits including the ‘Wegmans Super Kids Market’, where Josie got to scan and ‘pay’ for her own items. We also visited the ‘Berenstain Bears: Down a Sunny Dirt Road’ exhibit complete with farming activities and kiddie power tools.
Of course, being a PBS Kid, Josie’s favorite exhibit was ‘Can You Tell Me How To Get To Sesame Street?’ She was able to sit on the famous 1-2-3 Stoop and wave hello to Big Bird. There is also an interactive “Elmo’s World” and you can even cook a meal with Cookie Monster in his food truck. I even got to show Josie a vintage Tickle Me Elmo doll!
Other highlights of the trip included the ‘Aquariums at Rainbow Reef’ where children could color fish and then scan the picture to have their creations swimming for all to see! We also visited the DanceLab to showcase some of Dad’s crazy disco moves and saw how children played in the past at the One History Place exhibit. Josie was confused when I told her a mini-chalkboard was their equivalent to an iPad. There’s an ‘Imagination Destination’ where children can become a stage actor, a helicopter pilot or a space ship captain!
I haven’t even mentioned the arcade featuring classic 1980’s video games or the ‘Pinball Playfields’ room, so bring plenty of quarters if you are a big kid! My family visited the Strong Museum for over three hours and didn’t even make it to the second floor to check out the Toy Hall of Fame so we are already looking forward to our next trip. The Strong Museum of Play is open all year round and is located at One Manhattan Square in Rochester.
