It is only fitting that one of the first exhibits you experience at The DoSeum, San Antonio's Museum for Kids, is a set of spinning, mirrored columns. This simple, interactive feature immediately sets the tone for your visit: engaging, whimsical and full of giggles. I had a wonderful first visit to The Doseum - learning, creating and exploring - and want to share my favorite experiences!
The first major exhibit we found ourselves in was the busy and chaotic Little Town - The DoSeum's version of Kidtropolis from Children's Museum of Houston. This exhibit is intended for kids ages 5 and under and features a mix of pint-size businesses along a wide boulevard, as well as a a very small section for babies called Little Crawler Park. My 4 year old twins enjoyed interacting with a car, a trolley and a mini H-E-B Market. Unfortunately this area was quite busy and it became clear that my 6 year old needed to move on to a less crowded exhibit.
My older son and I found ourselves exploring Spy Academy where together we solved riddles, broke codes, played games and explored a laser maze. This area is definitely geared towards older kids solving various clues as part of a larger Spy Recruit game, and my son and I had fun tinkering with the various challenges. We could have easily spent the majority of our time in this area - there was an incredible amount of interactive, hands-on fun.
Rejoining the younger kids, we next explored the Dream Tomorrow Today exhibit. In partnership with the San Antonio Tricentennial Celebration, the exhibit looks ahead to the future and the kids who will shape it. The entrance welcomes visitors with a colorful variety of recycled art. My kids loved passing through hanging pool noodles to swoosh down the crazy animated slide into Sketch Town. Here they were able to color a building, scan it and watch it spring to life in a projected interactive city. There was also a wall installation meant to allow visitors to vote on the principles they think are most valuable to San Antonio's future, such as health, education, or the arts. I'm pretty sure my preschoolers thought it was just the world's coolest and largest Lite-Brite! 
The DoSeum also excels at it's thoughtfully developed outdoor areas. The Big Outdoors is divided into an East Yard and West Yard. My kids loved the Waterworks and amazing Big Climb climbing structure in the West Yard, In the East Yard they enjoyed blowing bubbles, exploring a treehouse (and its basement fairy gardens) and sitting in many of the tree stump chairs surrounding the Storytelling Tree. 
Back inside, my older son surprisingly flourished most in the Explore exhibit. Megalopolis challenged him to be an urban planner - given a blank slate he was tasked with building a city and its infrastructure from scratch. Shown in the photo, each foam block represented different elements to create the city - parks, schools, industry, roads, etc. I thought my son may have just been having fun with the blocks, but an interactive screen gave him an opportunity to talk about his project and record his answers to questions asked about his city. His answers were quite thoughtful and showed that he put a lot of consideration into his city's creation.
After three solid hours at The DoSeum, the final exhibit we explored was Innovation Station. I heaved a huge sigh because I knew my kids could easily spend another three hours in this exhibit alone. What a great dilemma to have - so much to do, so little time! From robotics to physics and beyond, this exhibit offered multiple challenges for kids to dive into, like building a bridge to support a weight, creating sturdy structures that can withstand a fall and making a creation that can take flight.
The DoSeum was a wonderful part of our trip to San Antonio. I'm confident that we barely scratched the surface of all the museum had to offer and am sure we would have an entirely different experience on our next visit. Our kids got messy. They played their hearts out. They used their brains a bit to solve problems. They had a complete blast! The DoSeum is located at 2800 Broadway in San Antonio. Tickets are $18 each for those over 1 year old.
