Another great find while our family was camping in North Carolina was the family friendly Greensboro Children’s Museum. Located across the street from the Greensboro Historical Museum in the downtown district, this fun stop and a great way to spend an afternoon if you are visiting the area with kids.
The GCM has 33,000 square feet of indoor activities, but the fun starts before you even hit the front door! Painted outside, on the concrete, was a round maze that the kids had a ball with (who knew it would be so exciting).
The lobby continues in on the fun with a cute photo prop—an oversized red leather armchair. My girls insisted on climbing up and requested a photo. Once in the museum, there is so much to choose from…from the enclosed toddler area for kids two and under, to a town full of destinations. You can be a mail carrier for the post office and deliver packages up and down the street, stopping by the market, the pizza restaurant, a bookstore, theater, doctor’s office, construction company and gramma’s house. Don’t forget to watch the news—or better yet, MAKE the news at the TV station!
In the other half of the museum, you’ll find a large room with full-sized (real) vehicles in it. Since Greensboro is the home of Volvo Trucks, there is a Volvo semi that the kids can climb in and “drive.” You can chase down the bad guys in the police car, or maybe you’d rather chase down the speeding NASCAR race car that is to play in! There is even a real fire engine.
The museum has an area, complete with tents and mock campfires, where the kids can re-create your family camping trips, as well as some fun building activities. The nose of a real DC-9 makes for a fun place to pretend you’re a pilot at, and if a quick exit is needed, t can be taken right out of the side of the cockpit via a slide! And don’t forget to take a ride on the steam engine where you can be the engineer, or be a genteel passenger waiting for tea in the dining car.
The GCM is the first museum to have an edible schoolyard, which is an interactive garden where visitors can help in the care of the plants. The GCM even has a few animals in their edible schoolyard: chickens and bunnies! The museum even has a special kitchen for use with the edible schoolyard, and offers all sorts of fun classes!
