Buell Children’s Museum in Pueblo

A couple of weeks ago, a friend of mind mentioned on Facebook that they were at the Buell Children’s Museum in Pueblo for their Wizard of Oz exhibit – and there were just two days left!  We had just finished doing The Wizard of Oz for our literature/grammar study (we use English Lessons through Literature if you’re wondering) so we made an impromptu field trip to Pueblo to see the exhibit and explore the museum.

Note: I’m not sure how many of the activities are ongoing and which were only related to the Wizard of Oz exhibit, so the museum may look totally different when you are there!

They had a place to make paper airplanes, and you could try to fly it through these hoops at the “flight test station”.  There was also Wizard of Oz-related dress up, and I was quite impressed with the number of costumes that were available!

This was a really fun “thing” to watch – I guess you could call it a “ball maze”?  My 8yo was fascinated and the story about its creator was interesting, so be sure to read the plaque on the wall next to it.

The theater room has some life-sized Tinker Toy-type foam things that were really fun.  I’m not sure when they have performances in the theater, but it looks like fun!

The art center was my kids’ favorite area, I think – probably because I am definitely not one of those crafty moms who just loves to have art supplies at the ready!  They painted, glued, and drew to their hearts’ content – and other than tidying up our station when we left, I didn’t have to do anything! :)  They had lots of things like scraps of scrapbook paper, pom poms, ribbons, and stickers that you could use to create whatever you wanted.

There was also a station to make beaded bracelets, a toddler area with toys and Duplos, some computers for kids’ use, and more.  To be honest, I personally did not think the exhibits themselves were very impressive; however, my kids had a blast so I guess that is the true test!

Our admission to the children’s museum also gave us a free pass to the art museum next door, so we stepped in there for a few minutes.  They were in the middle of changing exhibits and there wasn’t much to see, but hey, it was free and we got to see some interesting pottery and paintings and some artifacts from the Victorian era.

Admission to the museum is just $3 for kids (under three years old was free, I think) and $4 for adults.  It wasn’t the most amazing children’s museum I’ve been to, but it was fun to hang out and quite inexpensive, so I think we’d go again in the future.  You can find out more here – be sure to check to see what the latest exhibit is, because the Wizard of Oz exhibit is now closed.

Update: Admission is now $8 for adults and $6 for children, and a reader has reported that under three is not free.