The Children's Museum of Phoenix

Phoenix Educational Activities for Kids!

The Children’s Museum of Phoenix is a place where children play to learn, and grown-ups learn to play. The many developmental stages of a child – social, cognitive, physical, and emotional – have all been considered in the design of our exhibits and our programs. This is an environment in which children can actively play and learn, taking risks when the stakes are low, learning about themselves, the world, and the people around them. These factors are why it continues to be of the top places to take kids in Phoenix.

Educational Programs at Children’s Museum of Phoenix

The Children’s Museum of Phoenix believes that in order to develop and sustain healthy individuals, families, and communities, children and adults need to spend time engaged together in joyful and constructive educational activities. We integrate the following proven educational principles and beliefs into our exhibits and programs:

• Children need to think of themselves as lovable, capable people in order to establish a sense of self worth. We respect children when we give them voices.
• Play is how young children learn. They have inherent attributes that help them gain knowledge: active bodies, keen senses, insatiable curiosity and enthusiasm.
• Learning needs to be concrete before it can be abstract. Experience must come through the hand, and body, before it can become knowledge in the mind.
• Early in a child’s development, the process of using the imagination, learning new things, and practicing skills is more important than the end product.
• Learning is individual. People will absorb experiences and information in different ways depending on age, perspective, interests, and learning styles.
• Meaningful learning is best facilitated in an environment that is free of criticism and comparisons, where there is freedom to make choices, to take risks, to explore within clear boundaries, and where respect and basic values are encouraged.
• People have lived in very different ways throughout time and across the world. Each culture has attributes that make it interesting and original, and, at the same time, there are some human characteristics that are shared by everyone.