(1) Curious Kids’ Museum closed for repairs. (2) Curious Kids’ Discovery Zone (in the Silver Beach Center) is OPEN! Click here for RESERVATIONS and scroll down.
Please note: The Silver Beach Center parking lot may be closed/limited due to scheduled events. $5 parking fee Friday, Saturday and Sunday through Labor Day. It is a private lot, maintained by the SBC, and beyond our control. Summer parking below the bluff includes all paid lots, but parking above the bluff is free, though some spots have time limits.
This simulated kid-sized apple orchard and farmer’s market introduces young visitors to the magic of Michigan agriculture. Pick apples from trees, fill an order by loading them into a special hand-cranked conveyer, and learn the difference between a bushel and a peck. What will the market special be today?
Curious Kids’ Veterinarian Clinic includes mini-operating tables, kid-safe operating tools, real X-rays to read and all kinds of educational animal-related activities. Kids learn to treat animals in a respectful, caring way while exploring science in an educational and memorable manner.
Climb on the volcano and slide down the side of it, but watch for the next eruption! Assemble a kid-sized triceratops, test your memory with the Match-A-Saurus game.
Try your hand at being a Radio DJ… play your favorite songs or interview your brother! BRAND NEW in 2020! Forecast the weather using your best TV weatherman voice (or announce your favorite football team is going to the Super Bowl) in our new TV STATION, complete with sound effects! And the crowd goes wild! WKID is now on air and ready for you to announce the biggest events, newest M&M flavor or latest Abominable Snowman sighting! Remember- you heard it here first!
This room also hosts The Sand Table! Create your own mountains and lakes! This awesome exhibit is an integrated augmented reality system where you physically create topography models using sand which are then scanned into a computer in real time!
An old favorite, face painting allows kids of all ages to express themselves artistically by using their faces as canvases.
This gated room is dedicated to children from infancy to 4 years of age. Designed as a 1940’s style Michigan farm, children can play in the barn and slide down the silo into the corn crib. New to Toddle farm is Buttercup, a cow you can actually milk! (It’s really water, mom, but pretty cool!) Plant and harvest vegetables! Children can use the hand pump and send water rushing into the duck pond complete with waterfall. Interactive murals along the walls depict beloved Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes. Infants will be safe while they explore the fish pond and tadpole pond. Books and toys related to farming are also available, encouraging interactive learning between children and adults. A rocking chair located behind the barn provides Mom with a semi-private nursing nook. Baby changing table also conveniently located behind the barn.
Doctor! Doctor! Imagine yourself as a doctor, nurse, or paramedic. Come and experience the thrill of driving and riding in our to-scale Medic 1 ambulance. Be the patient, the paramedic, or the driver and have fun! Oh no! Is that smoke we see? Better go investigate!
Everybody loves bubbles and you’ll love ours! Encase yourself in a giant soap bubble!
New is our musical bubble exhibit! Play music while you watch the bubbles dance!
Imagination Playground… let your inner architect run wild!! With these large easily maneuvered building blocks the sky is the limit! Blocks, chutes, and channels can be formed into, oh, so many designs!
Jr. Builders allows budding builders to create their own fort/castle/home… complete with landscaping!
Grab a friend and try to assemble the Catenary Arch, a 7 piece puzzle. Sounds easy, doesn’t it?
Check out the super cool Super Speedway! Can your car make it across the finish line the fastest? Work on a ’69 Mustang (Sorry, Dad! Not a real one!)
Play the Pipes of Pan! Make your own song or play a classic! So many different notes from so many different colorful pipes played with a flip-flop to create sound waves in your ears. Beat to your own rhythm using the Percussion Pylon. Have you ever seen a musical mural? Our Lighthouse Mural is a painting you’re encouraged to touch and rewards you with music!
Explore how Simple Machines make our manual labor easier. Simple Machines have few or no moving parts. Compound Machines make use of two or more Simple Machines. Try your strength at the Pulleys. Which are the easiest to pull? Have fun with the magnet wall and make your own course using inclined planes.
Young sailors will be able to send signal flags to shore, navigate the ship with the captain’s wheel, compass & navigational charts, fish off the side of the ship, prepare the crew a meal and explore the captain’s trunk. It also features great lakes navigation & safety equipment provided by the U.S. Coast Guard as well as a 17 ft. wall mural depicting the history of the Port of St. Joseph, Lighthouse & River area in the early 1900s.
Who doesn’t love watching wind keep a kite in the air or make the tree branches dance? Here you’ll find 2 new exhibits!
Amazing Airways is a custom made circular room created specifically to feel the force of moving air around you.
Is it magic? No…it’s science! The Bernoulli Table allows you to suspend lightweight spheres and objects on streams of air.
A full-scaled Lighted Peg Board! The possibilities of what you can create are endless!
