by Denise Marie Anton

Created on: June 26, 2009   Last Updated: August 13, 2009

If you're traveling to San Antonio with young children, you'll want to check out the San Antonio Children's Museum at 305 East Houston. Conveniently located in the heart of downtown San Antonio, a short stroll from River Walk and the Alamo, the museum features more than 80 hands-on exhibits that encourage kids to have fun while learning about art, science, culture, and more.

The San Antonio Children's Museum is something of a youngster itself. In the early 1990s, when most major U.S. cities could boast at least one interactive museum specifically for kids, San Antonio lagged behind. By 1995, though, local groups had raised enough money to open the museum in a three-story, World War II-era building that originally was home to a five-and-dime. In its brief life, the museum has already attracted more than a million visitors.

The exhibits are bilingual (English and Spanish) and cater to an eclectic range of interests. Kids who love anything with a motor will jump at the chance to drive the miniature Holt Front End Loader or pilot the plane on Runway #9. Young shoppers can have fun spending money from their Good Cent$ Bank accounts at the H-E-B Market. And aspiring Indiana Joneses can star in their own Extreme Virtual Adventures.

Toddlers under age 5 have their own special place, the Tot Spot, where they can ogle aquarium creatures or clamber among the soft sculptures.

In addition to the science and technology exhibits you expect to find in a typical children's museum, the San Antonio Children's Museum is unusual in the number of exhibits it devotes to local geology, history, and culture. In the Texas Treasure Cave and Wild Texas Spring, for example, visitors can learn about the Edwards' Aquifer, which supplies this part of Texas with most of its drinking water. (And kids too young to care about where their water comes from can always crawl around the underground bat caves.)

Like many museums of its kind, the San Antonio Children's Museum offers birthday party packages and a variety of special weekly activities. Among the more popular of these programs are the FETCH! Science experiments, which are tied in with the PBS children's series of the same name. One caveat: If you're planning to attend one of these special drop-in sessions, be prepared for unexpected delays.

Admission to the museum is $7; children under age 2 get in free. For up-to-date information on hours and special exhibits, visit the museum's Web site at http://www.sakids.org or phone 210/212-4453.

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