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    Children's Creativity Museum

    4.0 (245 reviews)
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    Updated 2 months ago

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    Haiyang H.

    It is a cool museum and reminding me of curiodesy in San Mateo. It is best fitted for younger children under the age of 7. My girls unfortunately haven outgrown this place. Staff are friendly though. We dropped by to watch a circus/play performance and it was lovely.

    Colin H.

    My kids loved this place (although they love any sort of play/creativity museum). This place is good for younger children (below 6-7) and has a lot of hands on activities. There are 2 floors, and has enough to keep your children entertained for about half a day. The activities ate more geared towards arts/crafts and creativity. IE: Lego building, glue and popsicle stick crafts, painting on walls and floors, etc.

    Balcony seat
    Tabitha H.

    I visited Children's Creativity Museum to watch The Nightingale performed by People's Circus in their theater. Note this is NOT a review about the actual contents of the museum, but the theater in the museum. Overall, I had a good experience at the theater considering we purchased balcony seats that cost around $36 including taxes. The seats were pretty comfy and we did have to lean over a bit to see things on stage, but I didn't feel like I missed out on anything. The bathrooms were pretty clean and well stocked. There were 3 stalls for the women's bathroom.

    Sound area
    Audriana N.

    I was excited to take my 1 year old but it was probably more geared for 3-4 year olds. That said, was still a pretty basic set up considering it cost $20 a person. They had a fun sound area where kids can play with some fairly advanced sound systems and a cute rug where you can make music. However the rest of the museum is very "figure it out" based and not in a way I'd say allows kids to explore creativity. The the Merry-go-round was fun and decently priced if you bought tickets for the museum, but honestly should just be included in the cost. Maybe I'll feel differently when my daughters 4 or 5, but nothing seemed out of the ordinary. There were LEGO stations, a painting room, a train room, and a make your own mini golf room as well, but nothing worth bragging about.

    Denise C.

    I am still not sure about this "children's" museum in SF...I have been to the Randall Museum near Twin Peaks years ago...I found a card handout for the Christmas show...it was a circus camp show called "Reindeer Games" and it was funny and similar to camp...Christmas and juggling and circus camp...my generation would understand it...back then in the 1990s...but they aren't here with me...usually field trips from school or families...it was a nice outing to see the Christmas circus show this year for a few hours...90 minutes...I found all the Christmas shows this year...you have to go around yourself and find it..scavenger hunts.

    Kimberly C.

    This was our first visit to the Museum and will not be the last. Wow! We took our 3 and 5 year old grandchildren and there was plenty for them to do. I can see them enjoying this Museum for many years to come. Their favorite activities: a) Rube Goldberg white pipe area with the balls. b) Painting anything they wanted to outside in the canvas and fence area. c) Inside drawing and then posting their drawing onto the wall. d) Lego Stop Animation was the highlight of the trip. The two young gentlemen supervising the room did an excellent job giving us a brief explanation of how to create the video and then locating the specific legos the kids wanted to create with. We stayed in this room until we absolutely had to leave. Only because the kids wanted to ride the carousel and it closes at the same time the Museum closes. Suggestion: More trains needed at the train station so all the kids that want to play are able to.

    Make your own instrument
    Patti F.

    We came here for the first time with our 4-year-old daughter. I was curious about the museum but had never gotten a chance to visit. We parked in a nearby lot and walked over (5-minute walk). The location is nice because you can ride the carousel (with discounted tickets of $3 if you visit the museum) and go to the nearby park at Yerba Buena Gardens. If you're hungry, there is a pedestrian walkway to access the Metreon. Probably due to Covid, exhibits were spread out and it didn't feel crowded at all. The majority of the activities are open-ended, allowing for creativity and expression. My daughter used loose parts (toilet paper rolls, mesh, rubber bands, wax paper) to make an instrument. They provided similar materials to make something you can put in a wind tunnel and see if it flies. Other areas had trains, large blue foam blocks, Legos, books, music instruments, and Magnatiles. The art area had markers and cards to add to a large mural, and an outdoor area where kids could paint anything they wanted - chairs, doors, pumpkins! This section was really fun. I liked the activities at the museum and my daughter enjoyed it. I think they could add a few more things for kids to do, and I do think the museum is more appropriate for 4+ year olds, rather than toddlers.

    Don't come here with two adults with an EBT card unless you can show IDs with matching addresses. I tried to email them just to ask them to change their website to reflect the policy so folks like me don't end up forced to pay when the website says otherwise. I tried emailing and they wouldn't follow up with me on this reasonable request

    Animation
    LeeLee C.

    We used to come here once a year and love the variety of plays it has. Dress up karaoke, robot coding, sensory clay molding, big blue blocks, magnetic toys, animation, mystery box, just to name a few. With the pandemic, now they only have everything on the ground floor. They got rid of our favorites coding and sensory clay, but added a music synth pod studio. The mystery box remains, so is animation and they added a blue block mini golf area.

    Me very front, left older niece, older sister and little niece - my hearts, my loves
    Angie R.

    My older sister, two nieces (4 and 7), and I came to the Children's Creativity Museum on 08/07/21. In San Francisco. I try to be the best Auntie in the World to them and show my darlings wonderful experiences so they can reflect back on to their childhood when they get older and remember they had a variety of experiences from fun to educational hopefully to make them smile when times get hard when they are adults. I planned this event as I don't want my nieces JUST to be in hotel room on tablets. That's not what Vacationing is about in my opinion. I dragged my older sister along as she likes to stay in hotel and do nothing. So from the car ride from the hotel to the Child Museum I made sure it was stellar experience from start to destination. We found parking easily which my nieces cheered me on which was funny. It was a short walk to the place and the girls were already amped up! We were about 30 min early and saw that they had a Carousel and asked an employee where to enter. He informed us that we were early but at the right place. There is a free park on the grounds so we had the kids do what kids do best is PLAY at the their park until it was time to line up. My older niece mom couldn't come so I FaceTime her so she could see her daughter play and I took pictures. The park is amazing. I wanted to play myself but I didn't want to leave my older sister alone so I hung out with her and supervised the older niece to make sure she wasn't doing anything dangerous to hurt herself as she was trying to balance off a cliff like edge -_____- not on my auntie watch! Anywho, the girls loved the park and was bummed out they had to leave and line up but little did they know they were in for a treat! I paid tickets in advance and San Frann still has in place you have to wear your face mask at all times INDOORS, if you need to eat or drink you go outside. Pretty clear instructions. They have so many activity stations to choose from such as writing on walls, music, building things out of legos and making a movie, making something out of materials and challenging kids to be creative, outside games, and so much more! Also, you get a discount on riding the carousel too! You have two to three hours to explore which is more than enough time. We pretty much stayed the whole time and left about 10 minutes early, before our time was up to ride the horses! It is very affordable activity for ALL families. My nieces hugged and thanked me and didn't want to leave which warmed my heart. My older sister raves about this place and was so happy I took them out to explore this place, beats staying in the hotel room all day! I know. We would love to come back. Great for kids of all ages I would say for 12 years old and under. But, as a twenty something adult and thirty something year old - older sister, we probably had more fun than the girls! Staff is very helpful, sweet and thoughtful. They make you feel so welcome and you can see the love and enjoyment they have for kids! We felt completely safe here and it was a blast. Definitely would love to come back as they have more things on their campus to explore like bowling, Theatre and so much more! What a Treat!

    Jessica S.

    Coming from LA, I would compare children's creativity museum to Kidspace. The difference is that this is in SF downtown so it's an indoor space with two floors and they're focus is on hands-on activities, some drawing, music recording, Lego/video production, and some coding. My opinion of kidspace is that it's for younger kids. This place is fun for a slightly older group, maybe preschool to kindergarten, and then again for an older group around 9/10 age where they can join the Lego and coding groups. In terms of price, I think the annual membership is 100% worthwhile if you take advantage of the classes on a weekly basis, utilizing it as an extracurricular. In this way, it's actually more affordable than signing your kid up for coding classes, Lego classes, music classes, or art classes. It does make sense. Having said that, my six year old was in between these age groups and found the museum a little boring. I think she actually enjoys kidspace more because it has more active areas where she can physically move her body as well (something that is important to her). Her favorite activity here was the creativity challenges where kids are given an age appropriate prompt and recycled materials and are asked to design/build/create something. She did that one multiple times. Personally I thought the art area could have had more guidance rather than employees just sitting around on their phones. It could've had more paints, whether finger paints or acrylics or watercolors. They could've been more generous with leaving out sculpting clay and had spaces for paper mache or other fun activities. Just having markers and crayons out was incredibly disappointing for a "creativity museum". I might bring my 8 year old back for the Lego and coding activities but I can't have a place that only caters to one age/gender when I have more than one child to entertain.

    Outside train area

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    Thank you for visiting and for your comments. - Dave

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    My five-year-old son loves this place! They have Legos, trains, and little craft projects to build.

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    Thank you so much for sharing your positive experience!

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    Children's Creativity Museum Reviews in Other Languages

    Ask the Community - Children's Creativity Museum

    Does this museum participate in Museumsforall?

    Visit the website to inquire for all those participating in the program: https://museums4all.org/participating-museums-archive/?amp

    Is there a workspace for parents (or any space that can be used to work) that has power outlets accessible/available?

    Hi Athena. Thank you for your question. CCM does not have a workspace for parents. While we recognize that parents have a lot on their plates, our philosophy is that children… Read more

    Our grandsons are ages 2, 6 and 8. Is there fun stuff for each age group?

    Hi Yvette. Our exhibits are designed with ages 2-12 in mind. The 2 year-old will have the most fun on our first floor with Messy Art and L'il Critter City. The older kids will get a chance to make a short film in our Animation Studio, or record… Read more

    Is it okay if teens higher than 12 go?

    There's a Lego animation room that could probably interest them, but the other activities are geared towards younger kids.

    Where is the best & most reasonable place to park that is easily accessible to the museum?

    Hi Andrew, our museum is in close proximity to a number of garages in the neighborhood including Fifth and Mission Garage and Museum Parc (Folsom Ave). Limited street parking is available in the neighborhood and meters do not operate on Sundays.

    Are there in and out privileges with admission? Can you leave and return later on the same day?

    Hello--yes! We definitely allow families to come in and out of the museum on the same day. Families often do this so they can picnic, enjoy a live performance, run around on the playground, or ride the Carousel before returning to enjoy more… Read more

    I what's the dining option inside the museum? Can wr pack beverages and lunch inside?

    U can bring your own lunches.and u can fill water containers in their cafe area.. the cafe menu is good also..if u want to spend more money..

    Interested in possibly hosting a baby shower here with about 17 adults and 4-5 kiddos. How is this museum for adults? Just worried that it may bore or be too kiddish for most of the adults attending.

    How long should we expect to spend there?

    There're plenty of activities, you can easily spend a whole day there!

    Is this a good place for a 7 year old birthday party?

    my kids aren't in that age but I believe it is from what i've seen

    I would like to bring my daughter here.She is 14 months old,is it possible?

    Hi Rin! I think it's possible! Our target age range is 2-12. However, I have seen infants to… Read more

    Is this open to everyone?

    Absolutely! The museum is open to all children ages 2-12 and their families. However, for the safety of all visitors, adults without children must be accompanied by a staff member when visiting.

    Is this good a good place to bring 2 year olds?

    This is the greatest toddler experience I have ever had the pleasure of taking my child to. Very entertaining and packed with modern education the children love it and can't get enough.

    Don’t See Your Question? Ask Away!

    Review Highlights - Children's Creativity Museum

    For one thing, I love the claymation room - I've never done claymation before, and they make it super easy.

    Mentioned in 13 reviews

    Read more highlights

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    (47 reviews)

    Wow, this place is so amazingly cool ~ what a really fun East Bay hidden gem. I never knew this…read morespot existed, yet alone that Point Richmond had anything like this. It looks like currently The Golden State Model Railroad Museum is on winter break and will reopen on April 5th, but def worth the trip if this is something you may be into. This is a 10,000 square foot museum of operating model trains replicating areas of Central and Northern California. Pricing is $10 for families, $5 for Adults and children over 12, $3 for seniors (63+), $3 for children under 11, and free for kiddos under 4. There is a small parking lot and street parking in front/across the street where Miller-Knox trails/park/picnic areas are located. There's a small merch area and just the kindest staff members who are happy to share knowledge of railroad history. The East Bay Model Engineers Society is one of the oldest model railroad clubs in the US! Looking forward to returning with the fam and learning more about the model trains ~ there's just so much to see, so many intricate details! You have to see it to believe it :)

    This is a great place to see model trains of three different popular scales (O, HO and N scales) in…read moreoperation rolling through tunnels, across large bridges and into tiny towns and big little cities. It's a wonderful and safe place for kids of all ages as the trains operate right behind the glass just inches from your nose! :). Historians will appreciate the exacting scale reproductions of Santa Fe's Muir Trestle and the ginormous Oakland Mole Train Shed/Station that once stood next to the Bay Bridge until 1960. Lots of other cool things to see too! Not into trains? There's a beautiful park right across the street where you can enjoy a nice trail and picnic area facing San Pablo Bay and watch the tanker ships in port. Pro Tip: VERIFY hours for public visits before coming out. This is a volunteer operation! Pro Tip #2: Lots of cute little restaurants on the other side of the tunnel in Point Richmond for grub before or after your visit!

    Oakland Museum of California

    Oakland Museum of California

    (637 reviews)

    Lake Merritt

    I have been coming here for years. Specifically for their special exhibitions. They are always so…read moreinteresting and well planned out on display. The museum has three floors and their outdoor garden overlooking lake merrit. They have a little bit of everything, if you're curious about real history and wanting to learn more this is the place. Their annual membership is so worth. As they have several special events. Next to the museum they have plenty of parking. I take Bart as the stop is one block away. Chinatown is walkable for great restaurants. The Oakland library is close by too! There's a restaurant inside the museum while the food sounds great it's okay. I would recommend walking /driving to Chinatown or downtown Oakland for amazing food.

    I can't believe that I used to live down the street from the Oakland Museum, and have not been here…read moreuntil now!! I really slept on this museum, 5 stars all the way!! We came on a Saturday afternoon, easy parking in the garage. There is a lot to see here, it focuses on California and the Bay Area!! There are 3 floors here, each floor with a vast array of art, history, and science. You're never too old to learn something new, a lot of things here caught my attention for real. There is also a garden and lawn area along with a restaurant here, so it's really easy to spend most of the day here. I'm always interested in history, so that was my favorite part here, but everything here was great. And I probably need a few more visits to actually take in everything that this museum has to offer!!

    Children's Creativity Museum - childrensmuseums - Updated May 2026

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