The Santa Fe Children’s Museum
About The Museum
Do you want a day where you don’t have to constantly come up with ideas to entertain your kids? There is so much to explore and learn at the Santa Fe Children’s Museum, your kids won’t run out of activities that keep them engaged!
There is an adventure for any and every day with indoor and outdoor activities. Here, kids can learn through hands-on experiences such as floating scarves through a wind tunnel, rotating tubes to test viscosity, and building waterways for boats!
In addition to providing much-needed long-lasting entertainment for kids, the Santa Fe Children’s Museum is one of the best attractions in Santa Fe for kids who need special accommodations.
- Free Parking
- Handicap Accessible
- Special Accommodations for Autistic and Sensory Sensitive Children
- For Kids of All Ages
- Grandparent Friendly (grandparent memberships available)
- Plan to visit at least 2 hours
- Outdoor Activities
- Indoor Activities
- Water Play
- Sensory Activities
- Take-home Activities
- Bring Your Own Food or come during scheduled cooking events
- Located on Museum Hill a few minutes from the Plaza.
Inside the Santa Fe Children’s Museum
The inside of the Museum offers a toddler play corner with a gated entry. Here, smaller children can enjoy age-appropriate toys in a safe zone without getting trampled by older kids.
Further on in the Museum, there are experiments such as the wind tunnel, a pulley chair system, reptile exhibits, an enormous bubble-making table, and a boat race! It’s easy to spend hours inside without even discovering the multitude of fun things to do outside!
A section of the lower-level of the indoor exhibits features a nature corner. Terrariums are filled with lizards, tortoises, and snakes. Kids can play with magnifying glasses and examine real insects preserved in clear resin.
A tall sunroom offers a haven for budding artists with plenty of natural light, markers, and paper. A model train is the final indoor exhibit before kids explore the outside.
Outdoor Exhibits
Kids can build towers with magnets, find butterflies, meet a train conductor, balance on beams…. The possibilities are endless!
During the summer and fall, kids can pick ripe fruits or vegetables from the museum garden and learn how to make their own food: such as salad or horno-roasted vegetables.
Have any budding musicians in the family? Check out the outdoor xylophone garden and let the kids discover how different mediums make different noises.
Kids can enact their favorite scenes from pirate movies on a wooden in-ground pirate ship. My daughters loved lobbing bean bags over the rails at make-believe sea monsters.
Take a Break
If you or your children need a quiet break, there is a family break room where you can eat a snack, breastfeed, or curl up in front of the fireplace with the kids and read a book from the small library.
Outside, there is a green space to put down a blanket and enjoy the shade.
Accommodations for All
The mission of the Santa Fe Children’s Museum is:
“Discovering the joys of learning, play, and community.”
Part of this mission is to ensure museum access for all, which makes this one of our top picks for activities under $20! Thursday nights between 4:00pm and 6:30pm admission is free to children ages 0-17. There are daily admission discounts for EBT recipients, military and first responders, teachers, and others.
- Hours
- Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday 10am-6pm
- Thursday 10am-7pm
- Closed Sunday-Tuesday
- Tickets
- $5 for NM resident kids under 12
- $8 for NM resident adults
- $7 for non-NM resident kids
- $10 for non-NM resident adults
- $3 EBT, First Responders, Senior Citizens (65+), Military, and Teachers (with proof of verification)
Hours
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- Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday 10am-6pm
- Thursday 10am-7pm
- Closed Sunday-Tuesday
Tickets
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- $3-$10 Depending on Age and Eligibilty
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One of the greatest aspects of the Santa Fe Children’s Museum is its support for sensory sensitive and autistic children. They provide an “alternative entrance, a sensory-friendly tool-kit, that includes a social story, visual schedule, hats, noise-reducing headphones or earplugs, sunglasses, rubber gloves, and timers. An exit “treasure box” is also available for your child to choose a prize to aid with their transition away from the Museum,” (https://santafechildrensmuseum.org/.)
Not only do they offer these accommodations, but there is a special Friday night once a month in which the Museum features low lighting activities.
As a mother with a highly-sensitive daughter, getting out in public can often be a struggle. Knowing that the museum accommodates children who may get overwhelmed is indescribably heartwarming.
Overall, the Santa Fe Children’s Museum is definitely worth visiting if you’re vacationing, or buying a membership if you live in Santa Fe.
To find out more information about the Museum or to plan your visit, visit their webpage.
or follow them on social media:
Images From the Museum
All images are used with permission from the Santa Fe Children’s Museum.
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