DuPage Children's Museum
The DuPage Children’s Museum’s mission is to stimulate curiosity, creativity, thinking and problem solving in young children through self-directed, open-ended experiences; integration of the arts, science and math; the child-adult learning partnership.
DuPage Children’s Museum Now Booking ‘Private Play Time’
After nearly a year of closure due to COVID-19 mitigations, the DuPage Children's Museum gleefully welcomes children back inside the iconic building for 90-minute...
Raise Your Play IQ – In a box
by Alix Tonsgard, MS
My earliest memory of formal math is full of anxiety. I was in kindergarten and it was circle time. On the...
Create and celebrate New Year’s Eve with DuPage Children’s Museum
Bubble Bash in a Box brings a hands-on New Year's Eve into homes, confetti and all... (Photo courtesy DuPage Children's Museum)
New Year’s Eve might...
Raise Your Play IQ – Counting on those fall walks
by Alix Tonsgard
As winter approaches, one thing that I am trying to be mindful of is not using up all of my best indoor...
Raise Your Play IQ – Collections: They’re not just clutter
by Alix Tonsgard
I am, and have always been, a collector. Since early childhood, I have also found the collections of others fascinating. Later, in...
Raise Your Play IQ – Social Distancing with Young Children
by Alix Tonsgard
Let’s talk about social distancing with toddlers. Spoiler alert: it’s really hard. It depends on a number of factors like context, temperament,...
Raise Your Play IQ – Big Conversations With Little People
by Alix Tonsgard
The little guy in my life really loves trucks, rocks, sand, and mucking about. We have been playing a lot with sand....
Raise Your Play IQ – Helping hands
by Alix Tonsgard
Even though I am practically always home these days, the days still seem to fly by and the pace of life within...
Register kids now for virtual ‘Tinkering Camp’ at DuPage Children’s Museum
Above / Remember the joys of tinkering with toys? DuPage Children's Museum prepares to launch Tinkering Camp, a one-week program when the museum will...
DuPage Children’s Museum ‘Play Soiree’ goes virtual on June 20
Above / Though the DuPage Children's Museum is temporarily closed, last month members of the Cress Creek Garden Club spruced up the entrance to...
Raise Your Play IQ – Let’s talk about screen time
by Alix Tonsgard
Let’s talk about screen time. It’s happening in our household more than I would like to admit and at times I struggle...
Raise Your Play IQ – Puddle Jumping & Mucking About
by Alix Tonsgard
Full disclosure: even though I was one of those children that danced barefoot in the rain and loved mucking about, on the...
Raise Your Play IQ: Better Together: Let Your Child Be Your Guide
by Alix Tonsgard
Two fundamental beliefs that guide everything that we do at DuPage Children’s Museum are that children learn best when they are directing...
Raise Your Play IQ – Potty On The Go: Tips for Maneuvering Public Restrooms...
by Alix Tonsgard
For young children, public bathrooms tend to be either fascinating or terrifying. We see all ends of this spectrum here at the...
Raise Your Play IQ – Children and Play Grow Together
Curiosity, persistence, and the thirst to ask questions and learn why, are the most important tools with which we can send a child into...
Raise Your Play IQ – Have no fear: We’ve got your back
by Alix Tonsgard
During a Family PlayShop session here at the Museum, the topic of irrational fears and night terrors in the toddler years came...
Raise Your Play IQ – Throw that recipe away! The power of experimentation
by Alix Tonsgard
If you Google homemade play dough, you will find hundreds of recipes. In my early years as a preschool teacher, I tried...
Friends of DuPage Children’s Museum pay tribute to retiring museum executive
Above / As President/CEO Sarah Orleans prepares to leave the DuPage Children’s Museum on Nov. 1, sons of the two founders of the popular...
Raise Your Play IQ – Scoop, squish and satisfy your senses with sensory play
by Alix Tonsgard
Childhood is often loud and messy, and while it may seem that this is the case merely to test our patience, noisy,...
Raise Your Play IQ – Ask Them About Their Day
by Alix Tonsgard
Reflecting on your day requires strong metacognitive or higher-level thinking skills. These skills are important and are developed when children are presented...
