Last week, we put up a voting booth at the entrance to the Northwoods Children’s Museum. Kids picked their three favorite exhibits by circling them on a copy of our floor plan! We set this up for two main reasons. First of all, we want to teach kids the importance of making decisions and having their voice heard. Second of all, donations to our Power of Play campaign will directly help improve the museum, and we want to know what exhibits need the most work and care.
With a week having passed since then, this seems like a good time to show everyone the results so far!
The Exhibits In The Lead
In first place is the fishing pond, with 10 votes! The fishing pond has always been an exhibit we’re proud of, so we’re glad to hear so many people have enjoyed what it has to offer. Unlike some of our other exhibits, where we provide toys purchased by the museum, we made everything in the fishing pond ourselves. The fish, the fishing poles and lines... all of those were lovingly handcrafted by the NCM!
In second place, we have the New Time Grocery Store, with 8 votes! Interestingly, the Old Time Grocery Store only received 3 votes. Plenty of kids love shopping, and this exhibit lets them do so to their heart’s content while also learning more about how the process works. The New Time Grocery Store is likely more popular than the Old Time Grocery Store because it contains products that are more familiar to the kids, as well as a more modern-looking cash register.
Finally, we have two exhibits tied for third place, with 6 votes each: Fire Safety and the Reading Tree! Fire Safety is right next to the museum entrance, so it’s likely left a big impression on kids who see it first. But really, what kid could resist dressing up in a fireman’s outfit and driving a fire truck? There’s even adult fire outfits to any grown-ups that want to play with their kids! In the corner we have a playset with fireman action figures and a wooden fire truck if your child prefers that form of playing.
The Reading Tree is one of our older exhibits, but it’s held up remarkably well, with the phones inside allowing kids to have books read to them while in the comfort of a makeshift treehouse! We not only have a selection of books that the Tree can read to kids, but also a bookshelf right outside if they’d just like to take a book and read in silence. The Reading Tree is also in the same room as Cozy Cottage, which was also pretty popular at 5 votes! Having two well-liked exhibits right next to each other almost certainly contributed to their popularity.
The Exhibits In Last Place
While we’ve talked about everyone’s favorite exhibits, it’s only fair to mention the ones in last place. We believe that each exhibit is somebody’s favorite, but evidently that’s not quite true as Outdoor Garden, Bird Identification, and the Bird House did not get any votes. However, out of all the exhibits to not get votes, these ones are more understandable than others, and we have a good explanation as to why they didn’t get anything. Surprisingly, despite two of the exhibits being bird related, it has nothing to do with kids disliking birds.
First of all, our Outdoor Garden is only open during the summer. It has a few different things for families to enjoy, such as a big sandbox with toys, a hut built entirely of sticks, and even some flowers and vegetables growing. However, since it’s only open three months a year, it tends to get overlooked outside of summer. It’s also not the most comfortable place to be if it’s really hot outside. On top of that, our busiest days are also when it’s raining, which is not the ideal time to spend outdoors, to say the least!
Our Bird Identification exhibit is something that kids might not even know exists - it’s a bunch of birds painted on our walls, each one framed in shadow so kids can guess what they are. There are 27 different birds to identify, with an answer key provided. It doesn’t have as much fanfare as all of our other exhibits, so it’s easy to miss.
Finally, our Bird House is part of Pioneer Cabin; it’s the back part of it! The Bird House contains two chicken plushies and sticks to build a bird’s nest with, as well as panels of different places that play bird calls when touched. A lot of kids might have considered this part of Pioneer Cabin, which got 5 votes. It’s part of the same structure, so it’s an easy mistake to make.
How To Vote
After seeing these results, you may be wondering how you and/or your little one can vote. We made voting a simple process that can be done at any point during your time at the museum. The voting booth is right next to Pioneer Cabin, near the rainbow marking the museum entrance. It’s as simple as getting a picture of the floor plan from there, circling your three favorite exhibits, and dropping it in the ballot box! We value every vote we receive, and plan on using all of this feedback to improve our museum to be the best it can be.
If you’d like to go here, whether it be to vote or to check out some of the exhibits in this article, come stop by the Northwoods Children’s Museum! We’re open 6 days a week, from 10 AM-5 PM on Monday-Friday and 10 AM-3 PM on Saturdays. You can find more details here! We hope to see you there!
