KidSenses Museum: Changing North Carolina One Child at at Time
Located in Rutherfordton, North Carolina, the KidSenses Interactive Museum is an incredible find for families visiting near Lake Lure.
Not only does Rutherfordton, a small town of less than 5,000, have a children's museum, the museum here rivals ones I've seen in cities that are ten times Rutherforton's size.
As the parent to 2 small kids, I’m no stranger to a children’s museum, and we’ve visited ones everywhere from Florida to Indiana.
I highly recommend KidSenses for its thoughtful, play-based educational opportunities, and for its ongoing community outreach.
Below, I’m sharing a complete review of KidSenses Museum, including what to expect while you’re there, must-do areas, and practical information.
I’ve also included the interview that I conducted with the museum’s executive director, which showcases the museum’s commitment to the children of the surrounding community.
Let’s play!
I was provided access to the KidSenses Museum as part of a press trip in Rutherford County, North Carolina. As always, all opinions are my own.
KidSenses: An Overview
KidSenses is located in Rutherfordton, North Carolina, an adorable town about 45 minutes southeast of Asheville, and 30 minutes southeast of Lake Lure.
Rutherfordton, like many of the small towns in the South, was once a textiles town, which had to seek reinvention after many manufacturing jobs moved out of the area.
My daughter in the Alphabet Trail section of the museum
Today, the downtown area is revitalized and walkable with thriving antique shops, coffee shops, and clothing stores.
In the heart of Main Street is KidSenses, its red brick exterior brightened by the awnings and windows in primary colors.
While children’s museums typically are found in larger communities, like Asheville, Columbia, or Charleston, the community in Rutherfordton saw a need for the children of this area, and worked hard to build a space for creativity and learning.
It has served Rutherfordton’s children and visitors to the area since 2004 and continues to grow each year.
Parking
There is on-street parking on Main Street, which is free.
You’ll find several spaces right in front of the KidSenses Museum, which if you visit on a weekday morning like we did, are likely to be open.
Otherwise, you can check the parallel parking spaces on East 1st Street to the left of the museum or the pull-in parking spaces on Taylor Street, directly behind the museum.
On a busy day, you might have to park in the museum’s large lot behind Taylor Street, which is accessible on North Toms Street.
All parking is free. If you have to park in the large lot, there is a clearly marked street crossing and a secondary entrance off of Taylor Street.
Admission
Everyone over the age of 1 require a paid ticket to KidSenses. For a single day visit, a ticket is $8 per person.
Seniors and active military get a discounted ticket at $6 per person.
KidSenses vs. The Factory
A newer edition to the offerings at KidSenses is a maker space specifically aimed at kids 11 and up.
While children’s museums tend to skew younger in their scope with a typical targeted age around 7, KidSenses saw a need for engaging, educational play opportunities for tweens and teens.
The Factory is the result of that inquiry, and it’s unique among children’s museum offerings.
While KidSenses is all about centers focused on imaginative play, The Factory encourages out-of-the-box thinking with higher-level skills. Kids at the Factory might make a working robot or a sculpture from recycled household items.
Unlike KidSenses, which is open 6 days a week, The Factory is currently in its start up phase with limited offerings several times a month.
Because of the current space limitations at the KidSenses museum, The Factory is held in the nearby Woodrow Jones Building at 146 North Main Street.
NOTE: KidSenses has big plans for The Factory, and fundraising is ongoing to build a permanent home for this growing part of the museum.
KidSenses Museum: A Review
My daughter in the Bubble-ology section of the Museum
NOTE: I visited when my daughter was about 3, so we did not make use of any of The Factory offerings.
We’ve visited many children’s museums on our travels including:
The Children’s Museum of the Lowcountry in Charleston, South Carolina
The Children’s Museum of the Upstate, one of the best things to do with kids in Greenville, South Carolina,
The Children’s Museum of Denver, a favorite kid-friendly thing to do in Denver,
The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis,
Discovery Place for perfect family fun in Charlotte, North Carolina, and
The Lousiana Children’s Museum, an essential New Orleans kids activity.
All of that to say, we are well versed in what a typical kids’ museum looks and feels like, and my daughter and I were ready to see how KidSenses compared to our previous experiences.
The exterior of the museum is deceiving, considering it is small compared to many of the other children’s museums we’ve visited.
But the overall layout of the museum and the creativity with which each area has been crafted makes this a space that younger kids will happily spend hours in.
We spent about 3 hours here, and my preschooler still wasn’t ready to go at the end of our visit.
What ages are best for KidSenses?
Generally, I’d recommend KidSenses for kids ages 2-8 as this seems to be the sweet spot where kids would find the centers engaging and would be able to effectively work within each area.
If you’re traveling or visiting with an older child, see what is coming up at the Factory.
What exhibits and centers are available at KidSenses?
PIN ME!
Much like other children’s museums, KidSenses encourages children to try out real world ideas with a heavy dose of imagination.
To this end, you’ll find everything from a restaurant, a grocery store, a garden, and a fire station.
My daughter’s favorite area was the veterinary clinic, where she could choose one of the stuffed animals, x-ray the animal, give it oxygen on the operating table, and use a microscope to examine its fur.
She also spent a great deal of time on the slide on the Alphabet Trail and in the Creation Station, where she could create artwork from the many media available.
The museum offers 15 decorated creative spaces:
Zap Theatre, where kids can see the physics of music in action,
WFUN Station, where budding news anchors will get some practice,
Big Climber, a 2-story wood and rope climbing structure (my 3-year-old got stuck in here, so mileage will vary!)
Sports and Engineering, where kids will learn about the careful designs that go into making players faster and stronger,
PetSenses, the veterinary clinic my daughter loved,
Little Family Dollar, where your kid can shop or attend to other customers,
The Stage, where kids can put on their own puppet shows,
Gears and Gadgets, perfect for future engineers,
Pueblito Cafe, where kids can run the grill, the cash register, and the tables,
Creation Station for little artists who want to explore all the glue, paper, scissors, and paint,
Bubble-ology, which puts kids (literally) inside a huge bubble,
A Stitch in Time where kids can learn about the town’s textile past,
Healthwise where your child can practice their healthcare skills and empathy,
Alphabet Trail, which includes letters-and-numbers active learning for younger children, and
At Your Service where you can pretend to be a firefighter, complete with miniature fire truck.
In the kid-focuses museums we’ve visited in the past, the displays are often well loved with missing decals, ragged looking accessories, and scratched up surfaces.
That’s not the case here at KidSenses, which prides itself on a clean, aesthetically pleasing presentation.
I know that can’t be an easy task given how many children make use of these centers daily, but that’s just one way that you can feel the staff’s attention to detail and commitment to their community.
Overall, I loved the range of options offered here with centers covering everything from fine arts to engineering to phonics to community service.
A half-day spent here is an excellent opportunity for kids to burn off steam while learning the entire time.
KidSenses’ Commitment to the Community
While my daughter gleefully exhausted herself in the museum's twelve themed rooms, I talked with the Kid Senses museum director, Williard Whitson about the space, the museum's future, and the town that made this place possible.
Mr. Whitson began his director's position with the Kid Senses museum early in 2014 after he moved from the Washington, D.C., area with his wife.
Like me, he was amazed to find such an incredible resource for children tucked away in the western North Carolina mountains.
"The textile industry is gone," he told me. "We're trying to do something to fill that gap."
After many of the textile companies left the inland portions of North and South Carolina as the jobs moved overseas, the workers were left without any reliable income.
Not surprisingly, the children of those households were greatly affected, and a huge portion of the families in Rutherfordton and the surrounding areas are barely making ends meet.
An encouraging message for visitors coming into the Museum
Providing STEM skills in a fun environment to those families is what Mr. Whitson sees as one of Kid Senses' primary goals.
"We are a part of the community," he said. "We want the children to come in and see the places they visit with their families."
To this end, Kid Senses has partnered with local businesses--including the Family Dollar, a Mexican restaurant, and a veterinarian--and has replicated these locations on a smaller scale.
Rutherfordton may only have 4,500 residents, but the resources that the children's museum provides far exceeds what you'd think a town this size could provide.
In other words, the Kid Senses museum is the little museum that could--but it still has plenty of work left to do.
"We serve over 65,000 patrons a year," Mr. Whitson shared. "One of our focuses is getting families in, so that they can play together. We want the children to see their parents having fun while learning."
That parental influence goes a long way, Mr. Whitson believes, so the museum has worked on offering more opportunities to families of all socioeconomic backgrounds.
"We go out into the communities and do presentations," he said. "We're also offering a free admissions day once a month."
Through that free day, the museum hopes to attract families that wouldn't otherwise be able to afford the admissions fee.
It's these families that Mr. Whitson hopes to affect through the museum; since there's such a large group of underpriviledged children in the area, getting them involved in learning and education will change the fabric of this community as that generation grows.
On a basic level, Kid Senses was a great place to take my child for a fun afternoon.
On a deeper lever, I was pleased to hear that the museum has done so much during its ten year existence--and continues to try and improve the lives of the people who make up this community.
Have you visited KidSenses? What’s your family’s favorite children’s museum?
