7 Columbus Museums for Kids to Explore

Kelly R:  One of the best Columbus family attractions, COSI is a hands-on science center featuring a giant screen theater, planetarium, and a number of exhibits including a dinosaur gallery, an interactive ocean area and an outdoor science park. Everything at COSI is kid friendly, but the fabulous Little Kidspace keeps the first-grade and under set coming back.

Kelly R:  This museum is housed in a historic fire station and shares the history of firefighting in Columbus, while teaching fire safety and prevention to people of all ages. Items on display include old fire trucks, wagons, and equipment. Kids love dressing up as a firefighter and sliding down the fire pole. Parking is tricky but free.

Hannah Scott:  Worried your kids aren't ready for something as sophisticated as an art museum? Fear not!The Columbus Museum of Art offers an amazing interactive experience tailored to families. In addition to its galleries containing a varied and impressive art collection, the museum hosts numerous hands-on activities for kids.

Kelly R:  The Ohio History Center is filled with exhibits exploring a wide range of Ohio History from the ice age to the present. Exhibits teach about subjects including life in the 1950s, extinct and endangered Ohio species, Native American history, and restored Civil War battle flags. Over the Summer, guests can also explore Ohio Village to get a look at what life was like in the 1890s. Kids love viewing the center's giant mastodon skeleton, exploring a 1950s Lustron home, and taking in an Ohio Village Muffins base ball game.

As one of the oldest railroad museums in the United States, the Ohio Railway Museum educates visitors on how important train cars were to people and businesses in the past and how trains worked. Train-loving kids will enjoy riding in a real train car and visiting the exhibits of historic railroad equipment and artifacts from locomotives, streetcars and interurbans.

Kelly R:  AHA! is a children's museum that surrounds children (and their adults) with hands-on, interactive learning opportunities that are all based on fun. Kids love playing on an interactive fire truck, fishing with magnetic worms, building a house out of foam bricks, and much more.

Kelly R:  The Works is filled with hands-on learning opportunities to engage both kids and adults, including science labs, art galleries, history exhibits, and a glass blowing studio. The first floor is devoted to interactive learning stations, where kids can ride in a race car simulator, use tools to tear apart a computer, experiment with sound, and much more.