Photo Essay: Play for Keeps at the Marbles Kids Museum in Raleigh, NC

Marbles, which was previously called Exploris, is a great, relaxing, kid friendly museum. It also is adult friendly because at virtually every station, there are seats for parents or others, so they can supervise their kids but save their backs. Adults will also love the photo opportunities of their children wuth great props, costumes and settings. Many stations have gated areas for the very young or to help corral kids. The activities are mostly good old basic kids' play. There is an "Around Town" area with fire engines, ambulances, boats and other vehicles which kids can climb into and drive. I especially liked that there are firemen's coats in various sizes or helmets or life preservers and fishing rods on the boat. If you know kids, you know how they love to have the right props for their pretend play.

There are many stations that encourage the child to stay a whille. One of the first things you see is a life size chess set to move around, although some kids are more dedicated to the traditional chess rules than others. In "Hideaway Grove," there is a pretend tree house, and in "Castaway Cove," there is a wonderful pirate ship with several levels, an anchor to raise and lower, costumes to don, and afterwards, there is a station where you can draw your own treasure map, crumple it and tie it up in an authentic looking scroll. There is a music room with many simple percussion instruments for kids to pick up and just improvise. In "IdeaWorks," There are many work benches with real vises, saws, and other tools and plenty of materials to build your own contraption. This was an area where kids could happily stay all afternoon planning , designing and building their projects. Parents might as well get comfortable because this was no time to rush a happy and creative kid.

There is plenty for the littlest ones--an aquarium that is at a little short person's viewing height, huge soft blocks in various shapes to crawl through, ride on and build with, books and toys apprppriate to the room's theme on a shelf, giant wire coated mazes with marbles to chase each other to the finish.

I loved the way kids would just spontaneously play with other kids they did not know to collaborate on a huge Lego house, make music, work at the very popular tool benches, or sail the Pirate's Ship. I loved the way this was a place where electronics were absent but were not missed. Sometimes in this technological age, we forget how good it is for kids to role play and just create whatever they want with paper or wood and a saw. There is a very popular section where industries and others donate materials like clean foam or styrofoam shapes, fabric scraps, buttons and trims and lots more. Kids can just help themselves from a bin at their hearts' content and create whatever appears in their imaginations. Kids can always choose to leave their creations at the museum on display or take them home.

I wish I had a picture of a favorite part of this museum which is an exterior side wall. At night, it has thousands of marbles (hence, the name), which are back lit to give a glowing and stunning impression of an earthscape horizon as seen from space. The designer, Thomas Sayre, says he got the idea from his daughter's Lite Brite. Interpretations here are simplicity at its most rewarding.