Children's Museum Oro Valley

Truly 3.5 so rounding up here. I've visited this children's museum twice now and there are some pros and cons. Pro: it's inside the beautiful Tohono Chul Park. The long stroll through the park to the museum is beautiful. A whole additional aspect to explore on your outing since admission to the park is included in visiting the museum and vice versa. Con: the walk through the beautiful park is LONG. Pretty, yes, but not the most convenient if you're toting multiple kids and all of their gear. Pro: the museum itself is compact and concise and has both indoor and outdoor exhibits. There's been different things each time we've been there and it's not overwhelming in terms of things to do. Con: it's compact. The interior portion is small, like just one room. Yes some cool stuff in there like the scarf chute, a grocery store, and a slide, but it's smallllll. It also appears to house the staff's fridge and personal space area. Not certain on that but that's what it looked like to me. And while there were multiple staff members standing around chatting with each other, we had no interaction with them.Overall my toddler daughter has thoroughly enjoyed herself while here and I think it's worthy of a visit, especially if you take some things into consideration. In particular I don't think this museum would be very fun to visit in the summertime with the long walk and the small interior space.

The Oro Valley Children's Museum at Tohono Chul is a fun option if you're on the NW side of Tucson! One thing to keep in mind is that it's a bit of a walk through the gardens to get to the museum. It's nice to look at the plants along the way, but would definitely recommend a stroller for littles! It's not a big museum but had an indoor area and outdoor stations. I felt that some of the areas could use some updating. For example, there was an outdoor art area with easels and no materials to paint or color with. Overall, my son had a good time. It is open 9-1 Tuesday through Sunday. Children under 5 are free but adults need to pay admission to the gardens. They also have daily story time at 930.

Such an adorable place! I have always loved the Tohono Chul gardens but adding the children's museum here was a great idea! I don't mind the walk through the garden to get to the museum, it gives me a chance to teach my kids about different plants and lets us admire the pollinators. Although I have many positives about the new location I do really miss the size of the indoor room from the original oro valley children's museum.

Nicely done! Great selection of activities for kids 2-4, maybe 5. Friendly staff that do book readings, etc. Our grandson really enjoyed the wind tube with colored handkerchiefs that he could turn the valve on. He also enjoyed the cubby with mirrors - his comment: "I'm upside down!"I like that you can come back all day long. Nice to let the child have a nap, then come back later. Our grandson lives in Portland Oregon, and this facility is better than anything they have there.Kept him occupied for over an hour.

I stopped by the Oro Valley location today and felt I needed to share my disappointing experience. My daughter and I were greeted by Haley who was quite nice and welcoming. I was then confronted by a different staff member whose name I was not able to get. This other staff member approached Haley and I with aggression telling me that I was not allowed in the center because I was under 18. This is certainly not the case as I am 24. I felt it was disrespectful for stating this unfounded claim with such aggression, when a simple and kind question could have been asked.After this was cleared up, she then told me I could not bring my daughter into the museum because she was not my daughter. This is absolutely unfounded and untrue, and I am confused as to why she would make this unnecessary accusation as any child with adult supervision as consented by the parent is allowed into the museum (such as nannies, grandparents, and other care takers). It was quite upsetting to my daughter to have this interaction, and I feel hesitant to return to the children's museum. This is disappointing as we have been members since June of 2021.The staff member I had this negative interacted with is a white woman in her 40s or 50s. We love coming to the childrens mueum to play and meet new friends but with staff like this it is hard to say when we will be coming back.

Calling this location a "museum" is quite a big stretch...maybe an annex would have been better. It is a large room with about 10 interactive stations perfect for children under 3 or immature 4 year olds and it smells like feet. It is $7 per person (for $2 more you can drive into town for an array of stations for all ages and no smell). Very disappointing and a waste of money. Use your money to drive into town.One star for price, one star for personalized activities.

The Oro Valley children's museum is a tiny little museum; much smaller than the Tucson downtown children's museum. If you have a child that can sit up on their own , under three they're gonna love it because it's made for them. There are usually crafts, activities for the kids to do, put on by the staff. Outside they have a few little musical toys to play with. And when I take my clients that are under two they seem to just love it. There's rubber vegetables and fruits to play with, there's painting activities for them, dress up, slide, story time, and that amazing vacuum tube display like at the Tucson children's museum. There's no eating or drinking inside the museum, also they have plenty of restroom with changing stations for patrons. It's a fun place for little kids that's not overly stimulating but just enough to engage them in lots of different ways. There are no TVs or video displays at this location. Just ordinary simple interactive things for them to play with like puzzles,blocks and stacking toys. What a gem

I've been told Tucson's Children Museum was awful, so I was really excited when I heard about this place opening. First off, my child would give this place 5 stars, she loved it. It is very small. But a good amount of stuff for a toddler to do. From a book corner filled with puzzles, arts and craft (including buckets of scissors!!!???!!), slide and stairs, farmers market, infant corner, random hill of latches and sensory objects and a big vacuum type thing you put scarves into and they go through the maze and shoot out over your head.But that's it! They charge you $6 per person, so mom and dad taking their child is going to cost you $18. In no way do I think it's fair to charge adults for a place like this. It's way too small and it's all directed towards kids birth to 5.

Know before you go: the Oro Valley location of the Children's Museum is small and great for playdates but not a fully interactive museum like the one downtown. That being said it's a terrific place for those with small children I'd say ages 6 and below to go and have fun. The have different activity areas which are quite cute. They have a book reading nook, a farmer's market with play foods, an area with a table and chairs to do crafts in, a suction/air wall where kids can put scarves in and change the route, as well as some things to crawl into. Think a scaled down version of the museum downtown. We recently attended a birthday party here and it was particularly fun! I think this is where the location really shines. The prices on the birthday packages are reasonable and all birthday parties are held after hours so your party has full reign of the play place. They also do guide led actives like making slime or rainbow foam which were quite a hit with our 4 year old and our 6 year old. All in all it's a great location for those up north who don't want to drive all the way downtown with screaming children in the car.

Love coming to this location. It's definitely small and I would say only geared towards kids 3 and under. The staff are very friendly and are on top of keeping everything cleaned up and put away.