Discovery Place Kids is an innovative concept in regional children’s museums. Based on the idea of creating a network of intimate, community-based facilities in multiple locations, Discovery Place Kids aspires to maximize the whole child by providing extraordinary and rich play experiences that value imagination, fun and learning.

Children’s museums are cultural institutions that serve the needs and interests of children by providing exhibits and programs that stimulate curiosity and motivate learning. As opposed to typical play spaces, Discovery Place Kids will provide play experiences that encourage children and adults to have fun while exploring together, and will offer exhibit areas that focus on development of motor, communication and social skills while encouraging a love of learning.

Discovery Place Kids is a community-based children’s museum designed specifically for early childhood development, whereas Discovery Place is a regional science museum targeted to a much broader age range. Because of their convenient neighborhood locations and rich play environment, each Discovery Place Kids location will be a regular — daily, weekly, monthly — lifestyle element for the family that requires little or no advanced planning, whereas Discovery Place is typically a regional destination for more structured trips and special occasions.

The first Discovery Place Kids will be located in the Huntersville Town Center development in downtown Huntersville, near the intersection of Gilead and Old Statesville Roads. Eventually, four or five Discovery Place Kids locations are planned for Mecklenburg County and the surrounding area.

The first Discovery Place Kids location will open in Huntersville in 2010. There are currently no timelines for any of the other locations.

Discovery Place Kids is designed for children ages one to seven and their parents and care-givers.

The exhibits and programs at Discovery Place Kids are specifically targeted toward early childhood development — ages one to seven. Some eight and nine year olds will find the content stimulating; others may not. Parents and care-givers are asked to use their best judgment regarding the appropriateness of Discovery Place Kids for children over the age of seven. Adults must be accompanied by children.

The exhibits at Discovery Place Kids are designed to provide a rich play environment for all children ages one to seven. The “I Can Grow” area is specially designed to stimulate the brains of crawling babies through age three, while other exhibits are targeted toward the three to five and five to seven age groups.

Discovery Place Kids is a self-paced interactive learning and play experience based on role playing, participation and cooperation. Children and their care-givers are free to explore whatever areas interest them and to spend as much or as little time in each exhibit as they choose.

The admission price for Discovery Place Kids has not yet been set. Admission to Discovery Place Kids will be priced so as to encourage frequent visits. There will be one admission price for ages one through adult. Children under one year of age will be free. Admission may be purchased on an individual visit basis, or a pass system will provide the passholder with a pre-paid allotment of visits at a reduced rate.

A separate admission fee will be required for Discovery Place Kids. However, Discovery Place members will have the opportunity to purchase admission at a discounted rate.

The Discovery Place Kids facilities will be between 15,000 and 20,000 square feet — about the size of a typical neighborhood grocery store.

Discovery Place Kids will be based on a traditional small town layout, with several exhibit areas resembling typical small town structures, such as a grocery store, a fitness center, a pizzeria, and an airport, all surrounding a town square. The exhibit areas will focus on several themes; I Can Create, I Can Be Healthy, I Can Work, I Can Move, I Can Explore, I Can Build, and I Can Grow. Some of the exhibit elements will be targeted specifically to the individual community — a race car and a sailboat in Huntersville, for instance.

Numerous studies have shown that young children prefer familiarity in their play areas and are often confused or upset when those areas change. Children, themselves, are constantly changing, and experience things from a slightly different perspective each time they are encountered. For that reason, only the “I Can Explore” area will change on a regular basis, with various themes such as, “I Can Explore the Jungle,” or “I Can Explore Outer Space.”

Discovery Place Kids will offer a variety of special educational programming designed to meet the needs of early childhood development. These will include monthly themes and event days, live theater with puppet shows, story times and science presentations, daily “Big Fun” celebrations, special age-specific workshops, summer camps, group visits and birthday celebrations, and special events such as book signings by children’s authors and ever-changing visual and performing arts projects.

Discovery Place Kids is designed for interactive play between the parent or care-giver and the child. It is not intended to be a day-care facility or play space.

Discovery Place Kids will build on Discovery Place’s reputation as a safe and fun environment for children. The facility will be monitored by a full-time staff of experienced early childhood development professionals, carefully screened and trained specifically for Discovery Place Kids.

While Discovery Place Kids is a community-based children’s museum designed primarily for children ages one to seven and their parents or care-givers, visits by local school and preschool groups of the appropriate age range are certainly welcome.

Discovery Place Kids is a self-paced interactive learning and play experience. The facility will be monitored by a full-time staff of experienced early childhood development professionals who are trained to ensure both the safety of the play environment and the enjoyment of the experience for all guests.

The exact hours of operation have not yet been set, but the facility will likely be open approximately 45 hours each week; mid-morning through mid-afternoon on weekdays, and special hours on Saturday and Sunday.

Each Discovery Place Kids facility will be designed with ample adjacent parking. At the Huntersville location, a surface lot — and eventually a parking garage — will be located immediately behind the building, allowing safe, easy access to the facility.

Each Discovery Place Kids facility will have a small snack bar or vending area that will include a variety of healthy items such as water, juice, milk, crackers and fresh fruit. The Huntersville facility will be located in the Huntersville Town Center development which will likely include one or more “family-friendly” restaurants.

Discovery Place Kids is a community-based children’s museum. We anticipate that most guests will come from an area no more than a fifteen to twenty minute drive from each facility.