Creative Kids Museum at Telus Spark lets visitors go wild with imagination and play, have fun and get creative. This is our review for fellow parents who’d like to visit.
Telus Spark Science Center is fun for visitors of all ages. And I didn’t know that before I became a mom.
There’re a lot of new exhibits, movies, and events going on. They have a Spark after dark event for adults, digital immersion experiences throughout the year, and participate in Hot Chocolate Festival in February. Wintertime gets magical with a celebration of lights and a special New Year’s celebration for kids at noon.
I can’t wait to revisit Telus Spark; there’s always something new and exciting happening.
But, this post is about the Creative Kids Museum. We visited the kids’ museum at least five times, so I can now write an honest review how it looks like, what to expect, and whether you should visit with your kids.
Creative Kids Museum
Children’s developmental experts designed the Creative Kids Museum, and it shows the moment you walk in. It’s like a giant playground for newborns to 8-year-olds where kids can develop their gross and fine motor skills. That’s a great combo, and it’s only offered in Telus Spark Science Center.
What I love the most about Creative Kids Museum is that kids are free to play however they like, even if it includes splashing water, throwing balls or making a big mess!
Every time we visit, two hours is not enough. We only spend at least two hours in the Creative Kids Museum, but then there’re fun exhibits. The last one where we had fun was RESCUE, featuring 17 interactive rescue situations where kids can try to drive a water scooter, sit in a helicopter, put out a fire, escape the smoke from a building, and more.
Let’s see what the Creative Kids Museum can offer.
Water play area
The water play area is the museum’s center, which many kids enjoy. Flowing water creates slides for toys and boats for smaller kids at the lower level. Then there’s a small round pool where a kid can stand in the middle and play with provided toys.
The water structure continues towards an area for older kids to pump water through the tubes and create a cascading water flow with small magnetic slides on the water tank.
There’s a rock wall on the side where kids paint with brushes and water. And just outside the water play area is a handwashing station adjusted to kids’ height.
Climbing structure
The giant wooden climbing structure that dominates the space is always full of kids. Because adults are not allowed on the structure, and rightly so, our son hasn’t tried it yet.
Experimental stations at Creative Kids Museum
Several small stations around the museum are dedicated to playing and learning about magnets, gravity and more. Our son especially enjoys the bubble piano and connecting water pipes to blow little balls.
The bubble piano is connected to big tubes filled with water. As the kid plays, he creates bubbles in the tubes. It’s so fun watching their fascination with the bubbles and how they can control them.
Another favourite is a station for connecting different water pipes and throwing a table tennis ball inside only to be blown out by air.
Magnet station features three giant magnet balls with loose parts of screws, and kids are figuring out where the screws would stick and can also stack them on top of each other.
Slides with pucks and rollerblade wheels can be set up in different ways to navigate which direction and how fast they roll.
Reading nook
A reading nook occupies one part of this giant space. There are benches, soft cushions, and several books displayed under a wooden tree decorated by children.
Toddler & baby area
The playground area designed for children of age three and under is carpeted and only allowed to enter without shoes. There are benches for parents to sit on and many fun things to play with: a slide, rocking swing, mirror tunnel, blocks on a lit-up table, and a ball maze.
Designers of the Creative Kids Museum even thought of babies. This is the first time I’ve seen a fun play area for babies. The other side of this area is for crawling babies with a track made of soft cushions.
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Theatre
The theatre area is a small room with a stage where kids can dance to music, change the lighting in the room, or use the provided blankets and shawls to engage in imaginative play. They can see themselves dancing on the stage on the big screen located at the backside of the stage.
Creative space
Two circled play areas feature loose parts to play with. One is filled with wooden blocks of different sizes and shapes, and the other has different tires. Our son loves to stack them on top of each other or wheel them around.
The backside of the Creative Kids Museum is dedicated to creativity and fine motor skills. I love that this area is decorated with kids’ art projects. Several tables with stools are set up with different kinds of blocks to play with. And a few tables are dedicated to drawing and art projects.
Overall the Creative Kids Museum at Telus Spark is an amazing playground; I’d say it’s the best playground for kids in Calgary because there’s also an outdoor playground.
Info for visiting the Creative Kids Museum
- Address: 220 St. George’s Drive NE Calgary, AB T2E 5T2 (near Calgary Zoo)
- Contact: Telus Spark Science Center, (403) 817-6800, [email protected]
- Open: Monday – Thursday from 9 am to 4 pm, Friday – Sunday from 9 am to 5 pm (winter schedule might differ due to Christmas events)
- Admission:
- Free for kids under 3
- 19 Cad 3-17 years
- 22 Cad Students with ID
- 24 Cad for seniors
- 26 Cad/adult 18 – 64 years
- 7 Cad/day parking fee
- Membership: 55 Cad/child and 76 Cad/adult for a year
Given the prices for a single entry, purchasing a yearly membership that pays itself in under three visits makes more sense. Parking is free for members, and there are also discounts for the restaurant and gift shop.
We paid the single admission first to see the Creative Kids Museum and then upgraded to membership. The price of the first admission was deducted from the membership price.
Useful tips for Creative Kids Museum
- I highly recommend a visit at Christmas time for their Sparkle Sparkle event
- There are aprons available for kids, but you might want to bring a new set of clothes for your kids. My son always needs to change his wet clothes after using the water area.
- Bathrooms are located inside the museum
- There are water fountains in the hallway as you walk toward the museum
- There’s a quiet room with dimmed lights and armchairs for nursing and diaper changing table
- The menu of snacks at Spark Eatery looks enticing, we love their pretzels
- An outdoor playground Brainasium with slides and science games is open year-round and suitable for kids of all ages
Other play spaces in Calgary
- Hide and Seek indoor playground
- Treehouse indoor playground
- Kidz Go indoor playground
- My Gym in Calgary: Children’s Fitness Centre
- Early Learning Centres in Calgary Public Libraries
- Sky Castle indoor playground
- Big Box indoor playground
- Flying Squirrel Trampoline Park
- The Beach YYC
- B-line indoor bike park
What do you think of the Creative Kids Museum? Would you like to visit with your kids?
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This is such an informative blog. Museums are institutions created in the kids interest. learning experiences, development of children, lives to effectively serve them. Thank for posting these amazing blog and keep posting.
Thank you so much for this very informative and helpful post.
I’m glad you found it helpful, Jenny.
Thank you so much for this! We visited Calgary last week and visited the TELUS Spark Science Centre on your recommendation. For our 15 month old and 4 year old it was easily the highlight of our trip (which also included dinosaurs and mountains!) If we could teleport we’d be going all the time. 10/10, an excellent way to spend a day!