Lynn Meadows Discovery Center, Gulfport, MS- Childrens Museum

This is a place for a kid to explore, be in a grown up world, safely, play, use their imagination, and have some fun. Lynn Meadows Discovery Center is in Gulfport, MS this is about 2 1/2 hours from home. If your close by, this is perfect for a day trip and there is even a place for you to have a picnic or you can head out to the beach and picnic on a nice day.

We went on a little 3 day getaway with my mom and grandmother, unfortunately my husband wasn't able to go as planned due to work, so I took the kids and my cousin with us. We stayed at the beautiful Beau Rivage for the time, if you are going to the area this a place to stay with  a beautiful room, with amazing views in each room, and the best part the BATH TUB, the kids can almost swim in it. The Beau Rivage also has a several things to do with the kids, you can take them to shops, the ice cream parlor, grab smoothies in the morning at the coffee shop, and of course the arcade. They also have a great buffet that serves Breakfast Lunch, and Dinner. 

We wanted to do some fun activities with the kids, and it happen to be a beautiful day. My mom knew of the Lynn Meadows Discovery Center and that is what was on the agenda. 

At the LMDC there are different areas for the kids to explore and use their imaginations. The first areas we explored were the Train area and the Boat Yard. In the train area there are several different bins that have a train conductor hat, a shovel for shoveling coal, and dress up closes for the girls. Here the kids pretend they are on a old train headed across country. Inside the little passenger car is a perfect table for the ladies to gather and talk.

 I found my daughter hiding from her brother and cousin. 

Right at the entrance there is also a Boat Yard Area. Here there is a Boat, where you can be the captain of the ship, or there is a dozier with a hook to help you pick up the bags you brought in on your boat and load them into the truck to go out for delivery. It is a lot of fun and the kids really enjoyed trying to pick up the bags and load them into the truck. 

Right past the Boat Yard area there is a Art room where you can do Arts and Crafts. We wanted to explore and run some energy out, plus with the kids having a blogger for a mom they do lots of Arts and Crafts.

As soon as you walk in you will see this huge tower that to me looks like leaves. If there are kids there you are sure to notice it because they will be climbing in it. My kids loved this thing and it was really cool. If I wasn't scared to be the mom stuck in the kids climbing fort I would have went through it. I'm sure I could have, but lets not take any chances. 

You can go up or down.

Upstairs that are other great specialty areas for the kids to play in. There is African themed area full of drums, animals, a safari hut, and a safari vehicle to go on your jungle safari.

Take the kids back in time, to a time of a hat shop, barbra shop, old hotel with a check in area and old keys to the rooms, with quiet southern charm, a piano, and tea party with cookies (of course fake, just didn't want ya to think there was a snack involved) 

Move on to the Supermarket. This is a awesome idea and if you have a playroom this could be something you make yourself as well. In this area they took the boxes from previous bought food, removed the food out of it and taped the boxes shut to make it look products on the grocery store shelves. They set up a area with a cash register, fake money, mini shopping carts, and reusable grocery bags. They also had two little counters one was for fish and seafood and the other for cheeses and breads. They made a produce section with baskets for "fresh" produce and a area that looked like a frozen food The kids enjoyed grocery shopping on their own a lot.

One of the kids favorite areas was where they could make their own news and weather broadcast, complete with cameras, and a weather map. Enjoy their forecast.

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Move on to the next area and check out more hands on activites. In this area they have a place for the kid to try wheelchair basketball - we were having fun trying, there is no way I would be successful at that, I forgot to take pictures. Also here in this area, there is a life size light bright. (remember those?) a place to do golf ball races, see how a tornado forms, make music with flip flops and plumbers pipes, and also have the kids try out the pulley system. This is a lot of fun too. 

If you go explore the Lynn Meadows Discovery Center on a beautiful day you can take a picnic and also enjoy the outside activities as well. They have three different tree houses for you children to explore and play in, They have several areas for kids to place their heads and pose for pictures, a submarine is located outside on the side of the building for kids to take a look out. There is a cabin "in the woods" with a little stream out by the side. There are several picnic tables outside that you could site at and enjoy your lunch, or if nothing is going on there is a stage with benches that you could sit on and enjoy a lunch.

Up towards the parking lot there is a kids town, that has several houses that the kids can go into and explore how a home is built. It really does look like what a town would look like for little children. It's a bit creepy to me, but maybe because I watch to many scary movies. I do not like children in scary movies. 

If you have the time this is absolutely a place we will go back to the next time we are out that way. It was fun and the kids always enjoy being able to explore. If yours kids are anything like mine they like to touch everything, and here is a place for them to do it.

Visit the Lynn Meadows discovery website here: http://www.lmdc.org/ There is always extra special activities going on, so be sure to check the calendar.