Our favorite local children’s museum has a fun exhibit coming back this year that your kids can explore for a limited time! Discovery Town is a miniature town with play structures where kids can play pretend and use their imaginations located inside Discovery Center Museum in Rockford.
Discovery Town Hours
Discovery Town is open from February 11 – May 29, 2023.
The Discovery Center Museum is open 9:30 am – 4:30 pm Tuesday through Sunday
Discovery Town Cost
Members can enter this exhibit for free. Guests pay $11 to get in which includes access to the entire museum (normally $10).
Discovery Town Features
If you’re a regular visitor to the Discovery Center, you’ll recognize some of the places in Discovery Town. The town is a mix of old favorites and new additions.
One of my kids’ favorites – the pizza shop – makes a reappearance in town! Kids can make a (pretend) pizza, bake it, box it, and put it in the car to deliver it. They can also pretend to run the restaurant, take orders and work the cash register.
For the kids interested in putting on a show, there’s a theater area complete with costumes and props and a stage area with a curtain.
Animal lovers can take care of a variety of stuffed animals at the veterinarian’s clinic. There are cats, dogs, and even farm animals. My son spent most of our time in Discovery Town carefully grooming a goat!
If your kids love getting the mail then they’ll love the post office. They can sort mail, fill up a bag then make deliveries to the mailboxes around the town.
Kids can be a hero for the day at the fire station where there’s a fire truck, hoses to put out a fire, Rockford Fire uniforms to dress up in, and a backdrop for mom and dad to snap a cute pic.
In the airport, kids can practice being pilots, air traffic controllers, and package handlers. They can sort UPS packages, load the plane, and then fly it into the sunset.
The Theater has an area where kids can dress in costumes and give a performance on stage.
At the classroom, kids can be either the student or the teacher. There were coloring sheets and crayons available to use during our visit.
The town zoo has a giraffe, zebra, monkey, and lion posed in a cage.
No town is complete without a park! In Discovery Town, kids can pack a picnic, play bags, go mini-golfing and enjoy the sock skating rink (my kids’ favorite). The littlest guests will enjoy the mini slide and climbing structure. We’d recommend the play structure for kids 3 and under.
Our Visit to Discovery Town
This video is from our first visit to Discovery Town in 2020!
Since then, my kids have continued to have a blast in Discovery Town. We typically spend over an hour playing and pretending in the space. One of the best parts of Discovery Town is that it encourages imaginative play! If kids or parents get tired and need to take a break, there are benches and chairs located throughout the room.
After your kids are done playing in Discovery Town, there’s a ton more to do at the Discovery Center for all ages including the Bubble Play area and massive outdoor playground which received some great updates in the last few years. Check out our guide with more information on what the museum has here.
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