Taking the Kids to Boston Children's Museum's 100th Anniversary

Appearing in more than 50 major newspapers, Eileen Ogintz's "Taking the Kids" column is a past winner of the national Clarion Award from Women in Communications.

The meeting of a three-year-old, a cat and a goldfish pond started "Taking the Kids." The three-year-old, Eileen Ogintz' son Matt, pushed the hapless kitty into the pond at a Wisconsin cottage her family had rented for the weekend. "I thought the kitty wanted to go swimming," Matt explained. The furious owner insisted they pack up and leave immediately. The embarrassed parents drove home three hours to Chicago in a downpour.

Eileen Ogintz was a national correspondent for the Chicago Tribune then, covering news stories around the country. The travel editor, hearing her tale of woe about the cat and the goldfish pond, encouraged her to write a story about the trials of traveling with children. That story led to others. "We realized there were a lot of people like me, parents who wanted help planning trips now that they had kids." The award-winning syndicated column Taking the Kids grew out of those stories. Ogintz left the Tribune, after 14 years as a reporter, national correspondent and feature writer, to spend more time with her three young children and to launch the column nationally. The Taking the Kids series of travel guides for children, published by HarperCollins West, has followed.

"More people than ever are taking their kids places, whether they're going to Grandma's or a museum, to Disney World or on a business trip," Ogintz said. "Their time and budgets are tight. I give them the help they need to make the most of their family time." "Planning with the kids' interests in mind can make the difference between a great trip and one that's a disaster," she added.

Taking the Kids now appears in more than 50 major newspapers including the Los Angeles Times, Newsday, Boston Globe, Miami Herald, Baltimore Sun, Chicago Sun-Times, Dallas Morning News and Portland Oregonian. The column won a 1994 national Clarion Award from Women in Communications, Inc. and appears on AOL's Family Travel Network and elsewhere on the Web.

Ogintz has traveled with her husband and kids across the country and abroad -- from London to Disney World to Disneyland -- skiing in Colorado to fishing in Minnesota, soaking up history in Washington, D.C. to sightseeing in Las Vegas, New York and Yellowstone National Park.

The fifth book of the Taking the Kids series, A Kid's Guide to Vacation Fun in the Rocky Mountains, was just published, as well as a book for parents, Are We There Yet?? on taking the kids and surviving. She was the recipient of a 1995 and 1996 Parents' Choice honor for the series, which also highlights the Southwest, Southern California, Northern California and the Pacific Northwest.

Ogintz, who holds a master's in journalism from the University of Missouri, is a 20-year veteran of the newspaper business, reporting for The Anniston Star, The Record in Hackensack, N.J., and Des Moines Register as well as the Chicago Tribune, where she created the paper's family-issues beat. Today, she is regular contributor to numerous national publications, and has appeared on such television programs as "48 Hours," "The Today Show," "Good Morning America" and "Oprah." She created a course on the changing American family at Northwestern University and consults on work/family issues.

From their home in Connecticut, Ogintz travels with her husband, an executive in financial services, and their three children, Matt, Reggie and Melanie, who serve -- not always graciously -- as Taking the Kids' special team of experts.

Write to Eileen Ogintz in care of Los Angeles Times Syndicate, Times Mirror Square, Los Angeles, CA 90053.
Or e-mail Eileen at eileen@takingthekids.com

See recent posts by Eileen Ogintz

I love playing follow the leader on vacation, especially when the leader is two feet shorter than me.

When the kids lead the way, we’re guaranteed smiles rather than whines. And there’s no better place to let kids lead the way and see the power of play in action than at the Boston Children’s Museum, which is celebrating its centennial all month on the South Boston Waterfront.

Boston Children’s Museum is the second oldest children’s museum in the country, and it’s credited with ushering in the era of hands-on museum exhibits. Throughout this centennial year, the museum is promoting how play helps children develop key critical-thinking, problem-solving, and communication skills.

“It’s all about the kids here,” Vivian Ivory, 9, said happily. “There’s so much stuff you can do and not just look at.”

Exactly. Throughout the huge steel-and-glass building (there was a $47 million renovation and expansion in 2007), kids are encouraged to do things like make giant bubbles and navigate the three-story vertical climbing maze. “That was my favorite,” said 10-year-old James Moses, visiting from Little Rock, Arkansas.

His grandparents said that James and his younger brother, Aidan, who lived in Boston when they were younger, insisted on coming to the museum first when their grandparents brought them back for a visit. It’s easy to see why.

Boys and girls were noisily screwing and sawing at Johnny’s Workbench, making and sending birthday cards to the museum through pneumatic tubes in the Art Studio, generating energy with a kid-sized hand crank to make the giant KidPower sign move, and dancing on the interactive dance floor that lit up with their movements.

Inside PlaySpace, the first museum exhibit for babies and toddlers, the diaper crowd was busy crawling, jumping, and exploring. The unique Countdown to Kindergarten exhibit was also packed, as kids focused on what they need to know before heading to kindergarten—their numbers and letters, for example. “We spent a lot of time there today,” said Gretchen Heefner, explaining that her son Owen is going to kindergarten this fall.

Let the kids dictate where you go and how much time you spend, suggested Leslie Swartz, the museum’s Senior Vice President of Research. I think that’s a good idea for any museum. Swartz urged parents to relax, and, rather than trying to see everything, to spend time where the kids are most engaged. “Some parents find that frustrating,” she conceded. “Parents have to open their minds … and play too!”

From October 4 to 6, the Power of Play Gala Weekend will take place, with everything from a huge community dance party to a children’s gala, a festival of arts, and a big birthday ceremony around Fort Point Channel—all celebrating the museum’s start (in a house in the Boston neighborhood of Jamaica Plain by the Science Teacher’s Bureau). The bureau envisioned a place where kids could learn more about science. Neighborhood kids spent entire summers there, according to Swartz, who added that the museum has gotten many letters from scientists and engineers over the years saying they were first inspired toward a career in science by their time at the museum.

The museum moved to its present location in 1979, long before the area was a bustling destination for tourists. Today, outside on the deck overlooking the water, families are doing art projects and enjoying snacks. (The 40-foot-high ’30s Hood Milk Bottle is not only a Boston landmark, but it’s the place for a sandwich from nearby Flour, a hotdog, or an ice cream.)

The year-old Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum is just across a short bridge; Faneuil Hall Marketplace is a short walk away, as is the terrific Rose Kennedy Greenway and the Institute of Contemporary Art.

The Children’s Museum itself has become such a tourist attraction that hotels—from the iconic Fairmont Copley Plaza, which also just celebrated its 100th anniversary, to the sleek Renaissance Boston Waterfront Hotel—are offering special packages for young museum-goers and their parents. The InterContinental Boston offers a new Boston Children’s Museum Package in honor of the centennial, including museumtickets for two adults and two kids (ages 12 and under), Old Town Trolley tickets (two-day pass) for two adults and two kids, a complimentary children’s arrival amenity (Molly the Elephant stuffed animal and milk and cookies), as well as free kids’ meals off the Miel “Brasserie Provencale” children’s menu.

The museum is one of the few children’s museums to have its own collection: more than 45,000 items, including Shaquille O’Neal’s size-22 sneakers, which are placed next to baby shoes as the centerpiece of a lesson on big and little. Kids can also take off their shoes and step inside the big Japanese house that was a gift to Boston from Kyoto in 1979. There are messages throughout the museum about eating healthy foods, living greener (the expansive green roof with 6,000 square feet of plants not only helps keep the building cooler in summer but the view helps people feel happier), and being more active.

Every effort to be inclusive is made, from the signs in both Spanish and English to the Black Boston exhibit that celebrates the diversity of Boston’s African-American community (kids were busy playing steel drums, putting on carnival costumes, and “shopping” in a Dominican store).

Not everyone, of course, can afford the $14 per person admission fee, much less a hotel stay. Those with Massachusetts public-aid cards are admitted for just $2. There are also discounts for Boston Public Library cardholders, and there are signs outside the museum that say if you can’t afford the entrance fee, just tell the cashier. Thanks to a sponsorship with Target, admission on Friday nights is just $1, which draws a lot of middle-schoolers, according to museum officials.

“I can still find fun things to do here,” said Rebecca Elsen, visiting from Chicago with her parents and three younger siblings. That’s the case for adults, too. Evenings designed for 20- and 30-somethings sell out within hours. But at least the adults don’t cry when it’s time to leave. Most of the youngest museum-goers do, said Leslie Swartz: “Every afternoon,” she said. “It’s hilarious.”

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