Associative Play

Ahhh connection!  This is one of my favorite stages of play.  You know, when children begin chatting with one another.  Sometimes even in their own language.  So cute!  The stuff that great memes are made of.  Associative play begins usually around the age of 3 until 5, however, every child is different, and you could see this stage as early …

Parallel Play

Here we are again with another type of play for children.  Parallel play is typically the next stage of play after onlooker play.  You will often find your child playing NEXT TO another child, but not necessarily WITH them.  This is important as it shows that the child is comfortable being around someone outside of their own family.  Connecting with …

Onlooker Play

Onlooker play is a very observant type of play for children.  It begins around the age of 3 and is where children learn from watching other children play.  They are engaged mostly in the observation of how other kids play. This is an important beginning stage for learning how to play with other children.  However it is not limited to …

Solitary Play

Welcome back to the discussion of the different types of play that are important for a child’s development.  Last time we discussed Exploratory Play, which could also be considered Unoccupied Play.  This is the most basic type of play and usually between 0-3 months of age.  Now we are going to dive into Solitary Play which occurs 0-2 years old. …

Types of Play

Part 1 Let’s talk about the different types of play that you can observe in children. Exploratory Play is a great place to start this discussion. Kids in exploratory play will use several of their senses to explore their world around them.  For example, using touch gives them an opportunity to feel objects and use gross motor and fine motor …

FRAME

We would love to introduce you to Alissa Rupp with FRAME Integrative Design Strategies based in Seattle! With over 20 years experience with children’s museums, we were fortunate to become acquainted with Alissa in 2019. She has family in the Magic Valley and had been following our journey early on. Our board held a 3 day workshop with her in …

Full STEAM Ahead

Summer Outreach is “Full STEAM Ahead” for the Children’s Museum of the Magic Valley! We love being able to imagine, create, and discover with children throughout the Magic Valley. After cancelling several of our Spring 2020 events and not being able to host events through summer 2020, we were ready to provide fun, interactive opportunities for children this summer! We …

Funding Through Grants

Having invested $48,000 so far in our STEAM programming, we are grateful to our community partners who have believed in our vision to provide fun, interactive hands-on learning for the children of the Magic Valley. Thank you! First Federal Foundation Idaho National Laboratory Idaho STEM Action Center Twin Falls Subaru (Share the Love event) Twin Falls Walmart US Bank Foundation …

Board Education & Involvement

CMMV organized our first Board of Directors in November 2018 as we became a 501(c)(3). One of our core values has been to strive to “do it right”. As an emerging museum, we believed one of the ways we could do that was to learn from industry experts.  Early on, we joined the Association of Children’s Museums (ACM). We have …

Idaho Gives 2021

Idaho Gives – a program of the Idaho Nonprofit Center – is designed to bring the state together, raising money and awareness for Idaho nonprofits. Due to the increased need of support to the nonprofit sector, because of COVID-19 the online giving period has been extended! Donations were collected from April 23-May 7. Joining together, 16,091 donors raised $3,873,823 for …