Review: The Habitot Children's Museum in Berkley

Habitot Children's Museum is an indoor play area for babies, toddlers and preschoolers. It features an art room, a play store/restaurant, a water play area, wiggle wall (a tunnel that kids can crawl and climb through), a baby play area, a short riding toy space, and an area for a changing exhibit - currently, a recycling center.

The cost to get into Habitot is $7.00 for children, and $6.00 for adults. Multiuse passes are also available. They offer occasional free entry days or evenings. We visited on such an evening. Their website lists free entry days for January of 2008, but we visited much later than that. It may be worth a call to ask about upcoming free admission days before scheduling your visit. The phone number is 510-647-1111. We had a good time, but if I'd paid $20.00 for my two children and I to get in, I would have been disappointed.

Habitot Children's Museum is located at 2065 Kittredge Street at Shattuck Drive in Berkeley near the Berkeley BART station. Street parking is available, but tricky to find. There's a parking garage across the street, which is convenient, but adds to the cost of a visit.

The Habitot website advertises, ". . .classes for children, parents and educators, plus group visits, birthday parties, workshops and family resources." However, few classes actually appear to be scheduled. There is a list of some very fun sounding week long summer day camps listed on the website.

The word 'museum' in the title led me to believe Habitot was primarily an educational attraction. While it's likely kids and parents can learn here together, it's only educational in the way any play is educational for small children.

Their art calendar lists a number of very interesting activities, which may be more worth the price tag than the events scheduled for our free admission night. Habitot is a non-profit organization, so while I may consider the cost high, the maintenance and running of the children's museum must necessitate it.

On the subject of maintenance, this is definitely one of, if not the cleanest play area catering to toddlers and preschoolers I've ever seen. Even the bathroom was tidy and comfortable. Considering how many children (expert mess makers) visit on a daily or weekly basis, keeping it clean must be no small task.

The Art Center

An ever-changing schedule of art activities is available at Habitot. A calendar of the various upcoming and daily art projects available can be found on the Habitot website at: http://www.habitot.org/hab/hands_on_art.htm

The evening that we visited Habitot Children's Museum they had tables set up for painting, and spaces set up to play with Gack. Other art projects on their calendar include things as variable as pottery and woodworking.

The Recycling Center

This is a fun area. There are green jackets and yellow hard hats for the children to wear while they build with recycled foam blocks, push around wheelbarrows, or sort soft foam cans and bottles into bins using the conveyor belts. Habitot's recycling center is a good-sized room that would allow many children to play at once. Bins and conveyor belts are in the center of the room, and a dedicated building space is sectioned off.

The wiggle wall for crawling and climbing tunnels is on one side of the recycling room. In one corner of the same room is a makeup table and mirror for children to put draw on their faces.

The Cafe/Grocery store

We spend a great deal of our time here during our visit, as it was my daughter's favorite section. They have a little counter and stools set up like a cafe with plates, etc. To one side there are bins full of pretend foods and shopping carts. They also have little cash registers that can be used, I suppose either for buying groceries, or meals at the diner. A special bin is thoughtfully provided by Habitot for parents to place toys that went into someone's mouth.

The Baby Area

Everything is padded, and painted like a garden. There are padded structures for climbed. There are soft carrots in one corner that fit into little holes. They also have simple wooden puzzles and games for babies.

As I needed to divide my attention between a baby and a preschooler, I loved that the baby area had a small gate to keep the little ones corralled. Even if I'd only had one child, it's nice that they make it possible to prevent a little one from crawling or toddling out too easily considering the water play area is right across the isle.

Water Play

There are three types of water play tables for the children to explore. One is winding, and sloped like a river. You add water to the top and it flows down to a container at the bottom. The next table is round with a clear tower in the center that houses a pump. Pushing buttons at the bottom of the tower pushes water out the top and down along the inside of the tower. A neat idea, but the buttons were difficult for me to push, and next to impossible for my kids. There were also a bunch of toys stuck inside the tower that probably interfered with its operation. The last table is standard rectangular tables full of water play toys like cups and boats.

There are aprons for the children to wear, but they don't do much to protect pants or sleeves. Shoes are also at risk for getting seriously wet, but the alternative of going barefoot on the grated flooring isn't too comfortable.

Riding Toys

A short 'track' is drawn with tape on the ground at the end of the corridor. Scooting riding toys can be ridden along that area. With a little more space it could be a lot of fun. My kids had difficulty with tight turns, but they did come back for more after the first ride.