Introducing our new Baby Stops at the Children’s Museum of Richmond – Downtown

Fun engaging ways to support your baby's development while you keep up with your older child!

Published on April 28, 2023

Shiri Abramovitch

My name is Shiri Abramovitch and I am a VCU Occupational Therapy Doctoral student graduating in May 2023. I had the opportunity this Spring of 2023 to partner with the Children’s Museum of Richmond to collaborate on some new opportunities to increase play and learning experiences for our museum visitors who are under 12 months of age. 

The Little Farm is a fun exhibit for your young baby to enjoy! The small scaled elements are perfect for your baby to start learning about their environment at a young age and we continue to encourage you to stop in and let them explore at this exhibit! However, the museum recognizes that caregivers visiting with an infant and a child older than 3 years of age, may have difficulty with finding ways to engage with both children equally within other areas of the museum.

Little Farm area for our littlest guests

For my contribution and partnership with the museum, we dedicated our attention to the additional areas of the museum outside The Little Farm. During the first year of life, a baby’s brain is rapidly developing and making connections with their environment. Engaging with them during this stage of development is helping to prepare them for the next phases in life such as early childhood learning and then school! Take advantage of this window in their lifespan to discover where they are in their developmental milestones! Use your visit to The Children’s Museum as an opportunity to engage with your infant with something new by trying out our brand new Baby Stops!

Example of a Baby Stop

As you explore the museum, keep an eye out for our newly created Baby Stops around the museum! We have a new high-contrast Baby Stop and a mirror play Baby Stop where you can engage in learning opportunities with your baby. Additionally, we have pinpointed some existing areas around the museum that have elements that can be used for baby play so they can have fun in more areas of the museum! Each Baby Stop has a Tip for usage and a Value to learn more about what the engagement does for your baby! Try out our stops and let us know what you think!