Our family of 5 went on an amazing 9 day road trip through Wisconsin this summer (read our full itinerary here), and the last leg of our journey was the charismatic town of Madison. Being farther away from Lake Michigan meant that the weather was quite warm, so we opted for some indoor fun to explore Madison with our kids in tow!
We spent the day at the Madison’s Children Museum and had the best time. We arrived right when the museum opened, and used our reciprocal membership from our home science museum to get in for free! Check here to see if you have a reciprocal membership that will work here, too!
We started off in the Cozy Cottage play area on the first floor, where my kids had a blast! It’s like a giant treehouse with tons of pretend play. There’s even a neat water area, with all kinds of spouts and drains and scoops. It’s a great space to entertain kids of a variety of ages- my 4 and 6 year old were loving the treehouse, while my 2 year old was soaked from playing in the water table.
Next we headed outside to the outdoor playground. WOW! This area is AMAZING! It has an outdoor playhouse cottage, tons of climbing areas, an outdoor kitchen, music makers, iSpy walls, and soo much more! We seriously spent close to 2 hours in this area, which has tons of shady spots to stay cool, and had to drag our kids to the next spot. One thing that I loved was how all the different climbing structures were labeled- beginner to advanced- so you could gauge how easily younger kids could get up and down.
After we came back inside, we headed up to the 2nd floor, where there are tons of neat exhibits. My kids really enjoyed the pizzeria and art area! They spent quite a while in the art room creating all kinds of different things. While we were there, they were offering a kid friendly pottery class learning to make pinch pots for the museum to grow succulents in.
Next we headed up to the rooftop garden. Such a great area with a beautiful view of the city! One of the employees brought out one of the chickens that lives there, and the kids all got to feed Mr. Sweetiepie milllworms out of their hands.
There were just so many cool exhibits that my kids loved, we literally spent the entire day here! We only packed snacks, because I had read online that there was a cafe with food for purchase in the museum. Unfortunately, the day we were there was not a delivery day, and the pantry was completely empty. Luckily, we had a decent amount of snacks to get us through until dinner, but my recommendation would be to not rely on this dining option if you are planning on spending the whole day there. You are allowed to leave and come back, and the lady at the desk recommended finding lunch from a food truck and eating on the lawn of the capitol building across the street, but we decided to eat what we brought and have an early dinner.
Wisconsin State Capitol Building
After we were done at the museum, we walked across the street to the Capitol building. They offer guided tours every hour, which is a great way to see the building while learning about its history. My kids did great during the tour, I think because we were moving the whole time and there was a lot of really cool architecture to look at. The guided tour takes about an hour, and we spent a little time afterwards exploring the building and grounds {and more snacks, of course}.
Since we only had 1 day to spend in Madison, here is the list of things that we didn’t get to:
I hope this helps you plan how to spend your day in Madison with kids! Do you have any favorite kid friendly stops? Let me know in the comments!