The changing exhibits at the Children’s Museum of Atlanta are very good, but the permanent exhibits are equally so. Leaping Into Learning is a place to play and learn, much like the rest of the museum. This area is best for children under five, and has a focus on nature and water, with a treehouse for your children to play in, a waterfall they can walk below without getting wet, and much more. The Resource Room at this area has lots of great books for the youngsters, and has a place for parents to sit and relax.

The first thing you’ll see when you walk into “Imagine It!” is Fundamentally Food, an exhibit where your child can learn about where food comes from, how it gets to the store, and how it gets to your house. They’ll grow crops, climb on a John Deere tractor, load boxes, go grocery shopping, and play with the toy food in a toy kitchen.

Tools For Solutions never fails to fascinate young minds, with one of the central attractions being a giant ball machine. Your children will work to move the balls around using the six simple machines: levers, wheels and axles, pulleys, inclined planes, wedges, and screws. Children can learn teamwork by working together with the other children to make the machine do what they want. This exhibit also has blocks for the budding architect, toy trains, and gardening play for the young green thumb.

Your little one can draw a masterpiece right on the wall at the Let Your Creativity Flow exhibit. They can also build sand castles, play music, put on dress up clothes, and build things.

Crawl Space is made just for toddlers, with a clean and padded area with blocks and tunnels, a bridge for them to go across, and even musical instruments.

More information on the exhibits can be found here. Also check out the museum’s special programs.

The Children’s Museum of Atlanta is generally open 10 am–4 pm every day of the week, but open until 5 pm on Saturdays & Sundays. It’s closed on Wednesdays from autumn through spring, as well as Thanksgiving and Christmas Day. Admission is $12.75 + tax for ages one and up. Infants are free. More information can be found here.

The Children’s Museum of Atlanta is located in Museum Tower, on the corner of Baker Street and Centennial Olympic Park Drive.

Address: 275 Centennial Olympic Park Drive NW, Atlanta, GA 30313-1827

Official Website

The Butterfly Center has been in operation since 1988, and was named in honor of Christian philanthropist and founder of Days Inn, Cecil B. Day. More than a thousand butterflies are housed within the center, coming from fifty species. The center is filled with a variety of tropical plants to provide the butterflies with a wonderful living environment, and is in fact one of the largest tropical butterfly conservatories in all of North America.

A visit at any time of year is special, but September tops them all, with Blue Morpho Month. The Blue Morpho is one of the largest butterflies, with a wingspan of five to eight inches, and an incredibly beautiful iridescent blue wing. The Blue Morphos come out of the chrysalises during September, and fill the conservatory with their incredible, beautiful, active color. The wings are blue on the top, and a dull brown on bottom, giving them the impression of appearing and disappearing while flying (watch these videos from ‘Smarter Every Day’ for a fascinating look at the science of butterfly wings: part 1, part 2). The butterflies’ large size and vivid colors make it an excellent candidate for photographs, but as one of the more active of the butterfly species, they can be harder to capture an image of. In the morning and afternoon—the bookends of the day—the Blue Morphos rest more, giving you a better shot at getting a good shot.

If your children are fascinated by either butterflies or plants, they may very well be captivated by making a butterfly garden once you go back home. In June & July, at 11 am each Thursday, you can join the Gardening For Butterflies presentation, and learn about the plants that butterflies like and need, and what you can do to attract them. Afterward you can pick up seeds for these plants in the gift shop.

Admission is for the entirety of the Callaway Gardens, and costs $18 for 13 and up, and $9 for 6–12. The gardens are open 9 am–6 pm. More info here.

Image taken from callawaygardens.com