King Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs
Thanks to the birth of my little brother 30 something years ago I wasn’t able to travel to NYC to see Tut when he was on display at the Met, so I was pretty excited when I read that he was coming back to the area.  Determined not to miss him this time, my son, husband and I ventured into Times Square to visit the mummified boy king.  The exhibit was awesome – in the real sense of the word.  Grown ups will appreciate that it is housed in the Discovery Times Square Exposition which is the old NY Times building and evidence of the buildings original purpose can be found in the pitted floors, photos and other memorabilia displayed around the fabulous looking space. Plus, when you enter the King Tut galleries you will notice all the halls are filled with interesting photographs of the tombs finding and blown up reprints from the Times of the original stories of the finding and unearthing of the tomb.  

In the exhibit you can see a replica of the mummy as it looks today (the real one is too precious to leave Egypt.), the crown they found on it’s head, ancient cosmetic containers of carved stone, Tut’s boyhood chair and hundreds of items from his life and death. One of the coolest things to see was the iconic gold and blue canopic coffinette, which I was surprised to find out is only about a foot tall and held just his liver. Don’t miss the tomb gallery, here you can see exactly how he was placed into 3 nested coffins, layered with gold amulets and sealed away for the afterworld.

If you were one of those lucky enough to see Tut in the 1970s you will still enjoy this exhibit, there are new items on display and new forensics technology applied to the mummy that shows us that Tut had a disability and probably walked with a limp, likely died of malaria and may have even fathered two still born children.  Today scientists are trying to rebuild Tut’s family tree to learn who his father was.   Also new since the 70s are the timed admission tickets– so no more four hour lines.  

The whole tour took about one hour and although I really liked this exhibit, my 5 year old son didn’t like it at all.  It went totally over his head, so you might want to think twice before bringing a child under the age of 8 years old.  However, there were a ton of older kids there who were into it.  The kids that liked it had some prior knowledge of ancient Egypt.  Also, try to go on a day where they are doing special kids arts and crafts projects, my son really liked making his own little paper bag mummy even if he didn’t care about the real thing.

Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs - Through January 2, 2011
Discovery Times Square Exposition - 226 West 44th Street
 

Amazon Voyage
Kids are in for a real treat as they climb aboard the Victoria Amozonica, an Amazon River boat.  Here they can “meet” Captain Mo who will take them on a tour through the massive Amazon River.  A great time for kids, every single part of this exhibit is hands on, interactive and educational and allows both kids and adults to learn something new about the Amazon.  There are computer screens to explore the 2,000 species of fish that live in the Amazon. And my son loved sticking his head into the bubbles in the aquariums to get a close up view on the piranhas and other Amazonian fish species. They also have an interactive look-and-find with a flashlight for you to explore a display forest and search for nocturnal animals. You can even try to lift a replica of a 200 pound anaconda. The coolest part of the whole exhibit was learning about the muck fish, an entirely new species of fish that breathes air out of the water.  My son spent a long time trying to find the replica of the muck fish by digging around in a tank of smelly and very realistic looking fake muck while wearing rubber gloves.  Other fun things to check out are feeling what the shock of an electric eel is like and learning about a species of blood sucking vampire fish.

The exhibit can take a lot of time to work your way through, depending on how interested your child is, but if they rush through you can visit the rest of the museum, take in a game of mini golf or hit the outdoor playground.  Kids of all ages will find something interesting here – lots of manipulatives for the younger set and the older kids will find a lot of cool stuff to explore if they take their time with each section.

      
Amazon Voyage - Through August 22, 2010
NY Hall of Science- 47-01 111th Street in Queens

Toys: The Inside Story
This is a fun exhibit that examines how toys work, with hands on displays and tons of cool classic toys.  The exhibit is divided into five classifications of toy mechanics: circuits, pulleys, cams, linkages and gears.  For each class of toy there is a cross section of the inside and a look at the outside of a classic, recognizable and favorite toy - toys like Operation, Hungry, Hungry Hippos and Etch a Sketch.  Don’t miss the ginormous inside workings of the Etch a Sketch – very cool.  Separate from the classifications they also show the inner workings of a Jack in the Box, an animated Elmo doll and the classic 1950s robot toy – Mr. Machine.  My son loved building and experimenting with gears to make a toy ballerina spin, playing with the giant pulleys, creating and breaking circuits and just about everything else.  
This exhibit is really all for kids and they can probably spend the whole day here with out getting bored. You may need to pull them away to another part of the museum for your own sanity.

Toys: The Inside Story-Through September 18, 2010
Children’s Museum of Manhattan- 212 West 83rd Street

Curious George Saves the Day
Okay, this one isn’t new, in fact it is closing soon, but we haven’t reviewed it yet, so it is new to us. I took my 5 year old, Curious George-loving son here and he really enjoyed it.  It is a small exhibit telling the fascinating life story of Margret and H. A. Rey and how they came to create Curious George.  The whole exhibit is a delight, you enter the galleries by walking through the door of an enlarged version of the Hotel de l’Europe that looks as if it just popped out of Rey’s illustrations.  While touring the exhibit you can learn interesting tidbits about Curious George, like, why he is tail-less, how he was originally named Fifi and who inspired the Man with the Yellow Hat.  There is a tremendous amount of beautiful original artwork and manuscripts on display, some of George and some of their other characters.  My favorite part of the exhibit was the fabulous handmade holiday cards sent by the Rey’s.  The cards not only illustrate their life together but are also a fun social commentary of the times.
Kids will love the fanciful glass walled reading gallery in the center of the exhibit that makes you feel like you are underneath a fishing dock from one of their books. As you sit in the water surrounded by giant stuffed animal pillows you can read every Margret and H. A. Rey title that ever existed.  There is also an interactive timeline that kids can point and click around to learn more about the Rey’s.  I loved the exhibit; this is the George I grew up with, the monkey who went on long, rambling adventures – not the condensed into 30 minute animated series and the accompanying book monkey.  If you are worried that this could be a little too boring (just art work - nothing to touch) for your child, visit on Saturday when museum admission is free or during one the special programs like live music and art workshops scheduled to tie into the exhibit – but hurry, it closes August 1, 2010.

 
Curious George Saves the Day - through August 1, 2010
The Jewish Museum-1109 5th Ave at 92nd St

Look for more fun this summer in our Mommy Poppins Summer Fun Guide.

There is more museum fun found in our culture pages.