The Children’s Museums in Gulfport, Jackson, and Meridian offer kids a unique experience and aim to encourage a love of learning. They also provide fun for the whole family and have special pricing for annual passes. Here is a look at these three unique Mississippi Children’s Museums.

1. Mississippi Children’s Museum, Jackson
The Mississippi Children’s Museum in Jackson is the state’s primary children’s museum. It takes fun seriously by creating unparalleled experiences to inspire excellence and a lifelong joy of learning.
Galleries include WonderBox (state-of-the-art maker space), Wild About Reading (explore the basics of reading), Healthy Fun (body systems), and Express Yourself (hands-on STEAM activities). The maker space offers a 3-D printer and pens, robotics, circuitry, and building activities.
The Mississippi Children’s Museum is also home to seasonal exhibits.
**After your museum visit, consider lunch at one of these great local Jackson restaurants.

Our favorite gallery is Exploring Mississippi, featuring a state of Mississippi climbing map. The map is designed to familiarize kids with the diversity of Mississippi’s geography and natural science, culture and history, work and leisure life, and its connections to the broader world.

Outside, explore the Literacy Garden and the new Pollinator’s Playground. Admission to the state museum will cost $10 per person for those over one year old.

2. Mississippi Children’s Museum, Meridian
Meridian is home to the newest Mississippi Children’s Museum. All exhibits at Mississippi Children’s Museum-Meridian are on one level, so your child can move freely throughout the property.
Experiences are designed around educational initiatives: STEAM, literacy, health and nutrition, and Mississippi heritage.

Inside, discover exhibits like WonderBox (state-of-the-art maker space), Fantastic Flying Books Library (based on the story by William Joyce), Wheels in Motion (railroad history of East Mississippi), and Our Lady’s Playhouse (a tribute to Meridian’s Riley Center).
Goodnight Moon, the country’s first permanent exhibit, is one that children and adults both ooh and aah over.

The Mississippi Children’s Museum Meridian has a fenced-in 25,000-square-foot whimsical outdoor space. My Fantastical Backyard houses Willy Waters (stream), Wondering Woods (travel through tunnels), Secret Seashore (sandy area), and Enchanted Garden, all based on children’s books by Edgar Parker (a Meridian native).
You may see as many adults playing in these areas as kids. They are fun for everyone!

Admission is the same as the Jackson Museum, $10 per person over one year old.
Sensory Note: This is the first museum in Mississippi to be Certified Sensory Inclusive by KultureCity. Sensory Maps and Backpacks are available.
Here are some other fun things to do in Meridian.

3. Lynn Meadows Discovery Center, Gulfport
Our favorite Mississippi children’s museum is the Lynn Meadows Discovery Center in Coastal Mississippi. It offers 15,000 square feet of indoor exhibit space, plus seven and a half acres outdoors.
The centerpiece inside is a Super Colossal Climbing Structure spanning the museum’s height, allowing children to travel from floor to floor, acting as an axis for the other exhibits.

Additional indoor exhibits include:
- Art Knows Anything Goes (art studio)
- The Dolan Avenue Depot (locomotive)
- The Little Pet Vet (veterinary office)
- History Hotel (1890’s Mississippi City hotel)
- To Market, To Market (grocery store)
- Bear Camp Bayou (only for children 4 and younger)

Outside, the oak-covered, fenced-in grounds allow your child’s imagination to run wild.
Exhibits here are Tree House Village (play on the tops of 100-year-old trees), Kids Street (learn about home construction), Bear Creek (log cabin), and On the Green (instruments planted in the ground).

The admission cost for this museum is $10 for anyone over one, but a $2 discount for military and seniors. Visit after 3 PM on weekdays and grab a $3 admission price tag or $6 on Sundays for everyone.
Know what is even better than a discount? Free! Come to the Lynn Meadows Discovery Center on the last Friday of every month for that great perk.
Sensory Note: Sensory Friendly Backpacks are available. The second Sunday of every month is Sensory Sunday from 10 AM to 12 PM.
When you have finished at the Lynn Meadows Discovery Center, here are 20+ more things to do in Coastal Mississippi.

What do you look for in a children’s museum?