'Hands-On' experience Museum taking shape for children

With plenty of sunshine and practically limitless opportunities to play outside, it's good to be a kid during summer in the Flathead Valley. And it's getting even better as a local children's museum begins to take shape.

It was the Flathead's typical rainy June weather that inspired Courtney Rudbach to consider starting a local children's museum.

"Really, it rains here a lot," she said. "And a major indoor activity is McDonald's, and you can only do that so much in your lifetime."

Besides, she added, "anybody who's been to a children's museum loves them."

As a rule, Rudbach said, parents tend to know what a children's museum is, while those without children need a little clarification.

"The gist of a children's museum is it's a place for children and adults to explore together," she said. "It's all hands-on activities."

CHILDREN INTERACT with different exhibits, which expose them to arts, science and culture. One station may feature games or musical instruments from another culture; another might allow youngsters to dress up in costumes to help them role-play different careers.

Rudbach and several other parents and interested community members set out to start a museum in Kalispell in January 2006. Over the last year and a half, the idea has taken shape, and the museum - dubbed the Hands On Place - is well on its way to becoming reality.

About 40 children got a taste of what the museum will be like during a recent story hour at the Flathead County Library in Kalispell. Rudbach asked the group of squirming children if they had ever visited a museum while on vacation. A few had visited children's museums in other states; others' museum experiences were limited to "the dinosaur place" (Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman) and "the one across the street" (the Hockaday Museum of Art).

"At the art museum, have your parents ever said, 'Put your hands in your pockets! Don't touch anything!'" Rudbach asked.

A few children nodded. Several mothers exchanged rueful smiles.

That's because "grown-up museums" have valuable art that might be damaged if it's touched, Rudbach explained.

"But at a children's museum, you can touch anything," she said. "In fact, if you went to a children's museum and didn't touch anything, it'd be like you didn't even go.

"How would you like a museum like that in Kalispell?"

The children yelled enthusiastically and Rudbach grinned. Then she divided them into groups: ages 4 and younger stayed in the library's children's section, while the older children trooped downstairs to the basement.

Downstairs, they explored several stations using various senses.

They squeezed plastic bottles to release a scent and tried to guess what was inside. A few were nice - "Vanilla! This one's vanilla!" - but others weren't nice at all.

"Ew," a woman said, wrinkling her nose as her son waved a bottle under her nose. "This one's gross."

At another station, children looked through various lenses to see how other creatures view the world.

"You look really weird," one boy told his friend, his face huge and distorted through the plastic sheet.

Another child looked at his grandmother through a compound lens. Several eyes blinked at her when she explained, "That's how a bug would see you. There's so many of you."

Other kids crowded around a table to make their own egg-carton caterpillars with fuzzy pipe-cleaner legs and shiny sequin eyes. Still others shook small wrapped boxes, listening carefully to figure out what was hidden inside.

Upstairs, babies explored various textures by crawling on a "sensory rug." Older children rummaged through a tub of uncooked rice to find treasures - small cars, toy dinosaurs and animal figurines.

The wisdom behind using rice rather than sand became clear when a little girl with a few white grains stuck to her lips offered a handful to another child.

"No, don't feed it to her," her mother said, wiping the damp, sticky rice off her daughter's face and fingers.

A few feet away, other children played with lettered blocks piled in a plastic pool. Some, too young to read, simply stacked them into towers. Others dug through the pool to find the letters they needed to spell their names.

"PEOPLE REPORTED it was exciting, a lot of fun, something different," Rudbach said afterward. "There's a lot of positive support for it."

That's been important, she added, because as a 501 c-3 nonprofit, the Hands On Place is based entirely on volunteer effort. So far, she said, the effort has been great.

"Volunteers who have been part of other children's museums … come in with great ideas," she said. But "we always, always, always need support and new and exciting people to come in and help with this, because it just breathes new life into the project."

The Hands On Place has also had support from other children's museums across Montana and the Northwest. One of the first museums Rudbach met with, Mobius in Spokane, gave her several ideas for crafts, exhibits and fundraising.

"It seems people who are in this want it for the good of all kids. They want other children's museums to start," she said. "It's kind of a thing that's catching on."

Currently, the Hands On Place does not have a permanent home. Rudbach and other members of the board of directors are searching for a building, however.

"It's all a dream right now," she said.

Until the dream is realized, children of all ages can experience the museum at different events this summer. The Hands On Place will be at the library's Whitefish branch in July and the Columbia Falls branch in August. It also will have activities available during Arts in the Park at Depot Park.

"It doesn't matter if you're 9 months or 90 years old - you're going to learn something when you go there," she said. "That's the passion of learning that we hope to instill."

For more information, call Rudbach at 756-7691.

Reporter Kristi Albertson may be reached at 758-4438 or by e-mail at kalbertson@dailyinterlake.com