If you're looking to beat the heat with indoor play or enjoy an afternoon exploring how the world works with your littles, Scott Family Amazeum in Bentonville is a great place to start! It's a children's museum filled with imaginative playscapes indoors--and out.
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What to Expect
The Amazeum is a children's museum designed to bring educational learning and the fun of play together to inspire little minds to fall in love with science, math, technology, art, and engineering.
The Scott Family Amazeum is an ASTM and ACM reciprocal membership participant. If you have a membership to a participating children's museum, you can use your membership for discounted or free entry.
The facility is mostly indoors with some outdoor attractions on weather-appropriate days. There is a mix of facilitated learning opportunities and free play exhibits to keep kids entertained. With that being said, the museum is largely designed for kids under 10 years old.
Older kids might find some select opportunities in the workshops and engineering lab, but I find that the desire to play has a certain 'little kid' demographic. Also, the Amazeum is incredibly accessible to all abilities. They even have designated sensory-friendly events.
Know Before You Go: The Exhibits
There's a lot to do at the Scott Family Amazeum in Bentonville, Arkansas. Before you go, take a look at what this spectacular children's museum has to offer.
Hershey's Lab
America's favorite chocolate brand, Hershey's, sponsors a science lab where kids of all ages can bring their sweet tooth and explore the wonderful world of science with hands-on experiments.
This exhibit requires admission tickets (in addition to general admission to the museum). Tickets for the Hershey's Lab are available on a first-come basis. You cannot reserve lab tickets in advance, so if this is an activity that you can't miss, we recommend arriving early.
The lab offers a dozen different chocolate-based experiments, like candy chemistry and the science of sweet that are self-guided and offered on a rotating basis.
We're chocolate lovers so we rate this experience a solid 4-stars!
Art Studio
The art studio is the perfect place to unleash a little creativity. They have all the supplies, including smocks and water-based paint for a contained mess approach to letting little hands go wild with paint.
As a budding artist, the art studio is a favorite stop for us.
3M Tinkering Hub
If you're visiting with kids that are a little older and underwhelmed by the imaginative play opportunities at the Amazeum, there is a whole world of STEAM activities available inside the 3M Tinkering Hub. This special area of the museum is open during designated times for facilitated learning activities so call ahead to find the best time to come.
Nickelodeon Gallery
Bring animated fun to life and learn how cartoons are made in the Nickelodeon Gallery at the Scott Family Amazeum. Your kids will love seeing their favorite characters as they learn about the art of animation.
Extend the learn + play experience with more educational fun with game-based learning at Nickelodeon Games.
Eric + Elda Scott Cloud Theater
The cloud theater is a quiet, reflective space full of wonder and awe. Calming music, peaceful time-lapse visuals of clouds, and a secluded space make it a perfect place to take a break from the hustle and bustle found in other areas of the Amazeum.
General Mills Lift, Load + Haul
For kids the like the big rigs or who just like to see the sights from a different height, General Mills has sponsored a logistics-themed playscape that features a semi-truck cab, mezzanine, and a lift, load, and haul simulated play experience.
Walmart Market
Bentonville, Arkansas, is the home of mega-retailer, Walmart. Naturally, this retailer sponsors a market-style playscape where kiddos can shop for groceries, buy flowers, and prepare and serve 'meals' at a deli counter.
We give the market playscape five stars all the way!
Weather + Nature
Learn about the weather with a touchable tornado or a topographic sandbox. Then, climb your way to a watchtower to get a new perspective on weather and nature at the Scott Family Amazeum in Bentonville, Arkansas.
Homestead Cabin
The homestead cabin is another favorite of ours. It's a life-sized look at primitive life in a one-room cabin with a bed and simple furnishings, baby doll and bassinet, an orchard of apple trees and cow to milk.
Nature Valley Water Amazement
The water area lets kids learn about hydropower while splashing, dumping, and pouring their way around a mega-sized water table.
Toddler Areas
Find age-appropriate themed play opportunities in an area reserved just for the littlest of friends in the Emerging Explorers play area filled with shapes, colors, light, and sound. Then, take your play to a new level at Studio Grow, another area designed just for toddlers. Both of these exhibits are too young for us, but we always see families enjoying them!
Canopy Climber
The Amazeum also has plenty of opportunities for active play. We're not big on climbing or heights, but the kids who are love the canopy climber and outdoor play structures at the Amazeum.
Cave
The Ozarks region has no shortage of underground caves. But many of them are too scary for little ones. At the children's museum, you will find a play cave designed to mimic the geological wonders of the Ozarks while ensuring the safety of little explorers.
Final Tips for Planning your Ozarks Trip to the Scott Family Amazeum
As members, we've been to the Scott Family Amazeum (and many other ASTM museums) many times. We tend to spend about 1-2 hours there each time. However, don't expect to sit quietly while your kids play. It's a high-sensory experience with a lot to do and see.
They will spend most of the time fluttering around like little whimsical butterflies spending a few minutes at each attraction before moving on and coming back. It might be best if you let go of any idea that you might explore the museum in any sort of organized fashion!
Buy tickets or get a membership today! The Scott Family Amazeum is a budget-friendly attraction. Kids 2&U are free while general admission for a daily ticket is currently $11 and annual memberships start at $105 for a family of four.