My almost 3 year old daughter loves to paint. She wants to paint every day. I feel like I am pretty indulgent usually allowing her to paint whenever she want to, however sometimes I get tired of the mess and the clean up. I have been meaning to take her to Make a Messterpiece to indulge her artistic interests and we finally made it there last week. Make a Messterpiece is located at 2050 Tower Drive in Glenview (right by the Kohl Children's Museum) and is a large art space where kids can do a variety of creative activities.
The facility is made up of several different areas or stations where the kids do specific projects. I think the specific activity at each station changes frequently. The areas include the Creative Kitchen, Experimentation Station, Lil Sprouts, Drum Roll, Bubbleology, and the Spat-tacular tables, plus there are two little play areas in the back, one with a slide and blocks and the other with baby toys. All of the stations involve a mini lesson or learning component and a short activity. In the Creative Kitchen kids participate in an edible activity. When we went recently, the activity leader discussed where worms lived and what they ate and then the kids made a "worm" snack that involved sprinkling hot chocolate mix over popcorn to create dirt and then adding a gummy worm. Maybe not as interesting for an older kid but my daughter enjoyed it - well she enjoyed eating the gummy worm anyway. There is a little cafe area in the back where the kids can eat their snack.
At the Experimentation Station, kids explore a science related topic. My daughter did not participate in this activity but, when we were there, it involved learning and experimenting with how frogs use their tongues to catch flies.
The intention of the Lil Sprouts station is to do activities that promote sustainability, recycling, environmental consciousness, that kind of thing. Based on the activities my girls did at that station the two times we've been there, I don't think that theme is strongly conveyed but the art projects are still pretty fun. When we went a year ago, my older daughter did a painting with a bean bag type thing. They dipped the bag in paint and then stood up and dropped it onto paper making a cute painting that sort of resembled flowers. When I went with my younger daughter this past week she made a spider web by rolling around black paint spots on a paper plate with a ball. Then she glued on a spider that she made from pom pom balls for the body and pipe cleaners for the legs. Both were cute projects.
Drum Roll is for a little bit older kids. It involves putting on a rain poncho and going into a room (by themselves) and pounding on paint filled drums. Neither of my girls have done this activity but it looks like it could be a lot of fun.
The Bubbleology station is included with the two preset admission packages (see below) and, I think, ended up being my younger daughter's favorite activity. If your child is participating in this activity, you are given a large piece of card stock at the admission desk. Your child places the paper under the bubble machines, pushes a button and colored bubbles come out, leaving cool patterns on the paper. When we went last year there were a bunch of stencils your child could choose from to make designs on your paper but this time we could only find a couple of stencils and no tape to hold them in place. Lots of fun for any kid who loves bubbles.
Finally, the Splat-tacular tables are a group of about three or four tables and some easels. The tables have a selection of art supplies, such as paint, stencils, glue, paper, and other items, for self directed creating. All activities at these tables are included with general admission. You can do as much art work in this area as you want but it's really nothing that you wouldn't be able to do at home. It's definitely a fun area for kids who like to create but I wouldn't bother to come just to do these tables - unless you live nearby and prefer not to have a mess at home. In other words, the best part of Make a Messterpiece are the other activities listed above, which unfortunately cost more. There is a table set up with a wide variety of wooden items, such as bird houses, flowers, and picture frames, that you can purchase and then your child can paint there.
Throughout the facility there are drying racks to store your child's creations while they dry and while your child works on other activities. Don't forget to take everything home!
There are a few different package options when you pay for admission. General admission, which is different prices depending on the age of your child, gives your kid access to the painting tables in the Splat-tacular area and both the baby and bigger kid play areas. The Messy Package for $15 allows your child to pick any two activities to do and the Messiest Package, for $22, includes 4 activities. Both packages include Bubbleology, Splat-tacular tables, and the play areas. You can also pay $5 per activity, in addition to the general admission, if the pre-set packages don't work for you or your children. I recommend paying only for general admission if you have a kid under 2, but kids older than that will probably be able to do the other activities and enjoy them. You can either choose what activities you want to do when you first come in and pay or they will let you walk around to see what the activity is at each station before you decide. Once you have decided, however, you should go back and sign up for everything you want to do because they assign you a time when you get to do each activity in order to control the number of children in any given session. If you get signed up right when you come there is usually very little wait time. When we went the first time I didn't quite understand the system so we did a bunch of painting, bubbles, playing on the slide, and my daughter's first activity before we signed up for the second one. We were going to go home after this last station and they told us the first time we could do the one she wanted to do (Experimentation Station) would be in an hour. We opted to sign her up for the Lil Sprouts activity, which only had a 20 minute wait, and she enjoyed it but it was a little disappointing not to be able to do what she wanted. Each activity is designed to last about 15 or 20 minutes and are scheduled every 20 minutes. Once you have paid, the staff will give you a large sticker with your child's name on it and a time for each of the activities that you have signed up for. At the appropriate time, you report to each station and the activity leader will check that activity off of your child's tag. Make sure you check the times right away. When we went last week we were signed up for an activity that started pretty much when we walked through the gate and I almost didn't notice.
The staff at Make a Messterpiece can be a little spotty. The activity leaders are generally really good at working with the kids and conveying the associated ideas. However the floaters, the helpers that are there to help in Bubbleology and the Splat-tacular tables, tend to be less helpful and often just missing. I feel like some of the things there are not completely intuitive and whether you are allowed to participate in certain activities. It would be nice to have more people there to provide guidance.
There is free covered parking behind the building. I have never had any trouble finding a close parking spot and there is a convenient entrance to Make a Messterpiece from the parking garage. Make sure your kids wear clothes that they can get paint on. There are full length smocks available for the kids to wear but somehow they always end up with paint on their clothes. Overall, Make a Messterpiece is a great place to go if you have a child, like my daughter, who likes to do art projects all day long.
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