Pint size fun

It is always easy to spot the adults who are heading for the Children's Museum in Boston. They are the ones being dragged. On this particular part of Museum Wharf, even shy children take charge, steaming along in front of their attached adults like little tugboats, determined to reach their favourite institution in record time. The giant milk bottle outside the renovated warehouse is their beacon. It is also a reminder to adults of the adjustments they are required to make when they enter a museum that is pint-sized in the truest - and best - sense of the word.

Established in 1913 by a group of teachers in the gritty Boston district of Jamaica Plain, the Children's Museum moved to its present location in 1979, expanding its original aim of advancing science education.

"We want children to grow up feeling secure and self-confident with respect for others and the natural world," its mission statement now reads. "We encourage imagination, curiosity, questioning and realism. Central to our philosophy is the belief that real objects, direct experiences and enjoyment support learning." In other words, learning should be fun. And while educators debate that philosophy, the museum gets on with demonstrating that it works - at least in the case of its miniature visitors.

Those with "issues around ageing," as the therapeutic professions term it, should think twice before visiting the Grandparents' House 1959 exhibit, which makes it official: your youth is now museum-piece.

Here children can watch black and white television, listen to your favourite songs, play with your favourite toys and sample your favourite childhood food while you weep silently in the corner. Far less traumatic is the Boats Afloat exhibit, an 800-gallon water tank replicating the Fort Point Channel scene outside the museum's window where children can make, float and, best of all, sink a variety of craft or don foul weather gear and climb aboard the life-sized "Minnow".

Budding corporate types may prefer the Giant's Desktop where they can slide down the receiver of a telephone, play hide and seek in a coffee mug and hide behind a giant pair of sunglasses. And if you notice such high jinks making some executive fathers distinctly envious, just wait until you reach the Build It! exhibit - complete with earth-moving equipment, tool belts, hard hats and similar manly paraphenalia.

Having pioneered the concept of interactive exhibitions, the Children's Museum has been replicated worldwide. With the recent opening of Kidport at Boston's Logan Airport, an exhibition and retail space that features airplane climbing and a baggage claim slide, it also became the first children's museum in the US to establish a presence where travelharried parents most appreciate it.