Kids can run their own cafe at local museum’s new exhibit

The front desk of the exhibit. | Logan Ramsey, EastIdahoNews.com POCATELLO – A local children’s museum held the grand opening of its newest exhibit, where kids can cooperatively pretend to run their own cafe and mini market. On Saturday, My World Discovery Museum held the grand opening of Glean Mini Market, a hands-on exhibit designed like a cafe. The exhibit, made in partnership with Glean Coffee, is a permanent space in the museum where kids can play collaboratively, pretending to serve each other food and beverages. “It’s really important for kids to be able to act out the things they are seeing in real life. So (they’ll be) in a coffee shop, (and) they’ll put on the apron, they’ll take the money,” Melody Daniels, executive director of My World Discovery Museum, says. “As they’re in this space, they have to be able to communicate and cooperate with the kids around them, that they may not know as well.” The exhibit can be found on the second floor of the Museum of Clean at 711 South 2nd Avenue. Both museums are in that building, where they operate as a partnership. This exhibit isn’t the first new attraction the museums have introduced in recent months. Idaho Coffee Company opened a coffee stand on the main floor of the Museum of Clean, right next to the gift shop, and My World Discovery added a new exhibit called Tree Top Tails only a few weeks ago. When the Museum of Clean still used that floor, it was a mini performance area for puppet shows. Now, it’s been transformed into a make-believe market. The Glean Mini Market exhibit was inspired by the community-minded focus of Glean Coffee itself. “What they do at the farmers market (is) they take their products and any income that they make from the farmers market … and then they donate it to a local community organization,” Daniels explained. While the exhibit will be permanent, My World Discovery will restock it with seasonal themed toys. “Headed into the winter, it will be coffee. There’s a little espresso machine, and they can make hot chocolate and coffee and prepare little sandwiches and cookies,” Daniels said. Daniels said that children who play in the Glean Mini Market exhibit learn much more than they could if they were using a screen. “Every time they go, it can be different. It’s not just going and pushing a button, and then that’s what the exhibit is,” Daniels says. “They can play a different part in that exhibit, whether they’re the ones creating the food or serving the food or taking the orders.”The post Kids can run their own cafe at local museum’s new exhibit appeared first on East Idaho News.
Source: eastidahonews.com