COVID-19 FAQs
Please visit our website at www.cmosc.org/visit. Once on the website, scroll down to the Reservations sections and click on the red button that says “Click Here for Reservations.”
When making a reservation, you should enter a number between two (2) and six (6). Please count everyone in your group, including babes in arms and infants younger than 12 months. At a minimum, your group should include two people: one adult and one child. At a maximum, reservations are limited to six (6) people.
If you want to add additional people to your reservation, you can do so using the same process as the original reservation. Simply choose the day and time required and make a reservation for the additional people. If the day and time are no longer available or you want to decrease the number of people on your reservation, please email frontdesk@cmosc.org and we will do our best to accommodate changes.
If prior to the day of your visit, you need to change the date or time on your reservation, please email frontdesk@cmosc.org and we will do our best to accommodate changes.
In order to help us meet our capacity limitations, please arrive at the Museum within the hour listed on the reservation. There is no need to arrive exactly at the beginning of the time listed. Once you are at the Museum, you may stay as long as you wish until we close at 4:00 pm.
There will be a limited number of picnic tables available for families to use during their visit. Guests must be seated at a table in order to remove masks and eat. Food and drinks will not be allowed in the exhibit areas.
The Children’s Museum is excited and hopeful for the future. Our plans for the expansion of the Children’s Museum are moving forward as scheduled, including the completion of the Space Odyssey for Galactic Explorers, and the design and building of a new outdoor exhibit called FortFAM, an adventure area will have construction tools to build forts, spaces to hide, and things to investigate.
Your support is more vital now than ever. Please help us continue our mission to inspire curiosity and creativity through joyful, transformative experiences by donating today.
Yes, donations are tax-deductible in the United States. The Children’s Museum is a registered 501(c)(3), and our U.S. federal EIN is 20-3496878.
No. Only donations specifically marked for COVID-19 relief at point of donation will be designated for emergency relief funding due to the impact of COVID-19. Donations marked for annual giving, programs, or capital (or those donations marked “undesignated”) will not be used in emergency relief efforts.
When we reopen, we will be on the front lines of helping children and families cope with the trauma they have experienced by providing opportunities to play through their experiences. Until we reopen, resources and activities will be updated regularly.
General FAQs
The Children’s Museum reopens to the public on April 30, 2021
OPEN
• Friday – Monday: 9am – 4pm
CLOSED
• Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays
• Holiday Closures: New Year’s Day, Easter, July 4th, Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Eve Day, Christmas Day
• Annual maintenance closure (see calendar for dates)
The Children’s Museum has limited parking. On busy days it can fill up quickly. Please only park in our parking lot or on the public streets.
Please do not park in the Charles M. Schulz Museum or Snoopy’s Home Ice parking lots.
Yes, the Children’s Museum is accessible through the Santa Rosa City Bus Route 11. The bus stops directly in front of the Children’s Museum.
• Adults & Children: $12
• Babies 0 – 11 months: FREE
• Members: FREE
• For information on discounts, see the Visit page
During a visit to the Children’s Museum, adults are invited to explore the exhibits together with their little ones. As a not-for-profit organization that subsidizes each entrance, we count on admission dollars to keep the Children’s Museum open.
The Museum does not have free days.
The Children’s Museum does not turn away visitors due to lack of funds. Families are welcome to visit the museum on a pay-what-you-can basis. To participate, tell the front desk staff that you wish to enter under the open door policy.
For safety reasons, adults not accompanied by a child are not allowed in to the Museum unless they have arranged an appointment or tour. Please contact us by phone or email (info@cmosc.org) if you would like a tour.
The Museum is designed for children ages 0 – 10.
Yes, we require 1 adult for every 4 children visiting the Children’s Museum.
The Children’s Museum offers a variety of self-directed, interactive experiences that encourage exploration, experimentation, and discovery. Let the Science & Imagination Gallery fuel your imagination: produce a box office hit in the puppet theatre or play a 3-star menu in the retro diner. Outside, explore Mary’s Garden, take flight in the winged Ornithopter, find fish in the Russian River, or build waterways in the Sonoma Coastline gravel area.
Yes. Events are listed on the Calendar and on the Events page.
Totopia is a multi-sensory experience designed for infants and toddlers only. This exhibit offers crawlers, early walkers, and toddlers a safe and stimulating environment to explore. If you have older children, we recommend bringing another adult to supervise them in the other areas of the Children’s Museum, while you enjoy this space with your wee one.
We encourage all of our visitors to interact and engage with each other and their children. Even if your child is being supervised by other grown-ups, we ask visitors to save their work for another time. Limited space at shared tables also makes laptop use and other similar work an activity best saved for another time and place.
Yes, groups are required to make a reservation ahead of time to receive group rates.
Unregistered groups will be expected to pay full price, and may be turned away at the door due to capacity limits.
Please see the Group Visits page under Visit for more information.
We love to have children visit the Children’s Museum on their birthday! For the comfort of all our visitors, the Children’s Museum cannot accommodate unscheduled parties at our picnic tables. Please see the Birthday Parties page to book your celebration.
Strollers are allowed in Mary’s Garden only. Stroller parking is available at the entrance to the garden.
We offer healthy snacks for sell in our Gift Corner.
There are a number of outdoor picnic tables in Mary’s Garden. Food is not allowed in any of our exhibit areas. Please enjoy all food at our picnic tables only.
Picnic tables are for family dining only and are expected to be shared. Staff may ask families to give up their table after 30 minutes of use if there are others waiting to find seating. Tables cannot be reserved or saved, and birthday parties in the picnic area are not permitted.
Open cubbies are available in the lobby on a first-come, first-served basis. Please do not leave valuables in the cubbies.
No; adult supervision is required for all children at all times.
Yes! Inform the front desk on your way out and you will receive a return sticker.
For information on volunteering and to apply to volunteer, please see the Volunteer page under Give.
The Children’s Museum has a limited number of noise-reducing headphones available to borrow when you ask at the front desk.
The Children’s Museum does not currently have specific nursing areas of the Museum, however we do have a comfy couch in the Family Resource Center (located in the Science & Imagination Gallery), as well as benches and picnic tables in shady areas.
No. For safety reasons, shoes must be worn at all times and in all areas except Totopia.
The water in the Mini Russian River exhibit is not treated with chemicals. Only UV filtration systems are utilized to allow fish and frogs to share the river as it filters into the wetlands area. Putting feet in the river adds germs and pollutants which make the water dirty and unfit for play and creature habitats.
The Loving Ella Foundation generously donated funding to create Ella’s Art studio in memory of Ella Bisbee, a very young artist from Sonoma County.
