Chesapeake Childrens Museum Inc

CCM’s story begins with a meeting on June 28, 1992.  About 20 people responded to a request in the Capital newspaper and Chesapeake Family magazine to help create a children’s museum in the Annapolis area.  Over the following two years we planned hands-on activities for about 20 community events, including the Kunta Kinte Festival of African Heritage and the Earth Day Celebration at Quiet Waters Park. 

In the summer of 1994 CCM was invited to set up hands-on exhibits at Odenton Elementary School for six weeks. Our time in Odenton was followed by a 5 ½ year stay at the Festival at Riva Road Shopping Center.  The timing was perfect for inheriting some of the beloved exhibit pieces from the Baltimore Children’s Museum as they began their transformation into Port Discovery.  Yet another generation has been able to view costumed reflections in the decorated stand-up mirror and sail the seven seas on the tugboat.  We built a sturdy dock to go alongside the boat.  Theatrical costumes, fire fighter outfits, and other dress-ups have been donated to support years of make-believe. 

When the shopping center became fully leased in 2000, we found temporary homes at the Eastport Shopping Center, then Eastport Elementary School.  The next move required two years of planning, fundraising, and volunteer efforts to arrange for and renovate our permanent residence at the city-owned WYRE Radio Station building in the Spa Creek Conservancy Park.  We were able to sustain our outreach activities, bringing live animals, international folk dancing, craft activities, and storytelling to schools, scout meetings, and community festivals while the work progressed.  CCM re-opened November 16, 2002 at 25 Silopanna Road (that’s Annapolis spelled backwards).  Here we have 5 ¼ acres of woodlands, wetlands, and creek shoreline for our visitors to enjoy.  A popular CCM program takes visitors back in time and through the woods after dark as they imagine they are runaways being led by Harriet Tubman on the Underground Railroad.

Improvements to the facilities and grounds continue.  We are currently fundraising to add more classroom space – a back porch covered by a nature observation deck, and a multi-purpose room for cooking and crafts activities – so that school visits to CCM can accommodate 120 students in all weather.   We are also endeavoring to re-design the parking lot with pervious material to be more environmentally friendly and to have a bus turn-around to accommodate the larger school groups.  We would like to add new playground equipment to the park, keeping in mind the diverse physical attributes of our visitors of all ages.

We pay particular attention to the developmental aspect of childhood.  There are key skills and interests for infants, for toddlers, for preschoolers, for early and late elementary students, and for middle school and high school youth.  We aim to augment the learning that takes place in school with activities that are more hands-on, open-ended, and socially interactive.   Exhibit areas and program components are planned with different age levels in mind, from infancy to teens, although the primary age range of our visitors is one to five years.   

Early childhood is a precious time.  As the brain is developing, a child’s experiences are encoded along neural pathways to create the skills, foundational knowledge, attitudes, and behavior patterns that will be at the core of who this person becomes.   To this end, we support parents and other caregivers and teachers of young children to maximize the positive effect these important people can have on their children’s futures.

CCM provides a unique atmosphere for children to discover and explore their world through direct experience.  Exhibits emphasize real object manipulation, multi-sensory learning, creative problem solving, and interpersonal interaction.  A highlight for many visitors is to touch some of our animals – a corn snake, a domestic rabbit, a red-eared slider turtle, and others.  Our programs cover an ever-expanding range of topics in the arts, sciences, and humanities. “De-construction” fits children with safety goggles and hand tools to take apart (non-working) appliances to find moving parts inside.  They go on a Movement Scavenger Hunt around the building to find examples of such movements as: swivel, slide, and dangle.  Lastly, they use cardboard and other on-hand materials to construct a model for a machine of their own invention.   Often, our activities incorporate intergenerational connections so that adults can impart wisdom and encouragement to the young and children can engage their grown-ups in the ageless joy of play.