Free Family Day 2025
Thursday, February 6
10 am to 5 pm
Join us to experience Chicago Children’s Museum’s returning fan-favorite exhibit, Zoom Room, on the very first day it’s open to the public! The museum will also have special programming from Chicago Children’s Theatre and a pop-up installation. Museum entry is free for all on Free Family Days!
Opening Day of Zoom Room
In Zoom Room, you’ll find…
40 tracks of every length, height, and angle
100s of toy cars to experiment with and explore
Endless opportunities to zoom, race, and crash
Be one of the first to experience this thrilling, motion-filled exhibit on its opening day! Zoom Room lets children and caregivers experience the excitement of sending toy cars through colossal, multilevel racecourses with race jumps, long runs, loops, dips, and super spirals for endless ways to play. Using die cast cars and custom-made tracks, children will get a crash course in racing, and a souped-up understanding of the physics behind things that go vrrrroooooom.
Chicago Children’s Theatre in Great Hall
From 11-11:30am, 1-1:30pm
Are you ready for an adventure? Get swept away by our friends at Chicago Children’s Theatre as they perform their interactive stage show, “The Red Kite Friendship Tour.” Appropriate for all ages and abilities!
Sound House in the 2nd Floor Lounge
From 10am-3pm
Enter our immersive Sound House pop-up installation and explore the surprising sounds that everyday objects can make!
Plan Your Visit
Advance tickets or reservations are not necessary for Free Family Days. Final admissions are allowed no later than 60 minutes before the museum closes. Find frequently asked questions and more information to help plan your visit here.
Prior Activities & Partners
On September 28, 2023 we explored the joyful and creative world of puppetry! We experienced the performance group Puppet Wonder Wagon’s stage show, created our own shadow puppets and put on a performance with the help of artist Anna Villanyi. After Free Family Day in the museum concluded, we greeted Amal, a 12-foot puppet of a 10-year-old Syrian refugee child on a 6,000-mile journey across the United States, at the “Flyboy” Sculpture.
On May 25, 2023 we explored the theatrical arts with our friends at Chicago Children’s Theatre as they performed their interactive stage show, “The Red Kite Friendship Tour.” We also experienced the joy of dramatic play through puppet-making, puppetry performance, and theatrical sensory play.
On April 27, 2023 we celebrated Earth Month by making art out of natural and recycled materials with trilingual artist Selva Aparicio, interacting with live animals from the Flying Fox Conservation Fund like Roxy the Sloth, and using our senses to engage with natural materials!
On March 30, 2023 we traveled and adventured, practiced our skateboarding stance, made and decorated fingerboards, and played in a miniature skate park with Natty Bwoy Bikes & Boards. We explored skateboarding-inspired movement and poetry with performance group, Every house has a door and held tight to a circus wheel and defied gravity with CirquesExperience.
On February 23, 2023 we danced to the melodies and rhythms of West Africa with Kolaam Dance, we moved our bodies joyfully with Black Girls Dance, and found our inner superstar with K-Pop dance from the Korean Cultural Center of Chicago.
On January 26, 2023 we explored the wonders of sound with artist, Barbara Silverman; the surprising sounds that everyday objects can make with the Chicago Children’s Museum team; the science of sound at a Curiosity Station hosted by the Museum of Science and Industry; and an “instrument petting zoo” hosted by the Old Town School of Folk Music!