I'm interested in suggestions on which Smithsonian museaum/exhibits would interest a 9 yr old the most? We only have a 1/2 day to spend at the Smithsonian and am trying to see which one or two of the approx. 15 museums/exhibits would be best.

The Smithsonian runs over 14 museums in the DC area alone. Some of these are quite fun, like the Museum of Natural History, the Museum of American History, and the Air and Space Museum. All contain interesting and useful information about their topics. The Smithsonian has taken the time to establish beautiful and informative websites about their buildings & collections. You can view them at www.si.edu.

A notable, but not Smithsonian run, museum that is not out of a 9 year old's reach would be the Holocaust Museum. It is poignant and well-designed.

It may help others if you mentioned some of your boys interests or rephrased your question to address certain museums after visiting the Smithsonian website.

dcp, it's impossible to make a recommendation without knowing a little bit about your child and his or her interests. Why not show the kid the Smithsnian web site and let them choose for themselves?

Most kids would choose Natural History or Air and Space. But just ot show you how different kids can be, my own daughter's favorite is American History and my son's favorite is Arts and Industry. Welll, his actual favorite Smithsonian place is the zoo, but technically that's not a museum.

I'd vote for the Museum of American History. It's got a couple of good hands on exhibitions for kids (science and history), the First Ladies exhibit, etc. I'd also highly recommend the Postal Museum which is very doable in half a day. Kids love it. Plenty of interactive exhibitions. We first took our daughter when she was 8 and four years later it remains her hands down favorite. It's located across from Union Station which is an easy ride on the Metro from the mall area.

I can't imagine any 9 year old boy not liking the air & space museum.

My guess for a 9 year old boy would be Air and Space and Natural History. A 9 year girl might like the Air and Space and possibly American History. It's just too hard to second guess what your child would like without knowing what his/her interests are. Looking at the web site is a good idea, however. Let the child pick their own adventure, so to speak.

One thing I found out, personally, the Museum of American History was way large. I had mapped out several areas that I personally enjoyed and visited those areas, otherwise, to view every exhibit would take a couple of days. (But then, I have a tendency to "get lost" in museums.)

I also think the Natural History museum may be a good place for a 9yo, especially if they like Dinasours and spiders and such.

My son's (age 11} favorites were the Natural History Museum and the Holocaust Museum, especially the Daniel's House section (buy the book at the museum shop} which is geared toward children.

American History and Air and Space.