Children's Museum of Illinois inspires minds both young and old

DECATUR, Ill. (WAND) — The roar of children playing may sound like chaos, but at the Children's Museum of Illinois, it's much more than that.

"This is just a magical space," said Jayson Albright, the museum's vice president of "creative and cheer." "This is a facility that was built for play and built for imagination and built for learning."

Inside the museum's "Ready. Set. Build!" exhibit, June Swengel is building something. Piece by piece, the 9-year-old is learning problem solving — with a bit of structural engineering tossed in for good measure. Each giant plastic building block gives June and her friends a hands-on lesson.

"This is a place where kids do play but in doing so, they learn," Albright said. "When we can tap into the adults learning and playing with them too, that is really the definition of magic."

This "magic" teaches kids — and adults — something new each trip with topics ranging from science and engineering to law enforcement procedures.

"You'd be surprised how many adults you find losing track of their kids because they got sucked into an exhibit having too much for," said operations manager Isaac Cothern. "It happens a lot actually."

The museum is never a finished product. New exhibits come and go frequently, giving June and her friends a new world to explore each visit.

"You always find something new here," she said. "You can always learn something new, no matter what."

For more information on the Children's Museum of Illinois, click here.