In full disclosure, Mommy University was provided with free passes to World of Wings in exchange for our honest review. World of Wings is now closed permanently.
After a recent visit to World of Wings (WOW) with Mommy University, we were impressed with the educational, physical and artistic opportunities that can be explored. In “Explore, Discover, Learn and Play at World of Wings”, we discussed several educational benefits of visiting WOW. In this article, we will explore in further detail five areas in WOW that we really loved. We spent most of a Sunday in September walking through this large facility and while we are featuring five spaces in this post it is safe to say there are plenty more that we can talk about.
Mommy University explores 5 Cool Spaces at World of Wings
The Butterfly Atrium
At the center of WOW, is the amazing Butterfly Atrium. This humid area is the perfect environment for the butterflies to thrive. It is also a great space for curious little minds to intake lots of information. While you can walk into the Atrium at any time during your visit to WOW, the best time we felt was during the butterfly release. At 12pm, you can gather around the WOW ambassador who provides an informative talk about the development of butterflies, how to interact with them, and our favorite moment, the actual release. The butterflies are delicately picked up by their wings and it is absolute fun to see if a butterfly will land on someone. For our visit, an owl butterfly landed right on someone’s head!
The different species of butterflies are great for children to observe.
Exhibit Area
The first area to the left of the reception center is dedicated to various animals. Children are enthralled with the various animals and the colorful displays. The diversity of creatures will keep them in this area a good length of time. From lizards to snakes to frogs, the list is long of what the kids can observe. Watching animals introduces children to nature and scientific concepts as well as artistic patterns. Based on their age, you can read the names of the animals or have your children read them out loud. You can also talk about the reasons that animals have different physical characteristics and how unique features each animal has helps them to survive in nature. From an art perspective, you can discuss the patterns that they see on the animal’s skin or fur, and if they are older, you can discuss how these patterns also appear in fashion or design elements.
There are so many great creatures to see up close at WOW.
Mess Around Room
On the second floor there is a room dedicated solely to building toys. How cool is that? There is a variety of toys to play with; however our children’s favorite were the bright colored fabric building toys. The oversized soft block toys are great for stimulating creativity. If your child is young, help them build towers or bridges and watch them as they knock them down laughing the entire time. If your children are a little older, they will enjoy making their own creations independently. The simple shapes enable children to imagine more than what is there. Instead of seeing three blocks, children see a castle. An additional reason that we really enjoyed these blocks is that children will have to use their motor and visual spatial skills to build their creations.
This is a great space for kids to build their own fort.
Make Your Own Giant Bubbles Room
This room allows children, big and small, to create giant bubbles! While your child is having a great time mastering how to make enormous bubbles, rest easy because they are developing their fine and gross motor skills as they maneuver the wands and test out various physical techniques to perfect their bubbles. Children will improve their visual tracking skills as they watch the bubbles move and then pop! There are also opportunities for sensory processing to take place as their hands become wet with the slightly slimy liquid. Over sized wands can be dipped in the several tables available in this area, and while this is simple in design and concept, the toddlers could have spent hours playing in this one area.
Go Car Rides
Since most of the areas I covered primarily focused on mental stimulation, I am the mom of a three year old boy which means that there needs to be a lot of physical activity as well. WOW offers several options and since Jessica touched on a couple in her preceding article “Explore, Discover, Learn and Play at World of Wings”, I wanted to highlight the Go Car Rides area. This large room contains several Cozy Coupes and Didicars. The purpose of this room? Children can push their feet and go for a ride. This is a great area to burn that extra energy while also developing their gross motor skills.
Although, we featured five areas and their educational benefits at WOW, there are so many others that your family will enjoy exploring. We spent a significant amount of the day exploring WOW, and I still don’t think we saw everything that is made available to families. We hope that our reviews have provided additional insight into the various opportunities present at World of Wings.
For more information and ticket information, please visit the World of Wings website.