Thomas and Friends Come to Life at LICM this Summer with Kids

Family fun is always plentiful at the Long Island Children's Museum in Garden City. Summer's arrival brings with it an interactive Thomas & Friends: Explore the Rails exhibit, plus some seasonal outdoor fun, making this a perfect time to revisit the local kiddie culture spot, one of our favorite Long Island museums for kids.

Read on for all the details and start planning your next LICM visit. After all, this Long Island gem checks in at No. 31 on our epic summer bucket list.

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Explore favorite Island of Sodor destinations, including Tidmouth Sheds, Brendam Docks and the Sodor Search & Rescue Station.

Thomas & Friends: Explore the Rails at Long Island Children’s Museum

The Thomas & Friends: Explore the Rails experience brings a temporary exhibit on the beloved blue engine Thomas and all his friends from the popular TV show. It is included with general admission to the museum and is in residence this summer through Sunday, September 8.

Guests can enjoy a hands-on adventure that transports kids to the Island of Sodor to explore and learn with friends Thomas, Percy, Victor, and more. Little ones can dress like a conductor, play at a ticket booth, learn time, and hop on a model of Thomas the Tank Engine. My kids could not get enough of one of the most popular parts of the exhibit: racing trains along a gigantic track. My son could have played with the trains for hours!

There are a lot of great opportunities for kids to get involved with STEM activities in this exhibit. Kids can work together on challenges using science, technology, engineering, and math skills. My kids had a blast sorting and loading cargo on their favorite engine friend. Fun with shapes, wheels, bolts, and an interactive history of Thomas & Friends section is a must-see. Cute photo opportunities are everywhere at this exhibit, so be ready to capture those smiles.

RELATED: Visiting the Long Island Children's Museum with Kids

Water play at H2Oh! encourages hand-eye coordination through pouring, squeezing, stirring, and squirting.

More Summer Fun at LICM

The fun is not over when the family heads outside the museum. My kids found the museum’s garden space, Our Backyard, to be one of their favorite parts of the day. The seasonal outdoor space offers a charming gardening section for little ones with a green thumb, a rock construction zone to dig in, a swing to relax with a book, and more.

Hot day? No problem: The H2Oh! water play area is open. The interactive water space cools kids off with lots of boat fun, waterfall walls, and a working well. The water play area has some new additions with a pipeworks station and shower. Kids can learn all about the water cycle while beating the heat. You may want to bring bathing suits for the splash zones and remember to pack the sunblock too.

Photos by the author