MoMA with kids - Tours for Fours

Henri Matisse. The Red Studio. Issy-les-Moulineaux, fall 1911. Oil on canvas, 71 1/4" x 7' 2 1/4" (181 x 219.1 cm). Mrs. Simon Guggenheim Fund

Saturday morning we tried one of the tours offered by the MoMA for young visitors - Tours for Four. They have two Family Programs: one for children aged four and another one for children between 5 and 10.

The tours are for free and they are organized by subject. The one that we went, for example, was about "places". Our guide gave us a small introduction of what we were about to see and then took us to one of the galleries in the museum to observe three different paintings. In front of each painting, she asked the same question to the kids: if we were looking at a place inside or outside. It was really interesting and funny to hear the comments.

The tours take approximately 50 minutes, which, I found, a little bit long for young children (especially for my hyperactive son). Nonetheless, it was well organized, interesting and a nice way to introduce children to art and, more importantly, to teach them how to observe and learn to interpret an art work.

P.S.: I forgot to mention that the entrance to the museum is free when you go to one of the tours and, at the end, you will receive a Family pass to come back to the MoMA with your family on another day, for free. This is pretty sweet, considering that each ticket cost US$20.