How to Turn the Louvre into a Playground for Your Five-Year-Old!

August 28, 2020

I have stated in previous posts that I started this incredible journey with my grandchildren when the oldest two turned five. I have three grandsons and one granddaughter, easily grouped into sets of two: Jackson and Wyatt are twin boys and the two younger ones, Parker and Ella, are cousins, only a few months apart in age. The twins will soon be twelve, Parker just turned nine and Ella will be nine in the spring.

These four young American children truly believe that Paris is a magical fantasyland, and they think of the Louvre – the largest, most visited art museum in the world – as a playground for kids. That was by design, not by chance. And I don’t think that will ever change for them, at any age. They love to find new museums to explore. As I mentioned in my June 24, 2020, blog, they begged to visit the Pablo Picasso museum during our January 2020 trip to Paris. I think I’ve done my job!

You might be wondering how this is possible. These are pretty normal kids who love sports, play video games as much as their parents allow, and wrestle with each other nonstop. How did they come to love art museums?

We prepare for each museum visit.

And I emphasize the “we.” Obviously they need help to prepare and explore, but it is important that they fully participate and share their ideas and preferences. Here are my basic pre-travel planning goals.

1. Pique their interest in the museum
2. Discover what catches their attention about the museum
3. Create anticipation for the visit

You can commit as much or as little time as you have available to achieve these goals. But these will make a difference in how much the children enjoy the visit.

When the boys were five, we started planning our first visit to the Louvre. I must admit, I was a little anxious about taking Jackson and Wyatt that first time. This was the Louvre! I knew how huge it was. I knew how overwhelming it could be for adults. I knew how much time I had spent each time I visited. I certainly hoped that I was going to be able to capture their interest and make the visit fun and memorable.

We succeeded. In fact, I had to beg them to leave after five hours so we wouldn’t miss the next stop on our itinerary. REALLY!

The first point in my strategy is:  Make it a game and keep it simple.

The second point in my strategy is:  Include kid-friendly food.

For my first trip with these two five-year-olds, I found help in two forms. And both are available to you as well.

1. Kids Books Offer Amazing Information

Children’s books offer so much information about the world and in a language, style and format that captivate five to nine-year-olds. I was able to use the children’s picture book, Babar’s Museum of Art to pique the boys’ interest in the Louvre. The book was written by Laurent de Brunhoff and published in 2003 by Harry N Abrams, Inc., New York. I have the French edition, which was published by Hachette Livre in 2004.

I already had this book at my house, so it was serendipitous that it would provide such help in planning our trip. It can be purchased for between $15 and $20 in many bookstores.

Even better, the book starts out with some great advice from Queen Celeste when the children asked how they should act at a museum. She said, “Look, don’t touch. And tell me what you see.” The conversation among the children in the book helped my four open their eyes and think about the paintings. For example, the two little girls each liked a painting of a princess. One preferred a painting with the princess surrounded by her family. The other preferred a painting where the princess had the painting all to herself and three cats.

Celeste also offered great advice to the other adults in the story when she said, “Hush, Cornelius, let them have some fun. They have lots of time to understand that (the artist’s meaning in the painting) later.” So the children started out just looking and interpreting the art through their five-year-old eyes. And laughing at the elephants!

Because I knew not all the art represented in the Babar book was housed in the Louvre, it helped me a lot that the list of the original works is included in the back of the book. I could look up the paintings and see which ones were in the Louvre. The boys each picked a couple paintings and sculptures that caught their attention.

And we went to the Louvre’s website, which is available in English, to find the original paintings and compared them to the Babar versions. I also helped them look up the most visited works of art in the Louvre, and we wondered what they would like with elephants. The boys were hooked. This was fun.

Then they selected five favorites each that they hoped they would see when we went to the Louvre.

2. A Treasure Hunt Tour Guide

As I searched for other ideas to help make the Louvre more engaging for the five-year-old boys, I found a fabulous website. It offers organized treasure hunts for visiting several museums in Paris and London (and a “coming soon” option in Florence). Click on this link to visit the website, https://thatmuse.com.  Select the museum you are planning to visit, and you will see some choices of themes for your visit.

We chose the “Beauty and the Bestiary” theme, since this included imaginary creatures such as unicorns, griffins & dragons, Egyptian sphinxes, Roman satyrs, Greek Centaurs, as well as the Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo and Nike of Samothrace. That covered most of the boys’ top picks.

I purchased the guide package for about $30. It was free for the boys, who were only five (otherwise it would be about $30 for each person), but I purchased an additional kids pack for them. The treasure hunt package did NOT include a personal guide for the tour. Our THATMuse rep met us just inside the museum and showed us how to do the treasure hunt. She gave us the hunt packs, which included the hunt list, map, pencils and answer sheets (in sealed envelopes). I chose NOT to join other groups to make it a competition, since the boys were so young. So we were on our own once our rep left us, and we were able to hunt as long as we wanted to.

The packet included a map of the Louvre, showing where the treasures would be located. The hunt information showed a photo of the artwork we needed to find, and a description of it, as well as an indication of the specific collection it belonged to. We split the list in two and each child added one of their favorites to the hunt. That made it a competition between the two of them. And the winner would be awarded an extra 5 Euros in the gift shop.

The boys needed me to read the map, but once we got to the appropriate collection area, they were off to find the hunted treasure. It was amazing to watch them. They studied the paintings and sculptures, looking for the one in the hunt. They were totally engaged.

The most fun idea we took away from the treasure hunt was to act out something from the masterpieces. The treasure hunt directions included taking a picture of someone in the group acting out a specific image from the work of art. See our photos below…. Some are from Jackson and Wyatt’s trip. Some are from Parker and Ella’s trip when they turned five. They loved doing this. A bonus of this activity is that it really has helped them remember details about these masterpieces at the Louvre.

The Food Break

After a couple hours, I was wearing out! So I knew they would soon need a break. Pastries, anyone?  Of course. We made a quick stop at the fast and easy café in the Louvre. It’s always exciting to pick a tempting pastry from the case in Paris. Add an Orangina to drink and a favorite Paris sandwich – ham and cheese on a baguette – and we had two happy and recharged boys. Oh, and a café crème revived me.

We downed it all quickly, because they still had several items in the hunt that they had not yet found! And they were determined to win the game.

Proof it was Fun!

Here’s the funniest story to come out of this treasure hunt at the Louvre.

We had found all but one painting. Wyatt had added Raphael’s Saint George and the Dragon to his list. And we couldn’t find it. I asked the docent in the wing where I thought it was. We went back down to the main information desk. I asked another docent. I pride myself on being able to get around the Louvre after so many visits, but we never found Saint George.

Wyatt finally agreed we could give up; Jackson would win the hunt.

We went down to the gift shop. Jackson was scouring the possibilities for his souvenir when he happened onto the postcard selections. All of a sudden, he waved us over to show Wyatt that he found the postcard of Saint George and the Dragon. He was right. I turned the card over and saw where it was located. I asked Wyatt if he wanted to go back and find it. His response, “Nope, I’m good. I have the postcard.”

We still laugh about this today! Don’t let yourself believe these young children won’t remember their trip! There’s your proof!

So, yes, a five-year-old can fall in love with the Louvre, or any other museum you want to visit. We met my three pre-travel goals.

• Babar piqued their interest in the Louvre
• They chose their favorite pieces of art in the museum
• They couldn’t wait to do the treasure hunt in the Louvre

In my next post, I’ll share another fun museum visit with a little older Jackson and Parker.