ABSTRACT
It has become more and more important to observation and study children and families’ behaviors in children's museums. With a special focus on physical and social interactions, this chapter presents observation findings of the background features of visitor families and schools as well as their behavior characteristics, with the CNCC Lao Niu Children's Discovery Museum and Hohhot Children's Discovery Museum being the major two cases. The visitors are highly local. About one-third of the children visit the museums with both parents and the ideal visit frequency is about once in two or more weeks for parents, although children desire a higher frequency. About one-third of the observed families had tried to register for art studio activities for their children. The activities in the the children's museums for school groups can be structured or unstructured, depending on the request. The average level of exploratory behavior for the observed children is at medium level, on average 1.983 on a scale of 1–3, and the level of exploration is statistically significantly higher for older children, children who entered the museum with a higher mood, and more frequency visitors.
