Mangrove Manor brings Florida ecosystem to life at Schoolhouse Children’s Museum

Mangrove Manor at the Schoolhouse Children's Museum in Boynton Beach. [Photo by Schoolhouse Children's Museum]

Children can crawl through the mouth of a giant alligator, search for hidden wildlife and explore the twisting roots of a mangrove forest at the Schoolhouse Children’s Museum’s newest permanent exhibit.

Mangrove Manor, now open at the downtown Boynton Beach museum, uses imaginative, hands-on play to introduce children to one of Florida’s most important ecosystems.

“The more of a connection that children have with their environment, the more they care about it for long-term conservation and just caring about the land that we live on,” museum Executive Director Miriam Naranjo says.

The two-level exhibit begins among the roots of a mangrove, where children can crawl through the space and peek through a window to see fish, alligators and manatees. A nook stocked with books about mangroves gives children and parents a place to read together.

Visitors can climb or take steps to the second level, look down into the play area and return to the first level on a slide. Hidden creatures throughout the exhibit create a seek-and-find activity featuring animals such as a mudskipper and an alligator.

The exhibit also includes a small rowboat, plush versions of native animals and an interactive feature showing how mangrove propagules — seedlings that develop while attached to the parent tree — drop and grow.

A mural depicts the habitat and its wildlife. 

Naranjo hopes the experience helps children understand how many animals depend on mangroves and inspires families to visit a real mangrove forest.

“They could listen to the birds chirping, and they could look out for the alligators and the manatees and the wildlife there,” she says.

Mangrove Manor was made possible by a grant from Impact 100 Palm Beach County. Naranjo says it is the museum’s largest exhibit overhaul since its opening in 2001.

The exhibit reflects the museum’s emphasis on learning through play. Naranjo says children’s museums are sometimes viewed simply as indoor playgrounds, but their interactive environments provide meaningful early-learning experiences.

“It’s through experiences like this, where they can feel safe exploring our exhibits and crawling through our spaces and touching different things, where they really learn and where we really see that love of learning,” she says.

The Schoolhouse Children’s Museum, designed for children through age 8, also offers literacy, movement, music and art programs. It is in a historic 1913 school building at 129 E. Ocean Ave.

The museum is open Tuesday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.