ERICH SCHLEGEL/DMN

The Austin Children’s Museum caters to the 12-and-younger crowd.

AUSTIN – Leo Tolstoy once said that all happy families look alike, which is also something that can be said about most children's museums. There are the obligatory, though wonderful, hands-on activities and crafts, the puzzles, the computers, the magnifying glasses and the bubble-making machines.

And then there's the Austin Children's Museum.

What makes this place stand out is its embrace and incorporation of Texas culture. You can see the Capitol not far from the site and a model of it within the museum as part of an exhibit that challenges kids to find various geometric shapes in that model. Austin is home to the Austin City Limits music program, (so the Austin Children's Museum, working in cooperation with Austin City Limits producers, offers Austin Kiddie Limits, where children select music (from the likes of Willie Nelson, Lyle Lovett and Asleep at the Wheel), play dress-up and see themselves on television monitors as they perform.

Then, too, apropos of nothing but just plain fun, there's that three-story slide. I had a hard time getting my kids off that one, and, at ages 10 and 13, they're on the old side for a museum that caters to the 12-and-younger crowd.

There's been an enormous growth curve for a nonprofit that started in 1983 as a museum without walls, taking exhibits to local classrooms rather than having a home of its own where kids could visit. In 1987, it opened as a 5,000-square-foot site on West Fifth Street. A decade later, the current $7 million museum opened with the help of a $1 million gift from the Austin-based Michael and Susan Dell Foundation and 10 years of free rent from Schlotzsky's Inc. president John Wooley and his brother Jeff Wooley.

Under the leadership of executive director Michael Nellis, the museum, with a 2006 operating budget of about $2 million, occupies 20,000 square feet on West Second Street downtown. Mr. Nellis is raising money for a move to a two-story 30,000-square-foot site on the corner of Guadalupe and Third Street, north of City Hall.

"We try to emphasize what is unique about Austin," says Mr. Nellis, who points out that even their animal and butterfly exhibits focus on species that kids can see locally, such as bats. It makes sense for a city that boasts the world's largest urban bat colony, under the Congress Avenue Bridge (www .batcon.org).

And since Austin is known as a technology leader, that fits into Mr. Nellis' plans to emphasize more science and technology components in the upcoming expansion.

ERICH SCHLEGEL/DMN

Two-year-old Addison Lewis pushes a dump truck through the Funstruction Zone area at the Austin Children's Museum .

At the time of our September visit, the building had recently been transformed from beige to an appealing lime green. And in addition to the busy buzz of kids moving from the miniature train depot (the train tracks extend over the other exhibits) to the Funstruction Zone, where kids operate heavy machinery, special events were under way. Story time was going on near the entrance, and the Austin Nature and Science Center brought a turtle, snake, salamander, crayfish and cockroach into a classroom for kids to pet.

What quickly becomes clear is that the kids are leading their adults here and not the other way around.

Doting grandpa George Ficke, 69, of Springfield, Ill., always asks his granddaughter Lillie Carter, 6, of Austin, what she would like to do when he arrives. The answer is always the Austin Children's Museum, he says, and more specifically the Creation Station, where she makes art from recycled materials.

And why does she like it so much?

"Because you get to make stuff," she says, showing off the doll she constructed from a toilet paper roll, fabric and yarn with an egg carton hat.

ERICH SCHLEGEL/DMN

Miss Staci treats children to a morning story, one of the many special events offered at the nonprofit museum.

Paul Slobodnik, 39, of Austin and his son, Joshua, 5, are regulars, too.

When asked his favorite activities, Joshua, who was busy examining objects under magnifying lenses, offered: "I like everything."

"Yes," says Mr. Slobodnik, trying to help the interview along. "But what do you like best?"

"I like everything the best," says Joshua as he moves on to the microscopes and then a new exhibit, in which you can see the life cycle of a butterfly, complete with the hatched butterflies flying around inside a large glass case.

Mr. Slobodnik laughs. "This morning I said, 'What do you want to do today?' "He said, 'I want to go to the museum.' So I said, 'How much time are we going to spend?' He wanted two hours. I said, 'How about one hour?' "

Mr. Slobodnik agreed to two hours.

"We didn't exactly meet in the middle," he says.

E-mail nchurnin@dallasnews.com

GETTING THERE

The Austin Children's Museum is at 201 Colorado St. Open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday, and Thursday through Saturday; 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Wednesday; and noon to 5 p.m. Sunday.

Admission: $5.50, ages 2 years through adult; $3.50, 12 to 24 months; free, younger than 12 months. Free Sundays 4 to 5 p.m. and Wednesdays 5 to 8 p.m. (donations accepted).

Closes at 3 p.m. Christmas Eve. Closed Christmas Day and New Year's Day.

Contact: 512-472-2499, www.austinkids.org.

COOL STUFF COMING UP

Gingerbread house workshops, through Dec. 21. Kids and parents can create a candy-covered holiday gingerbread house. Price includes museum admission. Reservations required. Tickets: $25 to $30 per house (up to three persons per house). Times vary; check www.austinkids.org/Programs/GingerbreadHouse.htm.

Animal Secrets, through Jan. 6. Using imaginative role-playing and hands-on activities, kids learn about hidden habitats and the secret life of forest animals from an animal's point of view in five naturalistic environments.

Community Gallery: The Heart Gallery of Central Texas, Dec. 2 through Jan. 14. See pictures of foster children in protective custody who are waiting for adoptive families. Founded by the New Mexico Children, Youth and Families Department in 2001, the Adoption Coalition of Texas displays portraits of children. Many have found loving homes through the Heart Gallery. Dec. 2 opening day activities include magic shows and face painting.

Museum Store tax-free shopping. Shop for classic and educational toys, books and games tax-free at the Museum Store on Dec. 5. No museum admission is required to shop.

PERMANENT EXHIBITS

Funstruction Zone: Kids count, measure, sort and build while playing in a three-level, kid-friendly construction zone.

Austin Kiddie Limits: See yourself on a video monitor as you perform on stage to the music of Willie Nelson and Lyle Lovett.

Shadow Garden: Make the shadows move as you move your body in front of this screen of digital designs.

Global City: Milk a cow, sell the milk and serve it in the global diner.

Rising Star Ranch: Crawl or toddle across different textures in a play area for ages up to 2.

My Back Yard: Live butterfly exhibit.