Pretend City Children's Museum

We build better brains!

At Pretend City, We Believe:
young children learn best through play
families are our children’s first and most important teachers
diversity enriches children’s lives
play changes the world

In 1999, Orange County locals Sandy Stone and Alex Airth began transforming their vision for a local, innovative, world-class children’s museum. The women consulted with educational insiders and area families, garnering insight and articulating community needs. The concept of Pretend City soon took form. A strong and forward-thinking Board of Directors soon came together and undertook years of strategic planning and fundraising until, in August 2009, the entire community celebrated the grand opening of Pretend City.

Now, in our 10th anniversary year, we look back on our history with great pride, and we look forward to the future with unbridled enthusiasm. We’ve welcomed well over a million guests into our educational wonderland. In just ten years, Pretend City has grown to be a valuable community resource showcasing the annual Health and Wellness Fair, Parent Symposium and serving as a venue for a wide variety of community partners to deliver their programs and workshops.

Pretend City Children’s Museum is “the world in a nut-shell”, designed for children to learn how the real world works while engaging their curiosities and imaginations. The museum is a child-size interconnected city built to balance rich educational intention with boundless fun, where children can assume various real-world roles and let their creativity rule.

Through interactive exhibits and activities facilitated by our trained professional staff, children learn foundational math, reading and science skills while fostering curiosity, creativity, critical thinking, problem-solving, and teamwork. They see how academic concepts have real-life appliation by learning in our unique, hands-on environment.