My wife, Hayley, and I plan family time dedicated to spending quality time with our two children each week, but we also know it’s important to dedicate one-on-one time with each of our kids. It’s essential to children’s emotional development.

On a recent weekend, I took my eight-year-old to a childhood favorite of mine, the Main Street Galleries Antique Emporium (more commonly just “the Antique Emporium”) in downtown Eau Claire.

“It’s like Diagon Alley in Harry Potter!” my eight-year-old said as we passed the windows and walked inside.

“It’s like Diagon Alley in Harry Potter!” my eight-year-old said as we passed the windows and walked inside.

For those of you who haven’t been there, the Antique Emporium is exactly like a shop you might find in Diagon Alley: three entire stories of beautifully aged artwork and tapestries, sculptures of great and obscure people in history, books on any subject and of any age, exotic and mundane taxidermied animals, and eclectic knick-knacks. I’m probably overlooking major categories here, but you get the idea.

The Antique Emporium is a place to bring kids once they’re old enough to be trusted to not break things; I’m guessing my mom didn’t bring me until I was in middle school. I knew my eight-year-old would ask before touching things and wasn’t clumsy enough to go careening from one expensive side of the shop to the other.

So while looking at antiques might not be your first idea for a parent-child outing, the Emporium is a unique local place that offers an experience that transcends time and that most kids will love. Kids remember what they’ve experienced with adults in their lives; try supplementing what they already know with something new.

At the end of our two hours visiting the shop, Ava picked a little $2 ceramic cat that she always talks about in the context of the Emporium. To her, it’s a priceless treasure from Diagon Alley with a wonderful memory of an adventure with her dad to go along with it.

Zach Schultz is a teacher and father from Eau Claire.