After about an hour of quiet playing with their toys, 3-year-old playmates Lindsay Beer and Phoebe Henderson were ready to go outside on a recent afternoon. They put on their coats and ran out to the back yard.

The girls' mothers are working on a proposal to help expand their children's play and learning by creating The Green Mountain Children's Museum.

Plans for a children's museum began about three years ago when Beer and a group of community members realized that a key component was missing from the local recreation industry, said Lindsay's mother, Mia Graham Beer, of Shelburne. There are not enough places for young children to have quality experiences, she said. There are not enough places for kids "just to play," the 41-year-old woman said.