Lexie and Ray Ellis of Dinwiddie County have certificates signed by the governor honoring them as Virginia TimeTravelers.

"They think that is very cool," says their mother, Samantha.

Lexie, 8, and Ray, 6, are among 1,000 children who visited at least seven museums or historic sites last year to also earn the designation of master travelers.

This is the third year the Ellis family has taken part in Virginia TimeTravelers, a program designed to encourage families to visit historic and cultural attractions.

For Samantha Ellis and husband Gary, a Richmond police officer, the program has worked.

"It really does spur us on to see more things," she said. "It's just a fun thing to do as a family."

The program gives children a "passport" to get stamped at participating museums. But Virginia TimeTravelers' own passport might expire at the end of this year.

The 12-year-old program will be discontinued if it does not find a stable source of funding, according to Margo Carlock, executive director of the Virginia Association of Museums.

The program has been limping along from year to year by patching together grants from several agencies, Carlock said. The association's governing council decided that arrangement can not continue after this year.

She said the program needs $60,000 to $90,000 to continue.

"It's just a pittance compared to the returns," she said.

In 2007, the program brought $1.6 million in direct economic benefits from such expenditures as museum shop and ticket sales, Carlock said.

The program grew out of the Virginia History Initiative, a study that looked at how to put the state's historic and cultural resources to work. Its initial state funding was lost during budget cuts linked to the state car-tax repeal.

Leighann Scott Boland, who has served as the TimeTravelers coordinator since 1998, said the program resulted in 550,000 museum visits last year.

About 3,000 children a year have their passports stamped by six museums to get the certificate signed by the governor. One more visit earns them the master traveler gold seal.

They also can earn an iron-on patch if they visit two sites participating in the program's annual theme. This year it's "Virginia Harmonies," reflecting the state's musical heritage.

More than 350 cultural or historic sites participate in the program, including about 45 in the Richmond area, Boland said. Some sites offer free or discounted admission to TimeTravelers participants.

One benefit of the program, she said, is that it dispels the view of museums as being "very static, very stuffy, and the docents are very mean and don't want the kids there."

Families see that "the days of the old, dusty museum are gone."

The Ellis family can attest to that.

Samantha Ellis said the program has helped get her children excited about learning. After a recent trip to Mount Vernon, her daughter took a postcard to school and explained to her second-grade class what she had learned.

Her son, a kindergartner, "tells everyone he can about seeing prehistoric 'sea monster' skeletons at the Science Museum," she said.

"When given a chance, kids soak this stuff up like sponges." Contact Karin Kapsidelis at (8040) 649-6119 or kkapsidelis@timesdispatch.com.