The long hot days of summer are coming, and soon your kids will be out of school and looking for you to entertain them 24/7. Obviously you can't just stick them in front of the TV the whole time (well I guess you can, but surely someone you know would side-eye that), and in the interest of getting out and enjoying life and all that, it would be great if you had some ways to enrich and mould those impressionable little minds.
So here's my list of things to do with the kids:
- This one's a no brainer, since it starts today and that's Kidsfest 2013. Held at The Forks, this four-day festival is full of fun, fools and four-year-olds. It's great fun for kids of any age.
- Engage and explore at the Manitoba Children's Museum. Do crazy things like climb a big piece of lasagna (Tide not included) and get your hands wet with some super scientific experimenting.
- Hop aboard the nonsuch Ketch (that's a really big boat) at The Manitoba Museum and get up close and personal with bison and little white foxes of the stuffed variety.
- Continue your tour of The Manitoba Museum at the Planetarium and Science Gallery for a little geeking out to inspire that future scientist.
- Walk with the animals at the Assiniboine Park Zoo where toucans, flamingoes and peacocks play.
- Break out the skate board and take the teenagers to The Forks' world class skatepark. (Then they can practise the other teenaged Olympic sport of pretending they don't know you.)
- Take a drive out to FortWhyte Alive and visit with the prairie dogs and geese. Eco tours teach kids about the environment and the world around them.
- Run and slide and jump at the Nature Playground at Assiniboine Park.
- Squeeze into a tiny train car at Tinkertown where pint-sized rides for pint-sized people are in vogue.
- I choo-choo-choose you to ride the Prairie Dog Central railway, a 1900-era vintage train.
