Keeping Kids Occupied

Kids are great fun to hang out with. Till they get bored. Moms, if you have a house full of whiny kids, here are a bunch of cool, cheap, even free things you can do in Austin to keep them entertained and productive!

Photo by foreversouls, Flickr. CC 2.0 Attribution.

• As we have mentioned before, parks are great places to keep cool this spring and most of them are free of charge. Austin has no dearth of green havens with playgrounds, nature and hike trails, softball, volleyball and tennis courts, barbecue grills as well as picnic spots. An interesting one for kids is the Austin Nature and Science Center, which could make for a fun educational day trip with rescued animals, an indoor lab and a dinosaur track pit. Click here for more information. A complete list of free/cheap and fun parks for kids is here.
  
• Texas Memorial Museum at the Texas Natural Science Center has a host of exhibits around the year. Admission is free. If pterasaur fossils, gem collections and meteorites fascinate your young’uns, this museum is a definitely a good idea. Click here for more info including a map and timings.
• Boggy Creek Farm features fresh vegetables and fruits, cheese, cream, ice-cream and tofu on market and tour days. This would be a great to explain about food manufacturing, farming and horticulture to kids, not to mention enjoy fresh and delicious food! More info here.
• Congress Bridge Bats are a major tourist attraction in Austin. The bridge, which spans Town Lake, is home to the largest urban bat colony in North America and is a great end-of-the-day activity with kids. It’s also a great photo opportunity!

Congress Bridge Bats. Photo by barron, Flickr. CC 2.0 Attribution.

The Austin Children’s Museum blog includes many fun ideas for activities with kids, events and games. An interesting event coming up this Saturday, April 4, is the Home Depot kids workshop. Park your kids here for a few hours as they contruct a birdhouse with pre-fabricated kits this month. Find a local store near you here.

Search for more ideas for activities here and here. To meet and communicate with other parents, visit ParentWise, a newsletter for Austin parents and Austin Parent, a blog about raising kids here.

Post by Simrat Sharma.