Ah, the dog days of summer. The days are getting shorter and your kids seem to get bored easily. Their day camps and park district classes are winding down, and it’s too late to sign them up for more.
How can you fill their days with educational, or at least productive, activities until school resumes?
Not a problem.
Most of the Chicago-area museums, nature centers and forest preserve districts have plenty of programs that don’t require spring registrations (although many do ask you to register before showing up so they have accurate head counts.) In addition to Chicago’s Museum Campus, here are a few of the area’s kid-friendly destinations.
Note: Except where indicated, these activities do not require reservations and are free or included with general admission. If you plan more than one trip to any of these places, consider saving admission fees by buying memberships.
Forest preserves
Every Chicago-area forest preserve district and conservation area has plenty of family activities slated for late summer. Here are a few samples:
– Learn popular 1890s folk remedies during the “When Do You Call the Doctor?” program at the Kline Creek Farm in Winfield, Aug. 4 and 5, hourly from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Call 630-876-5900 for details.
– Join the “Bat Watch” at LeRoy Oakes Forest Preserve in St. Charles from 7:30 to 8:30 p.m. Aug. 4. Learn bat myths and see the resident bats swoop to catch mosquitoes. Call 847-741-8350 for reservations. Cost is $1 each.
– In the “Family Nature Paddle” at the Grove Forest Preserve in Libertyville, kids can learn about aquatic plants and animals while parents pick up some canoeing tips. Then parents paddle while the kids guide them around the lake. Call 847-968-3321 to register for a “Paddle” on July 29 or Aug. 26, both from 1 to 3 p.m. Cost is $46 per family (maximum of two adults and two kids ages 4 or older per canoe) for Lake County residents and $51 per family for out-of-county residents. Life jackets will be provided.
Chicago Botanic Garden
It’s not too late to sign up for late-summer programs at the Chicago Botanic Garden in Glencoe. For example, its Family Garden Picnic series includes a scavenger hunt and bingo game from 6:30 to 8 p.m. July 31 in the garden’s fruit and vegetable section. Cost is $10 each.
Through Oct. 28, the garden will feature “Junior Railroad: Model Trains in a Model Garden,” which includes 10 G-scale trains, plus its new Bob “Bozo” Bell Circus Train. The exhibit is open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily through Labor Day, then 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is $3 for adults and $1 for children ages 3 to 12. Parking at the garden is $7.75 a day. Note that strollers aren’t allowed in the train exhibit. For more information, call 847-835-6829.
Health World
Escape the summer heat at Health World in Barrington, which bills itself as the nation’s first hands-on health educational center. Children can explore its permanent exhibits, including an ambulance they can climb aboard and a “dark-crawl” maze that shows them how their other senses compensate when they can’t see. Check the board in the lobby for the schedule of daily demonstrations, such as how to do the Heimlich maneuver and how to escape from fires. Preschoolers like the morning storytelling in the museum’s library. The museum is open from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays and weekends, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Fridays. Admission is $5 per person. Children younger than age 2 are admitted free. Call 847-842-9100 for details.
Kohl Children’s Museum
Learning is disguised as play at the Kohl Children’s Museum in Wilmette. Its most popular exhibits include a kid-size Jewel-Osco store where kids can shop and check out with their groceries, a real “L” car that kids can pretend to run along “L” tracks they see on a video screen and a construction area where they can move earth (bean bags, really) with a conveyor belt. Kohl’s newest exhibit, “Music Makers,” allows children to experiment with instruments and record their musical creations. At “Notation Station,” they can chose oversize musical notes, place them on a giant musical staff and select instruments to play their compositions. At its “Sound Collage,” kids can build a collage that reflects how certain music makes them feel. The museum also hosts different educational activities called “Daily Discoveries.” Examples include making wind chimes, learning to play flowerpot xylophones and making “mood-music” prints from paintings they make on Plexiglas. The museum is open 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and noon to 5 p.m. Sunday. Admission is $5 per person. Children younger than 1 are admitted free. For more information, call 847-256-6056.
Chicago Children’s Museum
Astronaut wannabes can “Journey to the Red Planet” in an exhibit about Mars that opened Monday at the Chicago Children’s Museum at Navy Pier. Also, the museum’s Puerto Rican Festival continues through August, highlighted by a carnival from 5:30 to 8 p.m. Aug. 2 that will include a parade, music and dance. Additional Puerto Rican musical performances are slated for Aug. 4, 5, 23 and 30. Admission is free to the museum after 5 p.m. on Thursdays, when special events are planned. Except for a back-to-school health fair on Aug. 16, the late-summer Thursday evenings feature African and Puerto Rican storytelling and music. The museum is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily except Thursdays, when it is open until 8 p.m. Admission is $6.50 for ages 1 and older. For more information, call 312-527-1000.
Illinois Railway Museum
Learn about 19th and 20th Century train travel at the Illinois Railway Museum in Union, which has a collection of about 400 historic railcars, many with original furnishings and ornate woodwork. Its latest addition is a 1923 Chicago “Red Car,” a typical streetcar of its day. On Aug. 5, the museum also will have more than 400 cars, trucks and fire engines on display during its Vintage Transport Day. On Aug. 18, 19, 25 and 26, kids can ride in a life-size Thomas the Tank Engine, operated by steam. The museum is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily. After Labor Day, though, train rides are available only on weekends. General admission on weekdays is $6 for adults, $4 for children ages 5 to 11, with a $20 family maximum. On weekends, it is $9 for adults, $7 for kids, $35 maximum. During the Thomas visit and Vintage Day, it is $10 for adults, $8 for kids, $40 maximum. Children younger than 5 are admitted free. For information about the Thomas tickets, check the museum’s Web site, www.irm.org, or call 800-BIG-RAIL.
DuPage Children’s Museum
If history repeats itself, August will be a busy month at the DuPage Children’s Museum, which moved to bigger, better and brighter quarters in May. Its new Naperville facility has two floors of interactive exhibits, including a walk-in wind tunnel, water tables, light-painting room and a shadow lab. Through Sept. 4, the museum will host “Contraptions A to Z,” a traveling exhibit that invites children to try 26 whimsical machines, one for each letter of the alphabet. F, for example, is “Frogs Flipping Flapjacks.” Call this month for a schedule of the museum’s August art classes, which will include various forms of sculpting and painting. The museum is open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays; 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Thursdays and noon to 5 p.m. Sundays. Admission is $6.50. Children younger than age 1 are admitted free. For more information, call 630-637-8000.
