We love spending our days with the kids at museums and parks. Here is a list of the places we frequent. Note, we are members of most of the museums.
INDOOR:
Please Touch Museum
http://www.pleasetouchmuseum.org/
Fairmount Park, Philly area, PA
One of our very favorite places. Kids can play in a huge indoor water table, ride on the carousel, ride a flying machine and much much more.
Staten Island Children's Museum
http://statenislandkids.org/
Staten Island, NY
Great children's museum. Life size dominos, Connect 4, games. Dress up like a firefighter and ride a fire truck. The kids especially love the block harbor, pirate ship and galley. Worth the $8 toll from NJ.
Monmouth Museum Wonder Wing
http://www.monmouthmuseum.org/wonderwing.html
Great for little kids and 2 hours. It is a small section of the Monmouth college art museum. The space is enclosed so it is really easy to keep track of the kids. Just enough to do, until the kids get tired.
Garden State Discovery Museum
http://www.discoverymuseum.com/
Cherry Hill, NJ
Really fun place (was on par with the Please Touch Museum until it moved to Fairmount Park).
There are so many areas to explore: a construction site, 50's diner, animal hospital, giant bubbles, turtles, ship, separate infant/toddler area, theater and more.
The Franklin Institute
http://www2.fi.edu/
Philadelphia, PA
There is so much to see, you can spend a week here!
OUTDOORS:
The Sprayground at Dorbrook Park
http://www.monmouthcountyparks.com/page.asp?agency=133&Id=2503
Colts Neck, NJ
This is a water enhanced playground with fountains, sprayers, a water table and water dumping buckets. There is a great dry playground adjacent to it. Make sure to wear your bathing suits, you will get wet! Thanks to the Bialiks for introducing this to us.
KidStreet Park
Bridgewater, NJ
http://www.webex.net/~bridgewater/kidstree.htm
This is a great park. The entire park is made of recycled wood. It boasts a Pirate ship, swing, zip lines, train, plane and more. Also, the park has only one entrance/exit which makes keeping track of the kids a lot easier. Interesting note: Larry Jacobs http://news.rutgers.edu/focus/issue.2007-09-12.0351982825/profile.2007-09-12.7422123099 of Rutgers founded this park.
Cheesequake Park
http://www.stateparks.com/cheesequake.html
Huge park, but we mainly swim in the lake. The lake has a “beach” but no wave (yay!). We pack a cooler and choose a shady spot under a tree. The kids can also run to the nearby climbers.
Duke Island Park
Great place to bike, walk and play in the playground. Make sure to bring a ball and bubbles…lots of open spaces.
Round Valley State Park
http://www.state.nj.us/dep/parksandforests/parks/round.html
http://www.njskylands.com/pkrndval.htm
We still have to check this out.
From Oksana….Here are some events that I've compiled for the coming months.
1/11 - Pajama Jam Kid's concert (FREE), Old Franklin School in Metuchen - 491 Route 27 Metuchen, NJ 08840 (RSVP to Eschwartz@jf-gmc.org )
2/1 - Children's concert by the Raritan Valley Symphonic Band (FREE)- 466 Raider blvd, Hillsborough, NJ (we went to this one last year and it was great. At the end of the concert, the band allows the kids to touch the instruments)
5/3 - Pajama party at Barnes & Noble on Rt.1 in North Brunswick (also RSVP to Eschwartz@jf-gmc.org )
