Rounding the corner into the driveway of the New York Hall of Science, my preschooler lost her mind. You can’t climb the rockets, but yes, they are very tall, very real, and clearly, very exciting.
The Edward Hopper exhibit is only at the Whitney Museum in NYC through March 5, 2023. Don’t miss it! You still have a few weekends left. If you want to visit the Hopper at the Whitney with kids, here’s what you’ll find.
Hopper exhibit at the Whitney. Copyright Deborah Abrams Kaplan
Don’t forget to pick up the lovely activity guide for kids to do at the exhibit. The book will keep them more interested, with opportunities to sketch and to look at the artwork with information aimed at their age level. We saw the booklets at the coat check, but I’m sure they have them elsewhere too.
I admit to seeing the Pinocchio exhibit at MOMA before seeing the movie. I wish I did the reverse, but the exhibit really brought home how much work went into the movie-making and I think I watched it (in awe) the next night.
We’d been seeing the ads for a few months now, a Broadway musical set in high school with a woman way out of high school playing the lead. I’d heard good things, but didn’t know much about it. Got tickets without doing any more research. Is Kimberly Akimbo good for kids?
We’ve been to the Grounds for Sculpture a few times during the day and loved it. It’s a huge place with a lot to see, and many fun and playful sculptures the kids will enjoy. The picture below was the first stop, and the projections on the sculpture kept changing, as did the lights on the trees behind on the right – which I think is the last of the exhibits – it’s a row of trees you walk through that’s pretty in the daytime too.
My kid competed at the National Havoc Robotics League (NHRL) in November and has been a few times prior to that too. We went to Norwalk to watch the competition and were blown away by the experience. The NHRL with kids is awesome – they will love it and it’s a great family outing.
We were in Miami recently, en route to the Florida Keys and stopped off at the Fairchild Botanic Garden in Miami with kids. Wow. We LOVED it. Except for the heat. It was super hot. The garden is really big, so plan for enough time, like a few hours. And some time to get a drink or ice cream there.
Off the side of the road in Tavernier Florida on the Florida keys is the Florida Keys Wild Bird Center. It doesn’t look like much from the road (granted, nothing in the Keys looks like much from the road), but it’s worth pulling over to see the birds here.
We had a ridiculous amount of fun at the Everglades Alligator Farm, in spite of it dumping rain on us an hour after the photo below was taken.
The Everglades Alligator Farm claims to be the oldest alligator farm in South Florida, with 2,000 alligators. They are located near the entrance of Everglades National Park. It was super touristy, but still a good visit.
The airboat ride boats at the Everglades Alligator Farm. Copyright Deborah Abrams Kaplan
We got there as the hourly airboat ride was getting read to board, so we went straight there. It’s a good thing we did because the rides an hour later got delayed/cancelled because it was raining so hard. Our driver told us that when it’s raining hard, they worry about the visibility. If a boat is out of commission, it’s hard to get another boat out there to rescue it.
When visiting the Florida Keys, take 2 hours to visit the Turtle Hospital in Marathon. This nonprofit rescues injured and sick turtles in the area, rehabilitates them if possible, and releases them back into the wild. If they’re not able to be rehabilitated, they stay at the center.