Enjoying a fun-filled adventure day with your kids is a great way to connect with them and partake in brand-new experiences together. But as any parent knows, outings with children can be hectic, expensive, and exhausting, to say the least. So to guarantee your family has a successful family fun day that is filled with happy moments, it’s always a good idea to plan ahead. Taking the time to map out your special adventure day will ensure everything goes as smoothly as possible and everyone, both the kids and the adults, will have a great time.
To help you get started with your adventure day planning, here are some useful tips as well as some suggestions for different outings you can enjoy with your kids.
Save Money with Close-to-Home Activities
There’s no need to venture far from home when you want to enjoy fun activities with your kids. If you look around, you will find there are plenty of opportunities available for exploring, learning, and playing with your kids right in your own hometown. You could take in a matinée at the movie theater, visit a locally owned bakery or ice cream parlor, or check out small boutiques in your area for a fun day of shopping.
If you’d like a few more suggestions for close-to-home activities, check out these fun and educational ideas.
Show Your Creative Side with a Family Painting Night
If you have ever been to a Paint & Sip event, you already know how entertaining it can be to attempt creating works of art with friends and compare your masterpieces afterward. But did you know that many art museums offer family-friendly painting events that you can enjoy with your kids? You don’t have to be an expert painter to have a great time at these events that inspire everyone to find their inner artist. And it’s a great way to introduce your child to the local art community while being taught painting skills from a professional art instructor.
Visit a Pick Your Own Produce Garden
If you live in or near a rural area, it’s a good idea to check if there are any Pick-Your-Own farms close by. These farms allow customers to grab a basket and pick their own harvest that may include everything from berries to corn and even wildflowers. This is a great way to teach your kids about agriculture while supporting your local farmers at the same time. Plus, you get to take home a bounty of fresh produce at a much lower cost than what you would pay at a grocery store.
Find out about Festivals or Art Fairs in Your Area
Art fairs and festivals offer excellent ways to introduce your child to the arts and local culture. These events are sometimes free and will often feature artwork, handmade crafts, and food made by people within your community. Be sure to keep an eye on your city’s event calendar to find out when local festivals and fairs are happening in your area. These events are the perfect educational opportunities where kids can learn more about traditions, customs, and historical events.
Go Thrifting or Check out Estate Sales and Flea Markets
You never know what treasures you may find when you go thrifting. If you love antiques and vintage items, going to estate sales, thrift stores, or flea markets with your kids is a fantastic way to introduce this fun hobby to them. Whether you find toys from your youth or collectible items with old stories attached to them, you are sure to discover some new interesting and educational tales your child can share with others.
Look into Volunteering Options
Volunteering is an excellent way to introduce the values of serving your community to your children, while also helping them to understand how important it is to care for others. Check out places nearby where you can volunteer, such as animal shelters, soup kitchens, or nursing homes, to find out where you and your family can dedicate your time.
Remember, you don’t have to go to the most popular tourist attractions in town to have a great day of adventure. By researching local social media posts, reviews, and travel blogs, you are likely to find some lesser-known attractions that are considered hidden treasures in your area. This is a great way to avoid crowds and discover something new.
Be a Tourist Anywhere with City Walking Tours
City walking tours provide a great opportunity for you and your family to spend a day out sightseeing while learning more about the history of the town you live in or a neighboring city. There are many different types of walking tours available, including those that allow you to sample food from locally owned restaurants, tours that visit historic landmarks, and even ghost tours where spooky stories are shared about your town’s urban legends.
Before booking a walking tour with your family, there are a few things that you should keep in mind.
Choose a Tour that Everyone Will Enjoy
While you may be excited to learn all about historic landmarks, your kids, especially if they are very young, may not find the topics as fun or exciting. Therefore, it’s important to choose a city walking tour that will hold their attention while keeping everyone entertained. Finding a tour company that caters to tourists of all ages with tour guides who know how to share historic tales in a kid-friendly manner is a great option that will ensure your little ones do not get bored easily. Be sure to check out reviews for walking tours to find out which are the best for children of all ages.
In many cities, there are unique and unusual tours that your children will love. For example, in NYC, I highly recommend the New York City Superheroes: Marvel & DC Comics Origins tour. This tour visits sites that are familiar from Marvel and DC Comics and movies, allowing your children to see the real-life backdrops of those scenes they love so much and appreciate the backstory and what it took to film there.
In St. Augustine, for example, there is a World of Pirates Experience tour. Which child isn’t fascinated by pirates? This tour offers your children an immersive experience, allowing them to walk the same paths that infamous pirates did many moons ago and learn how they affected the city’s history.
Don’t Forget the Snacks!
To make your sightseeing tour go smoothly with fewer tantrums or grumpy moods, you’ll want to pack some snacks to keep everyone happy along the way. Be sure to pack snacks that are easy to carry and things you know your child will love. To make it even more fun, pick out some that they may not normally get at home, including a few sweet treats. And find out if your walking tour makes a stop at any local restaurants or cafés. It’s common for some tours to do this so that local businesses can benefit and tourists have a chance to sample local cuisine.
Check for Age Restrictions
While many walking tours are designed for people of all ages, there are some companies that offer tours not suited for young tourists, and it’s important to know which tours are meant for adults only and which are family-friendly.
A great tour that is kid-friendly are ghost tours! Lizzie Borden Ghost Tours, which run in 190+ US cities and towns, allow children under the age of 6 to join for free and provide discounts to older children and teens.
Don’t worry – ghost tours aren’t as scary as they sound. The Lizzie Borden ghost tours do not use jump scares or other cheap tactics. Instead, they focus on retelling the local legends and history of each city, and they are designed to be family friendly. Do keep in mind that it is a walking tour, though, so come with a water bottle and walking shoes!
Since the tours offer free admission to children under the age of six and discounted tickets to older children and teens, it is the perfect way to enjoy an evening out with the family without breaking the bank.
Take a Step Back in Time by Visiting Local Historical Districts
If you are lucky enough to live nearby a historic district, you have direct access to one of the best options for an adventure day with your kids. Historic districts showcase the sites and landmarks that helped form your city into what it is today. These locations honor the people and places that were so crucial in creating your local history and culture. And visiting these places with your kids will expose them to what life was like centuries ago as they learn about important events firsthand.
Bond With Your Children by Exploring Historic Districts
Visiting your nearest historical district is a great way to bond with your family while you all enjoy a learning experience. You can admire the architectural designs from centuries ago, go inside historic cathedrals, or take a tour of house museums that were once the residences of some of the most notable people from America’s past. It’s a great way for both young and old to learn something new about the area you live in.
A great way to kill two birds with one stone is to take a ghost tour in the historical district of the city you live in. For example, the Annapolis Ghost Tour by Annapolis Ghosts visits some of the most famous historical sites in Annapolis’s historical district – and it’s child-friendly and free for children under 6!
Expand Your Child’s Cultural Awareness
Visiting a historic district can also help to expand your child’s cultural awareness as they take in details about the different cultures, traditions, and people who live in their community. By learning about these things, it will help the younger generation become more open-minded as well as more accepting of others.
Tips for Exploring Historic Sites and Landmarks
Here are a few more useful tips to keep in mind if you choose to visit historic sites and landmarks on your adventure day!
- Take some time to research the historic places you plan to visit. Learning as much as you can about the location beforehand will help you share your knowledge with your kids while you are there. Also, find out if there are any special events or exhibits happening during your trip that may include fun kid-friendly activities.
- While it can be a lot of fun touring a historic district, it can also be very overwhelming for smaller kids. Be sure to stop for breaks frequently, and don’t forget to pack extra water and snacks.
- Encourage your children to ask questions and engage with the exhibits you visit. If you have a tour guide, you can ask questions as well to help encourage your child to do the same. This will help even the youngest tourists better understand the significance behind the location or landmark you are visiting.
Places such as Ellis Island in New York City, NY; The French Quarter in New Orleans, LA; the Santa Fe Historic District in Santa Fe, NM; and Beacon Hill in Boston, MA offer a glimpse into early American history and provide insight on how these towns played a role in the shaping of our nation. If you aren’t located near these popular historic districts, there is sure to be one close by for you to explore.
Breathe in the Fresh Air with Outdoor Exploration
What better way to enjoy a day of adventure than going outside and exploring nature together? There is an endless number of activities you can enjoy with your child outside, and the best part is that most of them are free and close to home. Whether you are taking a walk around the neighborhood or going for a hike at a national park, there is so much to learn and enjoy when you explore the great outdoors.
Here are a few fun-filled ideas for exploring the outdoors with children of any age.
Have a Treasure Hunt or Scavenger Hunt
Come up with a list of things to find outside, such as flowers, smooth rocks, or insects. Then head to the park or your own backyard to see who can find all the items on your list first. To make the game more challenging for older kids, have them look for specific items such as a caterpillar, maple leaf, acorns, or blue flowers.
Create Art Inspired by Nature
Items that you find in nature can be used for a number of art projects. You can gather pretty leaves, twigs, or tree branches to make a leaf rubbing. To do this you’ll need two pieces of paper, crayons, and leaves. Start by laying one leaf on one piece of paper, and place the other piece of paper on top. Press down and hold the leaf in place, and then rub the side of your crayon across the leaf. You will see the print of the leaf come through the top sheet. Use different colors for each leaf or create a fun collage with them.
Go for a Hike
Get lost in nature by taking a hike in the mountains or along a lake trail with your family. Many state parks will have a variety of trails available that range from easy to difficult so that you can enjoy nature at your own pace. Just be sure not to overexert yourself and take plenty of breaks along the way.
It’s a good idea, especially when hiking with kids, to take along a backpack filled with snacks, water, sunscreen, a first aid kit, and other necessities. You may also want to bring along a portable phone charger, not only for emergency calls but also to ensure your battery doesn’t drain while taking tons of photos. The natural backdrops of trees and greenery will help you create some amazing keepsake photos that you and your family are sure to treasure forever.
Conclusion
An adventure day with the family can feel like a real vacation getaway when you choose fun activities everyone loves. These suggestions offer some of the best ways to incorporate learning into your activities so that your child can gain more knowledge about history and nature all while having fun. If you would like to take a city walking tour or learn more about the history of your hometown, be sure to check out the walking tours available from US Ghost Adventures. These ghost tour specialists offer a variety of non-spooky tours in major cities across the nation for you and your family to enjoy.`
