Botanical gardens and greenhouses are another great day adventure with the kids. They have room to run around, it’s either outdoors or gives the winter illusion of outdoors, and they get to learn.
It’s also easy to try to weave some geography lessons into a botanical garden visit – the kids are coming into contact with plants they’ve never seen in their lives before. I like these little glimmers of “the world is bigger than I thought” when it shows through.
Most cities have some sort of free city gardens or farms. I suggest, even if not, looking for free days or events. Once I took my two grandkids to a “goat yoga” at a botanical garden nearby and it was a laugh riot!
It’s hard to “debrief” after a visit to a museum or garden without it feeling like I’m quizzing the kids on what they read, retained, and memorized, so I try to talk about my favorite parts and hope it inspires them to do the same.