Kid-Friendly Canada

Our scenic route needs to take into account that our kids don't actually know what "scenery" is . . . so we've been trying to incorporate lots of kid-friendly hands-on activities to balance these long driving days (6-8 hours / day).    Sometimes this is REALLY easy: 

1.  Science North in Sudbury
      Butterfly conservatory

 Fin whale skeleton

 K-Nex race track

 Human Body exhibit -  There are buttons to push to hear the various sounds produced by the human body.   Sneeze, burp, heartbeat, hiccough, tummy rumbling and of course the young boys favourite once they discovered it . . . farts.  YES, my children got to stand in public and push a button that made a fart noise.  YES, they did it repeatedly.  YES, they giggled hysterically.  YES, my husband stood by grinning.  And, YES, I just walked away and looked at different display!   

 There were a few Olympic themed displays, so you could test your athletic abilities.  The boys also did this sprint start repeatedly (it was timed on the wall above each lane and they are REALLY competetive, so they kept saying "Just one more time!"), and lucky for them it was only the 4th day of school, so there were only preschoolers in the building wandering around with blankies and soothers (literally), and no one else was lining up waiting for a turn. 

 Finally we ended the day with a beaver feeding.  Yep, sweet potatoes, rat chow, pear and greens, hand fed by a staff member to Drifter, the beaver.  Great info session!       

2.  Children's Museum in Winnipeg  - Recently renovated - and easily the BEST Play-Based Learning environment I've seen (walking to age 10)  http://childrensmuseum.com/ Thanks for the recommendation! 

Look carefully for our faces and hands . . . (push pin wall)

 Hard at work! 

 The BEST water table ever  (H2O shaped!), they played here for almost 30 minutes alone! 

 Daddy's favourite:  Pom-pom's in a vacuum tube travel all around wall and you can switch the direction of the airflow so they pop out and fall through the air or go into the collection basket (another 30 minutes!)

 And the last 30 minutes was spent here inside a lasagna, placing giant foam tomatoes in the right matching holes in the walls to complete the "recipe" . . .

 There's a restored train from the 1880's, complete with LOTS of flashing lights and buttons and switches for the kids to press inside. 

Or course, right outside at The Forks in Winnipeg is one of the coolest playgrounds I've even seen! 

By now Dave was tapping his watch as we needed to drive all the way to Regina before night fall and it was after midday.  Gotta burn off the energy somehow!

3.  Wascana Park in Regina  (specifically Candy Cane Playground) - Regina claims their Wascana park is larger than Stanley Park, Vancouver or Central Park in NYC . . . it's quite beautiful to drive around and through and it has these fun climbing structures (among other things!)

 QUEENIE  - the Canada Goose!  Loved it! 

   Even I couldn't resist spinning around on here with the boys! 

For those of you who were hoping for more "scenic" photos . . . I'll work on another post!