What do you do with your toddler that is FREE?

[Anonymous]

So, besides walking to the nearby park or playdates at friend's houses, what do you guys do with your toddlers/pre-schoolers that is free? We can't aford music classes/baby yoga class/jonah's treehouse, etc at the moment so I'm looking for good ideas for places to go that are free (or almost free) with my 1 year old son.
We're getting a little stir crazy(at least I am!)
Please help!
BTW, we live in NW DC so suggestions close in to the city are much appreciated!

[Anonymous]

Library
Playground
Children's Musuem
Mall playground (for bad weather days)

[Anonymous]

strangely enough, National Building Museum in Chinatown (5th and F?) has a great indoor carpeted crawl around area for infants and toddlers. There are always tons of them in there.

All I know is I am dying for Spring.

[Anonymous]

Museums. Some of my faves:

The Building musuem
The Natural History Musuem - They have a discovery room that is open every day except Monday
National Geographic Museum

Also, The kids section of Barns and Noble has provided lots of fun times for my 2.5 yo. We go to the one in Bethesday and the staff pretty much give you free reign to browse and read as many books as you want.

Good Luck

[Anonymous]

Also, check out the Go City Kids website. They have list a lot of events in the area and also let you know which ones are free:


http://gocitykids.parentsconnect.com/?area=193

[Anonymous]

My son LOVES the Air & Space Museum, though yours may be a little too young yet.

The Zoo is free & has some indoor spaces (e.g., the monkey house) for these cold days. When it's nice out, little ones love to play in the Pizza Garden, which is conveniently located close to the parking lot.

There is also an Aquarium in the Dept of Commerce building (I'm not 100% positive it's free, but I think it is) and he may enjoy looking at the fish.

As noted by PP, libraries and bookstores are great free destinations for an outing.

It's not in DC, but the Montgomery Mall in Bethesda has a little play area for toddlers. Great for killing two birds with one stone -- getting shopping done & taking a break to let your little one play.

[Anonymous]

I was a SAHM to a baby/toddler in NW DC and we didn't have any money then either!

We were at the museums all the time. 2-3xs/week usually. And don't rule out the art museums - Hirschhorn, Asian and African has been a love of ours since she was a baby! History will be open again soon.
There is a fee for the aquarium, but it's only like $4.
We were also at the zoo quite a bit, even in winter. If you're a zoo member, they have reasonable zoo classes that are fun.
Library, bookstores.
Check out the NW Current paper to see listings for the week's events. Also the weekend section and DC Urban Moms event list that comes out onThursdays.

There is so much to do in this city that's free/cheap - it's a wonderful place to be a SAHM and raise culturally savvy kids!

[Anonymous]

All of the above plus storytime at Politics & Prose Mondays at 10:30. I love P&P anytime and the kids' section is wonderful.

[Anonymous]

OP here-
THANK YOU so much for your suggestions!!
I think we'll hit a museum tomorrow!

[Anonymous]

The Kennedy Center has free live performance every evening. Some are very good for kids.

[Anonymous]

The family room in DC does free music classes/storytime/etc.

[Anonymous]

Oops, PP here.

I just went to look to make sure and realized I'm wrong. Its free for kids under 1 and an accompanying adult. Sorry!

[Anonymous]

zoo, air and space museum, other museums, are all free and awesome! most public libraries in the dc have reading hours. call and find out days/times. also barnes and noble in georgetown does as well. my son loves the library. there are some great ones with awesome children's sections. so much to do! in fact the more i think of it, i am wondering why we are spending so much on all of these classes!

[Anonymous]

don't miss the waterfall at the national gallery tunnel...and the rooms with the really big modern art paintings. ikea..we've gone just to play with the toys and eat the 99 cent lunch! ride the bus. go see airplanes take off at national.

[Anonymous]

To the last poster, do you know if anyone has a similar blog or website for Northern Virginia. Your site is excellent but we live in Alexandria and many of the activities are a bit of a drive for us. Thanks!