OP the planetarium in Rock Creek Park is good and the Park Service keeps turtles and snakes that kids can look at.

This DCUM thread says there's a rock store in Frederick. Geology class/club for elementary child in Moco?https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1205488.page

They’re not going to want to spend hours looking at anything. However, here are some things you might try:

Rocks:
Take them to a stream or lake. Show them how to skip rocks. Let them pick out pretty rocks and show them how the colors brighten when wet.

Get a rock tumbler and start tumbling rocks at home. Some of them (like the one I had as a child) make a horrendous noise, but I saw one in a hobby store a few years back that was amazingly quiet.

Take them to a rock store/museum that sells rocks and let them pick out some they especially like. Get them each a geode and show them what’s inside. Show them porous lava and obsidian and talk about how they both come from a volcano. Show them petrified wood and point out the layers that were rings in the trees.

Take them through a stroll of the Smithsonian’s gem collection. Don’t get bogged down in the technical aspects. It’s more about pretty rocks than the technical aspects.

Take them to one of the cavern systems. Luray Caverns has a lovely garden maze and other attractions beside the cavern itself. The tour might be a little long. There are other caverns in the area open to tourists, as well.
https://luraycaverns.com/

I’ve never been, but I’ve heard you can hunt for fossils at Calvert Cliffs.
https://dnr.maryland.gov/publiclands/Pages/southern/calvertcliffs.aspx

Radio:
Get walky-talkies

If you’re knowledgeable enough, take a radio apart and show them how the innards work together (I wouldn’t have a clue).

I haven’t been, but there’s The National Capital Radio and Television Museum in Bowie. I think(?) they may have old radio and TV programs you can experience on period equipment.
https://ncrtv.org/

Maybe tell them about the old CB culture. You can teach them some lingo.

Color - This is a natural for kids

Get paints (finger, tempera, water color, etc.) and let them mix colors. If you’re brave enough you can use food coloring (careful it stains) and help them mix up colors for frosting for cake/cupcakes/cookies. You can dye eggs. Make tie-dyed tshirts.

Get a prism and show them how it splits light into colors. Show them how water from a sprinkler can do the same thing. Talk about rainbows. You can get sone colored overlays and show them how it filters out colors. Maybe show them how they can be used to hide secret codes or how they were used for old 3D movies.

You can show them the black and blue/white and gold dress and ask them what color they think it is. Talk about color perception. If your family is like mine, asking whether turquoise is blue or green might start a hot debate. You can explore other optical illusions.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rpHUBUMWjAU

Did you know that the concept of “blue” is relatively new?
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=D1-WuBbVe2E&pp=ygUSY29sb3IgYmx1ZSBoaXN0b3J5

Blue animals aren’t really blue
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3g246c6Bv58&pp=ygUMYmx1ZSBhbmltYWxz

You could also do prints with solar paper and make jewelry with UV-color changing beads.

Stargazing:
Go to Air and Space to look around (but don’t dwell). Walk the solar system out on the mall.

Try astronaut ice cream.

Go to a planetarium.

Consider putting stars on their bedroom ceilings (if they want).

Watch sci-fi space/alien shows to spark their imagination.

Drive out into the country, away from all light pollution to really see the stars. If you gave a telescope and/or can identify some constellations, it’s even better, but not necessary to make an impact.

Here are some NASA resources you might find helpful:
https://www.nasa.gov/learning-resources/nasa-kids-club/


Cloud/weather patterns:

Get a tornado tube.

Lava lamps or Galileo thermometers can illustrate heat rising and cool falling.

Explore old folk wisdom and why it worked - ex. “Red sky at morning, sailors take warning, red sky at night, sailor’s delight.”
https://www.loc.gov/everyday-mysteries/meteorology-climatology/item/is-the-old-adage-red-sky-at-night-sailors-delight-red-sky-in-morning-sailors-warning-true-or-is-it-just-an-old-wives-tale/

NOAA has some resources you might want to try:

https://www.noaa.gov/education/resource-collections/special-topics/hands-on-science-activities

https://www.noaa.gov/education/resource-collections/education-at-home

https://www.noaa.gov/education/resource-collections/weather-atmosphere

Talk about storm safety. You can read Ben and Me to touch on Franklin’s experiment with lightning.
https://www.weather.gov/owlie/safety_kt
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_and_Me_(book)

National Geographic has these weather resources for kids:
https://kids.nationalgeographic.com/science/topic/weather

The National Weather Service also has educational resources:
https://www.weather.gov/education/

Painting portraits - Portraits might be a stretch, but art can be fun for kids. You just have to accept that rather than formal portraits, they might prefer more abstract art.

I think most major art museums offer some type of activities for kids and/or special events for kids. Check their websites or ask at the reception desk when you arrive.
https://www.nga.gov/learn/families.html
https://npg.si.edu/families
https://americanart.si.edu/visit/family-activities

Here are some resources from the Smithsonian to be used at home:
https://americanart.si.edu/education/learn-from-home

Here are some home resources from the Walters:
https://thewalters.org/experience/programs/families/projects/

Baltimore has a fabulous art festival in the summer called Artscape. It was disrupted by COVID, but it looks like it’s back on this year.
https://www.artscape.org/

For GIS - (I have a hopeless sense of direction)

Maybe you could teach them how to determine direction - use a compass, sun rises in the east, the north star, moss?

How about tales of buried treasure and then sending them on a treasure hunt you designed and mapped. Maybe they could even have you follow their map to find something they hid.

I haven’t done it, but I think Geocaching is like a treasure hunt on a large scale. Here are many links about it, you may find them helpful.
https://www.hoagiesgifted.org/geocaching.htm

In general:

Focus more on fun than learning. If they’re having fun, they’ll learn, but if they’re not, they’ll lose interest. Keep things short and don’t get bogged down. If they’re getting bored you probably want to wrap up soon and move on to something else. You can expose them to a lot of your interests, but if you want them to be interested, too, you have to do it at their level and pace.

Hoagies has great enrichment links for all ages and subjects.
https://www.hoagiesgifted.org/links.htm

Magic School Bus has great episodes on many of these topics.

YouTube is a fabulous resource. You can find engaging videos on any topic you want and some are by experts in their fields. For example, Neil deGrasse Tyson has a channel called StarTalk. While most of the longer videos might be a little dry for your kids, the shorts might be of interest. (Just provide some guidelines/supervision because there’s also a lot of junk on YouTube.)
https://m.youtube.com/@StarTalk

Most museums have activities for kids, always seek them out. The MD Science Center in Baltimore is fantastic. It may not focus specifically on some of your topics, but it’s great for stimulating curiosity.

I would insist on deciding on some of the activities you do together but let them pick the camps that they do on their own. You aren’t even there, why do they have to do something you like? My dad has been crazy about dc football my entire life and no amount of exposure has made me remotely interested in it. It would have been insane to make me go to football camp so I could enjoy that with him …

Anonymous wrote:You need to get involved in things they like, not the reverse. Grow up!!

+1

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am too poor to send my kids to STEM camp so I share my interests with them myself. I have a telescope and invite them to take a look. Visiting museums of all kinds. Collecting minerals. Growing plants.
My kids aren't particularly interested but I have a niece who is. My parents were not scientific either -- I got it from my uncle. So just be prepared that your kids might not like what you do.

At these ages they get more out of being taught by a parent than from being shepherded around by a bored teenage “counselor”

I second this. I had a friend who loved to hear about my "camp fail" stories. Those were mostly when my kids' paid camps overpromised and underdelivered. Here are two favorites:

1) Wilderness Survival Day Camp. Mostly consisted of using a compass at a local park. I came home and found a dirty wet tube sock in a sandwich bag on the powder room sink. When I asked about it, my kid told me it was a new sock full of activated carbon that they were shown how to assemble to filter drinking water. I was flabbergasted at the b.s. Not appetizing, practical, or functional. Hard for me to imagine the desperate situation in which anyone would find this their best option AND be packing activated charcoal.

2) Day camp "terrarium" craft. Take one styrofoam cup. Dig a weed out of the park next to the community center where the camp was held. Put it in the cup. Voila! A take-home terrarium!

Mom with no money to pay for STEM camp, you're gonna be fine. You could match some of these camps with a $25 science kit, a library book about kid science experiments, and a few grocery items. Many of them are expensive rationalizations because we have to park our kids so we can work.

Poor mom here, I got a laugh out of this! What a complete waste of money. I work three days a week and it's going to be Camp Grandma on those days so I hope to get some fun learning in on my days off.

You need to get involved in things they like, not the reverse. Grow up!!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am too poor to send my kids to STEM camp so I share my interests with them myself. I have a telescope and invite them to take a look. Visiting museums of all kinds. Collecting minerals. Growing plants.
My kids aren't particularly interested but I have a niece who is. My parents were not scientific either -- I got it from my uncle. So just be prepared that your kids might not like what you do.

At these ages they get more out of being taught by a parent than from being shepherded around by a bored teenage “counselor”

I second this. I had a friend who loved to hear about my "camp fail" stories. Those were mostly when my kids' paid camps overpromised and underdelivered. Here are two favorites:

1) Wilderness Survival Day Camp. Mostly consisted of using a compass at a local park. I came home and found a dirty wet tube sock in a sandwich bag on the powder room sink. When I asked about it, my kid told me it was a new sock full of activated carbon that they were shown how to assemble to filter drinking water. I was flabbergasted at the b.s. Not appetizing, practical, or functional. Hard for me to imagine the desperate situation in which anyone would find this their best option AND be packing activated charcoal.

2) Day camp "terrarium" craft. Take one styrofoam cup. Dig a weed out of the park next to the community center where the camp was held. Put it in the cup. Voila! A take-home terrarium!

Mom with no money to pay for STEM camp, you're gonna be fine. You could match some of these camps with a $25 science kit, a library book about kid science experiments, and a few grocery items. Many of them are expensive rationalizations because we have to park our kids so we can work.

The only one of these things I know anything about is cloud/weather patterns, but I would just take my kids on a weather-watching walk! Practice pointing out clouds when you're driving somewhere. Talk about how you can tell X from the way the wind is moving, or whatever. I'm a tree nerd personally and it's fun to point out to my kids "oh look at how that one is leaning, there must have been a big tree next to it when it was young so it grew at that funny angle to avoid the shade..." But really, the way you get your kids interested in the stuff that interests you is to be visibly excited and interested in it.

Anonymous wrote:I am too poor to send my kids to STEM camp so I share my interests with them myself. I have a telescope and invite them to take a look. Visiting museums of all kinds. Collecting minerals. Growing plants.
My kids aren't particularly interested but I have a niece who is. My parents were not scientific either -- I got it from my uncle. So just be prepared that your kids might not like what you do.

At these ages they get more out of being taught by a parent than from being shepherded around by a bored teenage “counselor”

Bribery. You do mommy's activity with a good attitude, then mommy will do [insert desired activity here]. If you don't have a good attitude, you do mommy's activity anyway and you don't get the bribe.

*invited

Anonymous wrote:Kids are 5 (girl) and 8 (boy). Op here. I try to promote my interests asking them to sign up through summer camp or weekend classes. They say no, and they only want swimming pool, playground and multi- sports for 10 weeks of summer.

OP, my kids also used to love to say no, and I found a new way of framing activities.

When there is something that I want to do, and I want them to join me, I say "Hey! I'm going to go _____, and you are invite!" They usually both jump on it, and then enjoy themselves, and I get to enjoy myself, too.

Subtley different than "Do you want to ____?" but it somehow works for us.

My husband's a hobby astronomer. He got our kid into it by showing him fun stuff in the telescope and talking to him about it.

Anonymous wrote:Kids are 5 (girl) and 8 (boy). Op here. I try to promote my interests asking them to sign up through summer camp or weekend classes. They say no, and they only want swimming pool, playground and multi- sports for 10 weeks of summer.

I dunno. At some point, you may just have different interests and if you want to be close, you will have to pick up their interests rather than the other way around.

Anonymous wrote:I don't know, when I was a little kid, I just went where mom went, I never was like oh this is not interesting--we took the bus to pay the light bill, we went to the nail salon and I had to hold her purse while her nails dried, etc. I was just "there", it wasn't a thing.

This. I sign them up for what i want to talk to them about. And most of the time they like it. We also do hikes and museums and its always a special time with mom or dad to do an activity out of the norm. Kids are 4 and 8 here.