If you’re anything like my husband and I, it can be a struggle to come up with creative ideas to occupy your family’s time. I’m hoping this list will be helpful to you in finding fun activites your whole family will enjoy.
Toledo specific ideas:
1. 577 foundation – take a class at the 577 foundation together. They provide a wide array of creative classes including cooking, pottery, nature & wildlife, farming, gardening, glassblowing, photography and jewelry making. The classes are offered monthly and range in price from 5-30 bucks, most are 15-20.
2. Fossil Park – Visit Fossil Park in Sylvania, it’s completely free from parking to admission. No tools are permitted but your little paleontologist will be free to dig and search for treasures and fossils all they want. As a bonus, if your children are old enough, you can spend the time walking or biking on the trail which borders the park. You can keep your eye on junior while you take a leisure stroll.
3. Sauder Village – Visit sauder village in Archibold. There are costumed guides to teach and show you how families lived 100 years ago. Watch fascinating demonstrations on glass blowing, pottery, woodwork, basket weaving and many more. Enjoy a variety of homemade goodies and visit the gift shop. A great way to experience history!
$15 per adult- $6 per child- FREE for those 5 and under. Open May-October.
4. Macqueens Orchard – Take a trip to macqueens orchard. You can pick your own apples and peaches (16 apple varieties!) from July-October, By October the apples do get pretty picked over so it’s best to go earlier on in the season. Visit the Apple Butter Stir festival , held the first weekend of October. This festival hosts horse drawn wagon rides, craft shows, carnival rides, climbing wall, pony rides, live entertainment and tours of the giant apple cider press.
Open 9-7 pm. visit www.macqueensorchard.com for more info.
5. Sandpiper cruise – Take a cruise down the Maumee River on the sandpiper May-October. they offer a variety of cruise choices, some give great views of stately river homes and wildlife while others will take you through down town to see the city skyway bridge, Toledo’s busy port, the ship yard and dry docks.
Price depends on the cruise and its length but most range between 15-30 for adults, slightly cheaper for children- reservations are required!
6. Valentine Theater – each season this historc theater offers several programs for children and gives you the opportunity to explore the beautiful building.
7.Ottawa Park – offers seasonal ice skating, bring your own skates or rent them at the park. Located at 2200 West bancroft 419-936-2997.
$4 admission ticket $2 skate rental.
8. Ohio skate – year round roller skating for all ages!
9. German american Festival – held at Oak Shade Grove, some say its the biggest and best Toledo has to offer. Boasting nearly 35,000 visitors each year, this festival offers fun and many tasty german delicacies. For children Sunday is better, and cheaper.
10.Providence Park – located in Grand Rapids Ohio, this park has educational canal rides at the Isaac Ludwid Grist Mill. The site also has a working limestone lock, the Providence Dam and characters dressed in full costume!
$6 for adults – $4 for kids – children 2 and under are free.
11. The Toledo Botanical Gardens – This site has beautiful grounds to explore that include a shade garden, an aquatic garden, rose garden, pioneer garden and log cabin. They alo offer summer education classes for kids 6-12 in where they can learn about life as a pioneer, pottery and many more interesting topics. The gardens also host the Crosby Festival in June.
12.Maumee Bay State Park – Take the family for a weekend of fun at Maumee Bay State park. There are trails to hike, a nature center, great picnic locations, golfing, swimming and good ole’ camping fun! In the winter you can cross country ski, ice skate and go sledding. Make it more than a day trip and rent a cabin, stay at the lodge or one of the 252 campsites.
13. Willis B Boyer – This museum ship is free to tour for all ages 10 and under. Its an old freight trader that was retired in 1980 and became the largest museum ship on the inland seas! Located at 26 Main Street, Toledo.
$7 Adults – $5 kids – preschool age children free.
14. Western Railway – Located in Waterville, this location is perfect for all your little train lovers! Board the Blue Bird locomotive for a short or long ride across northwest Ohio. Plan on spending 2-4 hours.
$10 Adults – $7 kids.
15. Ft. Meigs Battlefield – This historic site has a museum and education center, four blockhouses and a stockade. Check their website for many of their exciting events.
$8 Adults – $4 Kids – Children 5 and under are free.
16. Apple Butter festival – Second Sunday of October in Grand Rapids Ohio. This festival has craft shows, apple butter making, a huge array of apple foods and an area specifically designed for children.
17. African Safari Wildlife Park – Located in Port Clinton (267 South Lightner Rd). Spend the day at this fun park walking through their small zoo, taking a camel ride, watching pig races, eating ice cream, and of coarse, driving through the large safari to feed the free range animals. A must see!!
$19 Adults – $13 Kids ages 4-6 – under 4 get in free.
open March- November
18. Ritter Planetarium : Visit Ritter planetarium at UT. Every Friday and Saturday at 7:30pm they have a show, Fridays are geared more towards adults while saturdays are more for the kids.
$7 Adult – $5 Kids
General Activies:
Find a little stream or small river and make boats out of aluminum foil then race them! Bet little things for the winner like ice cream or getting to decide whats for dinner.
Find shapes in the clouds.
Go to the thrift store with 5 dollars; have a contest to see who can get the best item.
Pull out a board game everyone can play, you’ll have more fun than you think.
Go on a nature walk and pick up garbage on the way, give a prize for the strangest item found, and for the most garbage collected. Its fun, and your doing service in your community!
Have a paint war. Get large bath sponges and cut them into baseball size sponges then dip them in buckets of washable paint and go crazy.
Go Horse back riding.
Wash the family car.
Visit your local animal shelter to play with the cats and dogs.
Visit an indoor water park.
Make a time capsule to bury in your backyard. Include things that represent your children as they are now, like art work, favorite characters. Dig it back up in 10-15 years.
Play a family game of capture the flag or hide and seek.
Call local factories and see if they give free tours.
Story time, take turns adding on bits and pieces to your own made up story.
Create a scavenger hunt for your kids that makes them think. Give them a clue that they have to think about like where does the dirty laundry go, when they look in the washer have another clue waiting for them. Use as many clues as you’d like, have the hunt end with a present or in a cool place. get creative here!
Make a slip and slide with a tarp in your back yard.
Go putt-putting.
