As a caregiver, and teacher, I understand the need for children to interact with other children, even at the youngest of ages. It teaches them proper social skills and allows them the opportunity to make friends. Even though Baby Boy is only 5 months (and 10 days) old I have also found myself searching for events, classes and outings that he and I can do together when the sun comes out and the warm weather decides to stay longer than a day.Where to search? The internet was my best bet. So up came Google, curser blinking at me to the beat of the Jeopardy song, as I decided what to type. The easiest thing to do would be to type the city I was in followed by 'kids': Chicago Kids. Up popped 'about 122,000' results. Ugh. Time to start weeding through the sites. (If you don't live in Chicago (this blog post is long) jump down to the bottom to see other city websites I've listed!)
First up, ChicagoKids.com "Guide to Family Fun Events and Activities for Kids and Families in the Chicago Area". That was easy. A very basic yet inviting website presented me with five options: Calendar, Places to Go, Resources, Coupons & Deals, and Join Now! 'Calendar' seemed to be the best of choices, narrowing down my results by looking at a specific day of the week and going from there. It was, in fact! They divided the day by 'Activities', 'Entertainment', 'Kids Eat Free', 'Ongoing Exhibits', 'Performance', 'Storytelling', and 'Theater'. Each event had information on time, place, price and a link to their website. ChicagoKids is a great resource. The only downfall to this website is that you cannot search for events and activities by area (Chicago, Evanston, Lisle, etc.).
- Positives: Well organized by date; provides resources beyond events and activities, such as Childcare information; Easy to navigate; Free Membership
- Negatives: Unable to search by area of the city, Print can be small for some links
The next few results on Google were for parents visiting Chicago with kids, so I skipped those. Then I came upon KidWinks.com. The website is crowded with Buttons, Calendars and News and it seems a bit overwhelming, after taking a deep breath I decided to start at the top and work my way down. Eight buttons with, what I believe is, a car on them provide me with options to better narrow down my needs: Weekly Activities Guide, Summer Camp Guide, Free Museum Days, Birthday Party Guide, Classes Guide, Indoor Areas, Family Dining Guide and Summer Fun Guide. The print on each of these buttons is small, almost forcing me to pull out my reading glasses, but they lead to pages packed with information. It is definitely not as organized at ChicagoKids but it organizes its events by Week and Weekend. Each event is linked to its own page where it describes the event, place, times, day(s) and price, similarly to ChicagoKids. I could go on about this website, but then I would probably be writing a book and not a blog. I would say the best way to learn about this site is to just take a half hour or so out of your day to explore (or maybe 10 minutes a day for a few days)!
- Positives: Many options for activities; Free Memberships; Coupons and deals; provides resources beyond events and activities, such as Childcare information
- Negatives: The mass amount of information displayed is distracting and can be frustrating if you don't know exactly what you're looking for or how you need to look for it; lacks specific organization (dividing events by day instead of week); delayed in updating their website weekly/daily.
Last but not least is Time Out Chicago Kids. I think this is one of my favorite resource websites that Chicago offers for families. Unlike the other two websites you can search for events by age group, times and neighborhood right on the main page. They also have easy-to-read tabs like ChicagoKids.com does directing you to more specific subjects: Things to do, Arts + Entertainment, Eating + Shopping, Guides + Resources. Also on the main page is a daily schedule of events that are happening around the city, the weather and a number of articles related to kid things; music, movies, dining, etc. Overall I would say that this website has the most to offer, but each are great resources. Time Out also has websites for New York and Boston.
- Positives: Well organized; Easy to read and navigate; Sortable events by age, time and neighborhood;
- Negatives: No free membership
Here are some websites for other cities in the U.S.
Pittsburgh:
- Visit Pittsburgh - Pittsburgh is Kidsburgh!
- Children's Museum of Pittsburgh
- Ligonier Camp and Conference Center - Shout out to my home town!
What are you and your kids planning on doing this summer? Have any websites you recommend? Share them with me!
No comments:
Post a Comment