Mom's of one year olds - where do you take your kids for fun?

[chlobo]

My DD is almost a year. She is cruising and almost walking. Besides the park, where do folks take their DC for fun? I feel totally unimaginative and DD seems like she's getting bored of the playroom. Where can I take her so she can walk around and "touch" stuff?

[barbarhow]

We live in the country and have a farm nearby. We love to go there and talk to the animals. Any petting zoos or nature centers around?
Jacks new favorite place is the beach. He wasn't too interested at first but now he sits there and stares at the shells and plays with every little rock.
Barbara-mom to Jack 3/27/03, a Red Sox fan
expecting #2, a Yankee fan, around 5/9/05!

[ktdid74]

Do you have a children's museum around you? Those are always fun!

[Momof3Labs]

Depending on where you live, you can probably find a local bookstore or toy store with a train table - this is popular with the cruising-and-almost-walking crowd!

[kristine_elen]

Some libraries have great play areas and also storytimes where a librarian reads to the kids (even very young ones). You might try something like Gymboree, although I found that a bit too structured for my taste.

[Raidra]

We had a problem with that, too.. luckily, I've met some other moms in my area lately and gotten some new ideas.

Our favorites are local farms that have animals, TRU (that has a train table), Barnes & Noble's train table, indoor playgrounds (some places that I thought were just arcades for older kids actually have great fenced-in toddler areas), Boston Children's Museum, and Logan airport (he loves looking at the planes).

Are ther any local groups that you can get recommendations from? A lot of parenting websites have forums for each state.

[jk3]

Our local Barnes + Noble has a Thomas train table. My DS loves to play with the trains. We also go to open gymtime at Gymboree. Our local Y has a drop-in playgroup time which is amazing. Many libraries have play areas in the children's section. Also, DS seems to like the toy better anywhere else but our home so a trip to a friend's house is a great distraction too.

Jenn
DS 6/03

http://lilypie.com/baby2/030603/2/5/1/-5/.png

[Oregonmother]

-Toddler storytime at the public library
-Gymboree
-Tiny Tots-a local co-op for chidren birth-kindergarten(it's basically an indoor gym for kids)
-DS loves to run around the mall
-pet store to look at animals

[new_mommy25]

I finally made some friends and now we get together for a playgroup usually once a week, sometimes more often. These are friends I made from MDC. We also go to LLL once a month and there are tons of kids there. We go to Wee Play once a week which is like Gymboree. Besides the park we usually go to the beach several times a week which Noah loves. Other favorites are the aquarium and the zoo. I bought a years pass and it really gets put to good use. The zoo has a giant playground in the middle just teeming with kids and DS is in heaven.