Parks for Preschoolers in Huntsville (Birmingham, Decatur: houses, neighborhood, purchase)

[jamjo]

New to area and need some advice about good parks for preschoolers or any preschool fun ideas. Thanks!

[friday13]

Originally Posted by jamjo

New to area and need some advice about good parks for preschoolers or any preschool fun ideas. Thanks!

The Botanical Gardens (at Bob Wallace, off 565) . Membership well worth it. Sunscreen and change of clothes - they're running the Treehouses with a Splash exhibits for the summer (water features: mist, ankle deep 'pool')

Indian Creek playground (entrance through the Creekwood neighborhood off Slaughter, close to Research Park), or if you bike, start at the Old MAdison Pike end and bike to the other end (playground and dog park).

Kids Kingdom playground at Dublin Park (Old Madison Park)

Hit the biking/walking trails:Aldridge Creek, Green Mtn. (wooded), Monte Sano State Park (has playground, but also admission as recent as few years back), Ditto Landing, Hays. Check the Madison City, Hsv city websites (the recreation department for locations and maps).

Check the Land-Trust's calendar for free guided hikes in Spring /Fall, for the easy ones (the 4.5yr-older started out excited on the first-ever hike, and kept the pace up for the first hour, was still walking at the end, barely, but finished the hike like a good sport)

Swimsuit up and sunscreen on and let them run wild at the splash fountain behind the EarlyWorks Children Museum (Williams Ave, downtown). If you go the mebership route, it gives you access to three places in town (Early works, Constitution Village/Santa's Village exhibit at Christmas, Hsv Depot), plus general admission to other childrens museums 2hr drive (Chattanooga), check the reciprocal program.

The Burritt On The Mountain pioneer village and barnyard animals ($). Check their calendar.

Similarly, the Noccalula Falls in Gadsden is worth the drive and the affordable admission at least once for a day trip (unlimited train rides included in admission).

If you want indoor activities in summertime, there are a few age-appropriate museums (select exhibits for pre-k):

Sci-Quest (on Winn Drive) - if you get the membership, you can use it at Birmingham's McWane Science Center (very nice place for pre-k, ). SQ is for older kids, but with the membership you can kill couple of hours indoors during hot summer days, without having to drive to Bham.
the SQ membership also gives you free general admission to the Space and Rocket Center, and the outdoor rocket exhibits. Check the reciprocity with other science museums.

Farther out, in Anniston (2 hr-drive), the Museum of Natural History (the plaster-made animal exhibits may seem cheesy to adults, I bet the young ones can't tell the difference, but alot of different species for them to see/recognize. Check the reciprocity program (i think the Science)

Visit a pick-your-own farm (the Brown Farms in New Market just ended the strawberry season, they have a pavilion for Bdays and such). There are several threads on C-D about farms (blue/blackberry season starts in June, apples in the fall, pumpkin in October).

The Skate rink.

The Children's Theater (Playhouse).

Check the huntsville.org calendar of events (yearly recurring events such as the Easter egg hunt in Madison &Hsv city; the traveling Circus or Disney shows at the Von Braun Arena; the Madison County Fishing Rodeo for age-groups, as young as five, some horse & dog show (assn. competition/trials, but free to watch) at the A&M Agribition Center on Moores Mill, the Safety festivals at Dublin Park in Madison or Safety City for Hsv, where different agencies come out for the day with knick knack freebies for kids, and safety-related activities, prizes; the Chase Railroad Museum has themed rides with Easter bunny, Santa($$), Decatur's Jubilee Hot Air Balloon).

Are you a SAHM or homeschool? Check the Library (downtown), they have free weekdays events. Plus all the books and kids there are free to use

Save the breadcrumbs and feed them to the fish and waterfowl at the Big Spring park downtown.

The Harmony drive-thru animal park ($, additionally for animal grain feed, bring cash).

Google is your friend. Check these places' calendar of events. Also check the surrounding communities (Decatur, Guntersville- on the way stop at the Lock &Dam on US431, The Cathedral Caverns). Have fun.

[jamjo]

Thank you so much Friday 13!!! You went to a lot of trouble to give me some really great suggestions!!

[RocketCityMama]

There is also Kids Space over off Airport (or is it Johnson Rd at that point?) right off S. Memorial Parkway. It's like Kids Kingdom, wooden playground but instead of a castle, it's wooden rocket ship type playground. They also both have restrooms (important to some)

ETA: If you also feel like driving to Decatur, you can go to the Splash Pad and there is a nice park there as well, with restrooms. It was free last time I went, the splash pad is fenced in and is "soft" unlike the rest of the fountains in Hsv.

[friday13]

Re: membership restrictions

Be aware most of the times the membership programs have location restrictions as to you have to get the local venue, and visit other network members free of charge (some only 50% off) for the same level of benefits (special exhibits, IMAX cost additionally).

ACM - Children's Museum
ASTC - Science museum
AZA - Aquariums and Zoo
APGA - Botanical Garden

Just by checking their website, you learn where these museums are and decide whether to make the drive or not.

Some places (e.g. Nashville Zoo) give renewal discounts for non-lapsed members. For the Zoo, we went with Nashville (cheapest at the time), but used it a lot at Bham (shorter drive, padded water splash for my pre-k's).

Checking out the city/venue's calendar of events regularly gives you the opportunity to visit some of these places once a year free of charge (open-house or grand-opening) and decide whether it's worth getting the membership:
SciQuest has one free-admission day in April/May, plus the Smithsonian Day in September.
Burritt on the Mtn. opens its doors sometime in August/September for the Dulcimer festival.
When the Art Museum opened its new wing, they had a free admission to the children's exhibit.

When the summer heat gets oppressive and you need a break from being indoors with (I imagine) an energetic pre-k, just head out to the Barnes& Noble at BridgeStreet, in the back in children's section (no purchase necessary ) and let them interact with others.

The first year feels 'directionless', keep your own calendar of interests and the following year you'll know where/when to go, and add new places as the children grow.

[Southlander]

Originally Posted by RocketCityMama

ETA: If you also feel like driving to Decatur, you can go to the Splash Pad and there is a nice park there as well, with restrooms. It was free last time I went, the splash pad is fenced in and is "soft" unlike the rest of the fountains in Hsv.

The Splash Pad, in Delano Park, is next to an all-accessible playground and a newly-opened garden area. Delano Park is in the historic Albany neighborhood. Head south on U.S. 31, turn left on Prospect Drive. The play area of the park is in the second block.

Point Mallard Park (the wave pool) in Decatur also has a special water play area for young 'uns. There is an admission charge. www.pointmallardpark.com

[rnc76]

Lots of good suggestions so far... Here are a couple of my favorites that haven't been mentioned.

Playground/picnic area at Monte Sano State Park
Green Mountain Nature Trail, great picnic area, easy trail, ducks, turtles, log cabin...

[JakeWilliams]

Originally Posted by friday13

Sci-Quest (on Winn Drive) - if you get the membership, you can use it at Birmingham's McWane Science Center (very nice place for pre-k, ). SQ is for older kids, but with the membership you can kill couple of hours indoors during hot summer days, without having to drive to Bham.
the SQ membership also gives you free general admission to the Space and Rocket Center, and the outdoor rocket exhibits. Check the reciprocity with other science museums.

Pretty sure you're wrong on the access to Space and Rocket Center, as astc.org says it doesn't apply to museums within 90 miles of home.

[friday13]

Originally Posted by JakeWilliams

Pretty sure you're wrong on the access to Space and Rocket Center, as astc.org says it doesn't apply to museums within 90 miles of home.

I stand corrected. While I was writing my post, I had on my mind that we had visited the Space Center twice, but with the McWane card. I was typing and thinking that this year we're switching to SciQuest, and it came out wrong. I verified with McWane and they are taking the SQ card (I wasn't sure if they would as i was getting less than 90mile-as the crow flies with the online calculators)

However, it's worth checking with the SRC.

Nonetheless, I was suggesting to the OP (pre-k) to get the SQ membership and visit Bham with it. Of them two places, Bham wins hands down with my pre-k's, but sometimes I don't feel making the trip, so the SQ would come in handy to kill a couple of hours in summertime (A/C).
The SRC is not really much to understand for a young child, so the Smithsonian free day should do it.

[friday13]

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