Family Things to Do in Houston
- Houston, Texas is home to several family-friendly attractions.texas proud image by buckwheat from Fotolia.com
Houston, America's fourth largest city, offers an array of cultural and educational attractions for the whole family. Houston is home to a first-rate children's museum and an arboretum focused on educating youngsters through age-appropriate hands-on activities. Tourists who plan to hit multiple attractions can purchase a Houston CityPASS online or at select attractions to save nearly 50 percent at the Children's Museum and several other family attractions. - National Geographic Traveler's Family Vacation Planner recommends the Houston Arboretum and Nature Center, where kids can "study local flora and fauna at the nature center" and explore five miles of nature trails. The center offers several children's educational activities. "Tadpole Troopers" provides kids ages 3 to 5 with story time and a special age-appropriate tour. Children ages 5 to 8 can become "Naturalist Explorers" through hands-on projects designed to teach about natural history and basic ecology. "EcoTrackers," for kids ages 9 to 12, takes children outdoors for hands-on nature learning.
- Visit the Children's Museum of Houston, where kids up to age 12 can play and learn in 90,000 square feet of interactive exhibits. Exhibits include the child-friendly construction area called "Building Zone"; a "Think Tank" full of magic mirrors and puzzles; a special "Tot*Spot" play area for kids up to 36 months; an "Invention Convention" where kids can create their own contraptions; and the science and ecology focused "Matter Factory" and "EcoStation." The Children's Museum of Houston has been called one of the nation's best children's museums by Child magazine and was voted "Ultimate Kid-Friendly Attraction" in a Houston Chronicle readers poll. Free family nights are offered on Thursdays from 5 p.m. to 8:00p.m.
- Frommer's Travel Guide calls the Houston Museum of Natural Science "a lot more than your average natural history museum." Frommer's praises the museum's Butterfly Center, where families can "walk among hundreds of living butterflies as they dance about in the steamy air amid a small waterfall." The Cockrell Butterfly Center and Brown Hall of Entomology offers interactive games and quizzes for the whole family. The museum's special events for kids are seasonally themed, with a "Spooky Costume Lab" planned for Halloween and a Thanksgiving and Christmas "Holiday Hoopla!" where kids make holiday-themed crafts. An IMAX Theater at the museum shows 3D nature and science films on topics ranging from the Hubble spacecraft to Alaska's wilderness to the life of penguins in the wild ocean.
