Kearney Nebraska Offers Fun Activities for Children

Kearney, Nebraska has set a high priority on children. Kearney provides many entertainment and learning activities for Children.

When our grandchildren, ages 5, 7, and 9, visited for seven weeks during the summer, we wanted the Children to have fun. Here in Kearney, Nebraska we have a wealth of kid-friendly activities to choose from. We decided to, at least, take them to Kearney's Yanny Park, Kidzone Children's Museum, the Great Platte River Road Archway Monument and the Cottonmill Park Nature Barn.

One of the first weekends our grandchildren were with us, my sister, my niece and her children drove up to Kearney from Kansas so the children could get reacquainted with their cousins. We chose to take the Children to the kid-friendly Kidzone Children's Museum. Though from a much larger town, my niece said they prefer the Kearney Kidzone Children's Museum not only because of the variety of activities offered, but because of the cost. Though adults who stay at Kidzone with the children must also pay, the cost even for a whole family makes for a low-cost, entertaining afternoon.

But the Kearney Kidzone Children's Museum is more than mindless kid-friendly fun. The Kidzone Children's Museum seeks to offer activities that help children learn about life and science as well as to have fun. They can dress up, dance to music with lights and on camera, they can watch a tornado form, build in all sorts of ways and with all sorts of material, run a train set, drive a car and much, much more. This kid-friendly place is just the right size for elementary on down.

Another weekend we took the Children to another kid-friendly place, the Cottonmill Park Nature Barn, which is open during the summer. Inside the Cottonmill Park Nature Barn, Kearney hosts a variety of small animals from cats and hamsters to fish and ferrets. The oldest grandchild, Devon, even cuddled one ferret with no hair. Devon didn't care the animal was all pink and ugly, especially when the worker said the poor ferret had cancer. The Children learned hard lessons as well as fun things about the animals.

Outside in the the Cottonmill Park Nature Barn's fenced in yard, the Children got acquainted with ducks, chickens, geese, pigs, a llama, a burro, a black and white pony and more. The afternoon we took the grandchildren to the Cottonmill Park Nature Barn it rained, but the rain didn't stop the Children from having a great time, either with the animals or on the kid-friendly play equipment also available. And it was all free.

Another day we met their other set of grandparents and assorted other relatives at Kearney's Yanny Park for a picnic. The day was sunny, hot and windy, though we found a picnic table under one of the shelters that protects from the sun and offers grills for picnickers. The Children and their cousins ran off to play on the kid-friendly bright colored slides, swings, and climbing equipment when they weren't running under the many colorful water spouts of the Splashground. Later, the Children rode swan boats on the lake and climbed the observation tower. Yanny Park also offers hike and bike trails, fishing and more.

Kearney, Nebraska offers many other wonderful activities for children including lots of parks, each with different kid-friendly fun facilities. We did not have time to take the Children through the kid-friendly Maze Fort outside the Great Platte River Road Archway Monument or take them through the audiovisual presentation of history at the Archway itself, which is interesting for the whole family.

The two oldest did have swimming lessons at the Harmon Park City Pool.

Seven weeks with younger grandchildren may seem like a long time, but with visiting family, working and kid-friendly, fun activities with the grandchildren, the time went rather quickly, leaving our grandchildren with positive memories of their visit to Kearney Nebraska where Children are important, and where kid-friendly activities abound.