Kid Baltimore | Family Activities with Children in Baltimore, Maryland

Second Chance

 
Daddy Day at Kid Baltimore...which means potato skins for lunch, long hours without a potty break, and visiting Baltimore's great architectural salvage yard and enchanted kingdom of creative possibilities... Second Chance. Most of the merchandise is pretty indestructible (old bathtubs, doors, radiators, etc.) so there's not much worry about kids breaking stuff but I'd discourage running to avoid injury because it is warehouses full of metal and glass after all. Toddlers are going to like the shelves of old doorknob hardware, various concrete beasties, the interior rain puddles and friendly warehouse cats. Older kids can be introduced to a different level of recycling and have fun discovering a drawer full of iron seahorses (radiator legs in their first life)! At the very least, everyone will be ready for a nap after exploring all of the warehouses and dragging Dad back to the car.

410-385-0435

Second Chance
1645 Warner Street
Baltimore, MD 21230

Mapquest Directions

Cherry Picking at Shaw Orchards

 
The cherries are ripe at Shaw Orchards, but the season only lasts about 3 weeks so hurry! The drive to Pennsylvania is beautiful, and more importantly short. When we arrived at Shaw Orchards we grabbed some buckets and headed over to the sweet cherries. The trees in most areas are low enough for toddlers to pick all by themselves and they are absolutely loaded with fruit. My youngest two decided to forget the buckets and filled up their hats instead. Very effective.

Of course we ended up with way too many cherries, but that's what freezers are for. When it was time to pit the cherries, all my helpers disappeared. Seriously, after about 15 minutes, the crickets were chirping, but that's okay. I had my trusty paper clip. No fancy-schmancy cherry pitter for me.

Martha does it the same way, so apparently, I'm a domestic goddess.

Note: Blueberries are ready too and have a longer season.

717-993-2974 (PA)
410-692-2429 (MD)

Shaw Orchards
21901 Barrens Rd South
Stewartstown, PA 17363

MapQuest Directions

Young Birder's Guide

 

Bill Thompson stopped by our studio last month, and dropped off a signed copy of his new book The Young Birder's Guide to Birds of Eastern North America (Peterson Field Guides) for my daughter. The book traveled back and forth from school the last few weeks of the year so that she could study it on the bus and during free time. It is now sufficiently dog-eared enough that I thought it deserved to be mentioned as a really great regional bird guide for kids. The book is filled with lots of fun facts and color photos. The beautiful illustrations by Julie Zickefoose are an added bonus.

To find out more about Bill Thompson, listen to his recent NPR interview with Melissa Block, or visit his blog, Bill of the Birds.

Timer Time

The death of nap time is a horrible thing. I remember when my oldest was giving it up, whether or not she still needed it. I instituted a rule. Naps are optional, but quiet time is not — especially for Mommy. The only problem is that explaining how long an hour is to a three-year-old is nearly impossible. Quiet times were almost always on a sofa in my studio and I kept hearing a tiny whisper, "Is quiet time over yet? Is quiet time over yet? Is quiet time over yet?"

My solution was an hour glass. I figured that if she had a visual reference, she would get it. I scoured the internet and found very few hour glasses that actually measured a whole hour. I ended up settling on this ginormous, ornate, gold thing that reminded me of a certain wicked witch. The fact that my daughter was right in the middle of a huge Dorothy phase probably didn't help. In hindsight, it all seems rather cruel. She, being forced to abandon her ruby slippers, and held hostage on a comfy sofa. I, cackling wildly and as I turned over the hourglass.

Anyway it worked for a while until the Baltimore humidity got the best of the hourglass. As the sand would clump, time would magically stop. That was the end of the hourglass and the end of quiet time.

So here I am again, but with twins, facing the end of two nap times simultaneously, and not ready to give up just yet. Finally, I found the answer. The Timer Time is a visual timer. It comes in three sizes and is just so simple. So perfectly simple.

Note: I ordered mine from EAI Education and it arrived incredibly fast.

Meadowood Regional Park

  

Meadowood Regional Park is my new pick for best place to learn to ride a bike. My kids are bicycle deprived. We don't have a good place to ride, so it was a challenge getting my daughter to give up those training wheels. Now I know better. Meadowood has a easy bike loop that circles the park -- the perfect place to kiss those training wheels goodbye. To top it off, they have a nice playground, covered picnic area, 7 sports fields and (my favorite part) Deep Run Stream.

410-887-6747

Meadowood Regional Park
10650 Falls Road
Lutherville, MD 21093

Mapquest Directions

Pizza Night

Growing up, Sundays at my house were sacred, but not for the usual reason. Sunday night was pizza night. It was my dad's night to cook and that almost always meant pizza. But not just any old pizza -- pizza from scratch with a homemade crust, homemade tomato sauce and all the toppings. Dad would toss it in the oven and I would camp out by the oven door waiting... waiting... drooling. It was a ritual that has grown into one of those fond childhood memories that I'll never be able to live up to. But why not try?

I have a lot of little "helpers" in my kitchen and there are plenty of times when I feel the need to scoot them out as I get dinner ready, but this wasn't one of them. There were plenty of jobs to go around.

Here is my recipe. It will never be as good as my dad's, but maybe close.

For the dough you need:

3 c. flour (you can sneak in some whole wheat if you like)
1 1/2 t. yeast (or 1 packet)
pinch sugar
1/2 t. salt
1 c. warm water

Put pizza stone on the bottom rack of your oven. Preheat to 500 degrees for 1 hour.

Proof the yeast by mixing it in the warm water. Add a pinch of sugar. If you see bubbling within 5 minutes, proceed. If not, toss it and start over with fresh yeast.

Mix in flour and salt (I use the dough setting on my bread machine for this, but kneading by hand is fun too). If the dough is too sticky, add more flour. Too crumbly, add more water.

Place kneaded dough in an oiled bowl and cover. Set in a warm spot until double in size (about 45 minutes). Punch down and divide into 2 equal pieces.

Roll dough out into circles. Sprinkle cornmeal onto a baker's peel (or cookie sheet without the sides). Place dough onto baker's peel and assemble pizza.

You know this part. Sauce, cheese, toppings. This is where those little "helpers" come in. Repeat with the other piece of dough.

Now the tricky mom part. Kids stand back while Mom tries to slide this thing off of the cookie sheet and onto the pizza stone. I got lucky and only lost one olive.

Bake for about 10 minutes. Enjoy!