Fun things to do in Louisville for children? (Frankfort, La Grange: movies, shop)

[lorismith]

Originally Posted by ic-epi

As to the "whole" package, I believe that's also the point we were trying to make. In any event this isn't your thread, so I'm done addressing this. The original poster seems to be a great person who understands what is going on, so I'm glad of that.

I really appreciate all the postings! I realize everyone has their own opinions or experiences with Louisville. There will be some people who are not happy in Louisville, but that is okay! You can't please everyone! I hear so many positives over the negatives! I am really excited to visit Louisville the first week of June! Take Care!

Lori

[ic-epi]

Originally Posted by lorismith

I really appreciate all the postings! I realize everyone has their own opinions or experiences with Louisville. There will be some people who are not happy in Louisville, but that is okay! You can't please everyone! I hear so many positives over the negatives! I am really excited to visit Louisville the first week of June! Take Care!

Lori

Lori,

Thanks for your posts and I love your positive attitude! We'll be thinking of you in Louisville the first week of June, the same time we'll be in Lexington buying a house (hopefully)!

[lorismith]

Originally Posted by ic-epi

Lori,

Thanks for your posts and I love your positive attitude! We'll be thinking of you in Louisville the first week of June, the same time we'll be in Lexington buying a house (hopefully)!

Thanks!! Good luck with the house buying! It is really exciting (& scarey ) starting over in a "new" house and new area! I am looking forward to making new friends as well!

Lori

[Lisa Hines]

I just came across this posting accidently but would like to comment. I have not seen any postings mention things like the Speed Art museum which does offer kid activities, the planetarium, historic homes(my 9 year olds favorite is the Conrad Caldwell house). Stage One and Derby Dinner playhouse offer plays for children. We have a fantasic Olmsted park system and waterfront park. We also have the Louisville Zoo, the Science Center, and a great library system that offers weekly kid friendly activities. There is not a lack of things to do. I also teach special education and I have a huge variety of places to take my students too. We even have a free, wonderful handicap accessible park on U of L's campus. And adults are entertained too! check out St. James art fair, cherokee art fair, Ky center for the arts, trolley hops on Friday nights, shopping & walking on Bardstown rd and Frankfort ave. The list goes on and on. Be creative and ask people around you that live here and like to participate in creative activities.

[missymomof3]

Originally Posted by ic-epi

Hi, I have a question that has been niggling around in my brain for awhile now, reading these posts, and after reading this one I'm finally going to ask it.

What, exactly, in terms of entertainment do you expect? If you "get through" these things too quickly, then I'm left wondering what will ever be enough.

We are a family living on an acreage about 2 miles from a town of 972 people and about 20 miles from a University town (where we work). My kids play outside (hide and seek, etc), ride 4 wheelers, ride bikes, go swimming, play with neighbor kids (who are nowhere near their age since we don't have many neighbors to pick from), and just generally find ways to occupy themselves. Oh yeah, and Chuck E Cheese is great!

When we want more "culture" we go into town to the children's museum, sometimes some local concerts, Friday night downtown live band, etc. in a town 1/4 the size of Lexington, but somehow we've never run out of things to do.

So.... my question is, What is it that is missing to do in Louisville? From what I've read about Louisville, it has so much to do that no child and no family should EVER get bored, unless they have no imagination whatsoever!

I agree. Kids do not have to be taken somewhere on a daily bases to be "entertained" and can be taken to places more than once as well. Let's not forget surrounding areas as well!
What ever happened to spending all day playing games with other neighborhood kids or riding bikes or things like that???

[Lisa Hines]

Originally Posted by missymomof3

I agree. Kids do not have to be taken somewhere on a daily bases to be "entertained" and can be taken to places more than once as well. Let's not forget surrounding areas as well!
What ever happened to spending all day playing games with other neighborhood kids or riding bikes or things like that???

Kids should still be entertaining themselves. I teach special needs and that is something that we actually work on teaching our students is how to play independently and with others. There are an abundance of places in Louisville to visit (as I mentioned in an earlier post) when seeking outside entertainment, but we should never forget just old fashioned playing. I mentioned things like the Speed Art Museum and historic places because I think it is important to teach our children while they have fun. If kids are allowed to use their imaginations they can make just about anything fun.

[dancingchick101]

All About Kids is a great place to bring your kids. If you are not interested in signing your child/children up for swimming, tae kwan do, cheerleading, or gymnastics , there is always Family Fun night where you can either drop your kids off or stay with them and they have a whole gym to play in for 2 hours. There are inflatables, trampolines, a trapeze, etc. More info on their website http://www.allaboutkids.cc/. Thanks for reading.

[K. Dunn]

This was a fascinating series of replies for "us" family types who are thinking of moving to the area. My wife will like to read this for our girls ages 5 & 10. I see some of you plan on moving into either the Lexington area or Louisville area soon. Both areas I find both interesting and quite beautiful. School scores on average for public schools tend to be better up in eastern Louisville, and both offer excellent private schools. Being a family who would not be able to afford sending both our girls to private schools [that a lot of people in Kentucky seem to recommend], the public schools of Oldham County has won out for us.

I have now traveled to KY twice, both times to investigate the Lexington area and Northern Kentucky by Union/Florence, and this last time to really check out the Louisville area. I love them all. "Schools" should be free to speak his/her mind and be open about the goods and bads of a area. I am generally quite the upbeat type and do find the good in all, even though in some areas it is harder. I didn't find that in KY, it all looked good to me. I would say my only dissapointment is that both in Northern KY and Louisville surrounding areas, there is less of what I call towns, more of what they call "Bedroom Communities", and I may have to except that to get the beautiful surroundings and strong schools.

I definately do not worry about "entertaining" my kids if I was to move there. Like one person said about Chicago, it's easy to just settle in to your living area and not do much exploring outsite of your community when your happy with "your spot", but now when they re-visit the area, they are much more into seeing it all! I didn't see anyone mention all the "history" to go visit with just a short drive in any direction. My family loves short 1-3 day road trips, and I can see driving into Indiana, Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, to go visit all the historical places to visit and have the kids learn about while of course throwing in a water-park, dinosaur museum, cave, or a train ride to keep it fun.

I do agree with schools that there is definately a lot of "spirit" in the area regarding there university and pro-sports affiliations. I actually found it nice to the "rah, rah" of the locals. I was amazed at how much I saw and heard about your Basketball UK team, and was equally amazed while traveling through Northern KY how much of the orange/black colors of the Cincinnati Bengals I saw both in clothes, flags on homes, signs on cars. Shows pride, nothing wrong with that! You don't see hardly anything that over here in the LA area.

I also happened to be over there just before you last elections, and found it refreshing to hear older folks encouraging the "youngin's" to get out and vote. That all signifies pride and civic involvement. The west coast seems to feel detached from that these days, which I personally miss. So after all this rambling from me, I would with confidence say you could not go wrong with raising your kids in this kind of atmosphere. We had some friends parents visit us once over here in Thousand Oaks, Ca and they said as looking down from a hill looking at our valley "I didn't know you lived in a park?", since they were from NY, they were more use to the concrete jungle. Now I think if those same people came over to visit us in Kentucky what would they say? Hah.

We are also checking out Asheville, NC, and Roanoke, Virginia for the same reasons that we love Kentucky, will be making our decision in the not too distant future. I totally understand your intrepidation, very important research must happen before moving your entire family to a new location. Good luck on your move, and enjoy!

p.s. Hope you have a nice Kentucky X-mas someday!!

[Off Topic]

Originally Posted by K. Dunn

Roanoke, Virginia

I have friends who live there and they love it.

[Cattknap]

When you have kids there are lots of fun things to do both for free and not free.

Our two oldest grandchildren visited us about a month ago (they are 12 (boy) and 8 (almost 9-girl). They caught lightening bugs and frogs and chased deer in our meadow - they loved it since these aren't things you can't do in Phoenix. We bought two Birds of Kentucky books and they had fun in the morning identifying different birds at our feeders (with binoculars from the bay kitchen window). They helped their grandpa catch chipmunks to relocate to the park by the river (they helped catch alvin #28 & 29). My granddaughter and I visited my friend up the street where my granddaughter sewed a cute bed pillow (her first sewing adventure). We made cupcakes and had domino tournaments every night - the adults against the kids - my 8 year old granddaughter usually won.

We took them kayaking on Harrod's Creek and on the Ohio (my grandson and husband kayaked across to Indiana and back), went jet skiing at Taylorsville Lake, took them to the Kentucky Horse Park (wonderful) and then to Wallace Station for lunch. One evening we decided they needed to have their first hot brown so off to Captain's Quarters we went and got a great table next to the river (they flipped over the hot browns). When they visit, we take them to Stone Place Stables on Rose Island Road for horseback riding lessons (they are really improving!). We went to the movies - Tinseltown, had breakfast at Lynn's Paradise Cafe (they adore that place - always biscuits & sausage gravy for my skinny grandson), shopping for toys and games in historic downtown La Grange (they get a kick out of the train that runs down the middle of the street), barbecue at Juicy's, a Saturday cruise on the Belle of Louisville, to the Oldham County Fair (they had such fun seeing the demolition derby and going on carnival rides), a very interesting tour at Schimpff's Candy Store in Jeffersonville and my husband took our grandson to Louisville Slugger Field for a baseball game. The kids are major readers so we took them to Books a Million and got them each a book or two. They were here for 10 days and we had a ball.

I wish I had been able to find a good blue grass festival while they were here but could find nothing.

No theme parks or zoos or science museums - they do those kind of things all the time.