Beltway Bambinos

Some of your favorite child-friendly destinations have pivoted and are trying their best to reach kids virtually! We’ve listed some ways you can continue to explore DC below and you can also visit here for a list of classes that are now virtual! This link from the Smithsonian has been a favorite of ours.

Hirshhorn Kids programs have always been a favorite of ours. Now it’s time to get creative at home! You can experience the joy of HIRSHHORN KIDS even when you’re not actually at the Museum. Keep kids of all ages engaged and interested in exploring art and making with unique hands-on projects inspired by your favorite Hirshhorn artworks. New projects are released every week.

National Portrait Gallery offers Young Portrait Explorers. Join every Tuesday on Instagram stories to start with a close look at a featured portrait, then dig deeper with some discussion questions and finally get moving with fun and engaging activities on the day’s topic. Full activity guides will also be available on Facebook. For children ages 3 and up and their families.

Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History are doing some great Zoom webinars. Natural History at Home programs for families are on Saturday’s at 11am. Last week as joined and followed along with two of the world’s top paleoartists, Bob Walters and Tess Kissinger, as they taught us how to sketch our own dinosaur drawings.

National Museum of American History has a page full of resources designed to help children of all ages explore topics in American history. The majority of the resources on this page are for school-aged children.

National Gallery of Art has an iPad app! The NGAkids Art Zone app contains eight interactive activities inspired by works in the collection of the National Gallery of Art, plus a sketchbook for freehand drawing and a personal exhibition space where users can save and display art created with the program. The NGAkids app provides an immersive experience as children visit a virtual art museum and explore a variety of works spanning more than 300 years of art history.

National Postal Museum has an entire page dedicated to kids exploring the postal system, coloring pages, games, quizzes and more fun!

Tudor Place allows you to stay connected with Education at Home featuring activities, crafts and lessons about history, nature, decorative arts and more!

Port Discovery Children’s Museum is here to help. Find activity ideas, tips and virtual programs designed to help you with this adventure called parenting! From art activities and musical programs to science experiments, theater, storytimes and more, you’ll find fun and easy activities that children can follow along with alone – or that you can do together. Check back often for new information! 

People Animals Love (PALS) formerly brought to kids at local libraries is now on Zoom! They are having virtual sessions during the pandemic to serve hundreds of kids per month who are practicing reading to animals.

National Children’s Museum has virtual programs which premiere everyday at 2:30pm on their Facebook page. Themes are: Sunday: sensory play, Monday: climate action challenge, Tuesday: science exploration, Wednesday: storytime, Thursday: design + build, Friday: nature spotlight and Saturday: community connection.

Enjoy live theatre from your own home through Imagination Stage!  Join for a virtual performance of one of our most popular Theatre for the Very Young shows, Inside Out. They also offer Brain Breaks on Facebook for children. Upcoming breaks are: May 19 at 3:30pm for an Active Storytime Brain Break best for ages 3-6  and May 26 at 3:30pm for a Creative Drama Brain Break which is best for ages 5-10.

DC Library has fun for the whole family to enjoy including story time. Join on Facebook Monday – Friday at 10:30am for a live video story time. 

Kojo for Kids shows have been popular in our house with the below few ranking up there! Kate DiCamillo and Bill Nye the Science Guy

National Museum of Women is offering NMWA@Home where you can find story times among other great things and also has created this coloring book.

Gala Hispanic Theatre brings a new performances each week and interviews with artists through their website, e-newsletter, and social media platforms. For children, there are fun stories to delight and discover… And it all is in Spanish!!

Get kids birding from the Audubon!