Re: Seeking Free Winter Activities

Dear S.,
My first recommendation would be to contact your local MOMS club. The dues are $30 a year, but they put out a monthly newsletter with activities (mostly free) and playgroups twice a month. I joined this past fall and it has been a life-saver for me. I have two kids ~ son will be 5 the end of April, and daughter will be 1 the beginning of April. Having a local connection and opportunities to attend activities, play groups, and parties with my kids has been GREAT! You can visit the international ____@____.com at the bottom of the page is a link to find a chapter near you. You can e-mail them, and they'll send you the information for the one nearest you. I live in York County and am part of the Central York MOMS Club, and it's GREAT! We typically have 2 activities a week, in addition to play groups twice a month. MOST (not all) activities are free or are only a few dollars. Hope this helps!

Hi! The only thing I can think of right now are the free play areas at some malls. Park City Center in Lancaster has one in their food court area. And Towson Town Center has one as well. They are made of some sort of foam and look like different objects. The one at Park City has things like giant boxes of crayons, a big bed, a toothbrush, a soccer ball and stuff like that. My kids love when we go there. (4 1/2 and 2)

the bass pro shop at the harrisburg mall is really cool...tons of "stuffed"(taxidermy) animals...a huge aquarium a waterfall etc...and the mall has a cool play area too...we spent all day sundayjust looking at the animals and fish and then playing....

Check out local churches for kids activities. Our church in central PA (Etters) has a "POPS" (parents of preschoolers) group that meets every other Friday morning. It is free and they usually have some type of activity planned. Everyone brings "stuff."