NW Of the City Seeking Things to Do Int the Winter with a 2.5 Year Old.

BTW, the playroom, Day Frog, is nice but after paying for parking ($20+/-) plus admission I felt it wasn't worth it. I think it would be a nice place to cool off in the heat of summer though when you can take public trans. there.

Check out the Swedish American Museum in Andersonville on North Clark Street. They have a great children's area. Also, lots of Chicago park districts have great classes for Mom & tots.

Find out if those indoor gyms sanitize the equiptment daily. I can't eveen imagine how many kids drool and spurt on those plastic balls that they jump into. A slide you can wipe down with sani cloths (clorox kitchen wipes that don't hurt children). So many kids are getting sick nowdays from the strange germs being carried in from all countries...things that make children really sick.

Here's a link to a nice list of things to do indoors. It's from an Oak Park mom's blog, so many of the locations are western burbs focused, but not all... Also, one of my favorite indoor places that is sort of not on most people's radar screens is the Hamill Family Play Zoo at Brookfield Zoo. You can park in the South Parking Lot ($2 for members, $8 for non-members) and the Play Zoo is just about maybe 100 yards from the entrance. There are tons of stuff for young kids to do and we can easily spend 2-3 hours playing there. The zoo is free this month and the Play Zoo is free through March I think (there is usually a separate charge unless you have the Family Plus membership). There's a Portillo's about 5 minutes from the zoo as a lunch option - awesome outing!

Also Monkey Island is Melrose Park is well worth the drive, but don't go during the weekend (details on the link below).

http://mommail.blogspot.com/2008/12/indoor-play-recommend...

I really like the Kohl's Children's Museum in The Glen.
Also, Skokie has an Exploratorium which is an indoor playground through the park district.
I think it's about $4 for non residents.

check out the Skokie Park District - the Exploritorium
http://www.skokieparkdistrict.org/spdcm/default.aspx?c=1022
on Oakton. I chaperoned a preK trip there and it was great.

Not sure where you are exactly, but Day Frog is very good! My daughter also loves Pump it up! :))

Hi, Gymboree was cool, kind of expensive. We also did Old Town School of Folk Music, they not only do music but they do drama and art and maybe movement. We loved the art program. We did the Language Stars, again expensive and it's not a physical thing but it laid the foundation for Spanish and it was super. Good luck!

Please check out my website, www.kidwinks.com - it's The site to know with kids in tow. There, you can find kid-friendly events, activities, restaurants (there's even a Dining Deals calendar in the Restaurant section where you can find out where kids eat free), shops and services throughout the Chicago area and suburbs. You can read parents' reviews of places they've visited and write your own (if you become a member, which is free). You can also get search results sorted in order of distance from your house (again, you must be a member for that benefit). Check the box to join our mailing list, and we'll do the work for you on finding fun things to do - we'll email to you twice a week links to upcoming fun, family-friendly events. We've received tremendous positive response to our emails - moms love them!

Specifically, for your indoor playground request, click on the Ongoing Activities tab at the top of the page on kidwinks, then look along the left rail and you'll see a category for "Indoor Kids Activities". You can click on that, and a lot of subcategories will be displayed, including Indoor Play Areas. Click on any of those categories to narrow down your search. Here's the link to the direct list of Indoor Play Areas: http://www.kidwinks.com/events/index.asp?SECTION_ID=4&amp...

Hope this helps!