Kids' Activities in Northern Virginia
- Northern Virginia offers children-friendly events throughout the year. The Gunston Hall Kite Festival is an annual event in March that takes place at the Gunston Hall Plantation (gunstonhall.org), the 18th-century home of George Mason. This event allows children to fly kites on the Gunston Hall estate. Other activities include puppet shows, picnics and interaction with actors dressed in 18th-century garb.
At Gateway Park in Rosslyn (rosslynva.org), Northern Virginians have access to the Rosslyn Outdoor Film Festival. This festival features a large screen, and festival attendees bring lawn chairs and picnic blankets for seating. The Rosslyn Outdoor Film Festival starts on the last Friday of April and runs through August. Admission is free of charge and all films are family-friendly. - During America's colonial period, Virginia was one of the most prominent regions of the New World. In the present, children have access to colonial-era sites, including Mount Vernon (mountvernon.org), the birthplace of George Washington, and Old Town Alexandria (alexcolonialtours.com).
The Mount Vernon Estate is approximately an hour south of D.C. Every children's ticket purchase comes with a complimentary "Adventure Map," which features historic facts about George Washington and puzzles. Mount Vernon features the After Hours program, which allows student groups -- grades kindergarten through 12 -- to visit and dine at the estate after regular hours.
The Alexandria Colonial Tours company provides guided tours of Old Town Alexandria, Virginia. This company offers a scavenger hunt for children ages 8 to 11, which acts as an self-guided educational tour for children to learn the history of Old Town Alexandria. - According to the Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority (nvrpa.org), or NVRPA, Virginia provides over 11,000 acres of public parks in this region of the state. Churches may reserve one of NVRPA's campgrounds for youth group activities -- NVRPA parks that feature campgrounds including Blue Ridge Regional Park, Bull Run Regional Park and Pohick Bay Regional Park.
Kids may also participate in the Junior League of the 18-hole Pohick Bay Golf Course. NVRPA offers junior memberships for children 17 years old and younger to play at the Pohick Bay Regional Park, Brambleton Regional Park and Algonkian Regional Park golf courses. With these passes, kids have unlimited playing time on Mondays through Fridays. - Children in Northern Virginia may attend a class at one of the region's museums. Many of these museums provide after-school programs, host summer camps and invite students to take field trips to their facility.
Old Town Alexandria is home to the National Inventors Hall of Fame and Museum (invent.org), an institute dedicated to over 420 American inventors. Students on field trips are admitted to the museum for free. The museum's Isaac Fleischmann Theatre offers a short film with information regarding the inventions in the Hall of Fame.
Located in Arlington, the Arlington Arts Center (arlingtonartscenter.org) offer the Public Learning Art Project. This program offers tours and creative workshops for elementary school students. Some of the Arts Center's workshops are the "Fundamentals of Comic Art" and "Stop! Motion Animation" filmmaking. The Arts Center also allows high school students to intern during the summer.
