Free playground beside a large complex of sports fields, with shade and picnic tables.
Fully fenced and shaded by trees, with a climbing rock for bigger kids and a canoe slide for smaller ones.
Two fenced play areas, one for ages 2 to 5 and one for 5 to 12, so a toddler and an older sibling each get their own space. Plus a big field for running.
A labyrinth set into the ground for kids to trace, and wide paths along the river.
A huge seated Lincoln with his famous words carved on the walls beside him. Kids can read along while you look up.
The founding documents themselves, with interactive displays that explain them.
Galleries inside and a sculpture garden outside, with room to walk among the big pieces.
Dinosaur skeletons, animal halls, minerals and ocean displays under one roof.
Giant pandas, a kids' farm of cows, goats and alpacas, and a carousel.
A glasshouse of tropical plants and desert displays, so kids can go from jungle to cactus in a few steps.
Boardwalks run out over the ponds, so kids can look straight down into the water. The lotus blooms are a summer thing.
Portraits and a courtyard, plus Explore, a hands-on space for 18 months to 8, so the youngest have their own room.
Landmark planes and spacecraft overhead, and a gallery on how flight works with a plane kids can sit in.
Wonderplace for small kids and Spark Lab for young inventors.
Mail trucks, stamps and interactive stories about how a letter gets to the door.
Wide green grounds to run on, garden paths and a bonsai collection to see up close.
Historic market hall with food stalls, where the blueberry buckwheat pancakes are a kid favorite, and crafts and produce outside on weekends.
Hands-on family workshops split by age, inside a beautiful library built around Shakespeare's plays.
Free outdoor memorial of rooms, sculptures and fountains, one for each of the four terms.
Free modern art museum full of strange, big works to talk about.
Family days with hands-on activities drawn from the collections, inside one of the most beautiful buildings in the country.
Free memorial with a huge carved statue and a wall of his quotations.
Free central library with a big reading room and art on the walls.
Free museum of African American history and culture, with galleries on music and sports.
Free language museum with voice-activated exhibits, karaoke and word games, best for ages 10 and up.
Quiet galleries and an art workshop where kids look closely at a piece, then make their own in the studio.
Artifacts and stories from Indigenous cultures, plus the imagiNATIONS activity center where kids get to try things with their hands.
Free round memorial with columns and a tall statue, on the edge of the Tidal Basin.
Holocaust history told through one boy's life, made for kids eight and up.
Free memorial of pillars for every state around a big fountain plaza.
