Rainy-day activities in Chicago with kids

Every result is recorded as indoor or indoor-plus-outdoor. The label does not promise that every exhibit or program is operating today.

  1. Brookfield Zoo — Bigger than Lincoln Park, with the hands-on Hamill Family Play Zoo — a toddler-parent secret.
  2. Chicago Children's Museum — The top winter pick from real parents — purpose-built for under-5s, free every Thursday night.
  3. Chicago Cultural Center — Free, warm, central, and genuinely beautiful — the world's largest Tiffany dome.
  4. Garfield Park Conservatory — A free, warm glass jungle in the dead of February that happens to be genuinely beautiful — the winter hero.
  5. HelloBaby — The nation's first free-standing, free, drop-in play space for babies & toddlers.
  6. Indoor play cafés — When it's -5 or pouring, these are the run-around-for-them, coffee-for-you rooms worth knowing.
  7. Kohl Children's Museum (Glenview) — Smaller, pretend-play-heavy, toddler-paced — the calmer alternative to the Children's Museum.
  8. Lincoln Park Conservatory — A free, always-green glass house steps from the zoo — the perfect warm second stop on a cold day.
  9. Lincoln Park Zoo — Free, open 365, no ticket — the rare big Chicago day you can do on a whim and walk away the second they're done.
  10. North Park Village Nature Center — The first nature center inside the city — 58 acres, a Discovery Room, and a Maple Syrup Festival.
  11. Original Rainbow Cone (Beverly) — A Chicago institution since 1926 — five flavors sliced and stacked, the rainbow is the whole delight.
  12. Park District tot open-gym — The buried winter MVP — fieldhouse "Moms, Pops & Tots" and tot open-play, citywide and cheap.
  13. Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum — The toddler-right size — small enough to see it all without a meltdown, with a warm butterfly haven in February.
  14. Shedd Aquarium — Weather-proof wonder — the Polar Play Zone is the toddler landing spot in a world-class aquarium.
  15. The Field Museum — Sue the dinosaur, giant halls to roam, and Illinois Free Wednesdays.
  16. Wiggleworms @ Old Town School of Folk Music — A genuine Chicago rite of passage — the celebrated early-childhood music class you do together.