<p>Someone suggested taking pictures. Here's an idea that a tweener with a digital camera might enjoy: Our daughter had to do a photogrphy project for yearbook class. When we were in Barcelona, she photographed all of the "people symbol" signs...you know, like the man and woman on the rest room door....there were very funny ones of stick people falling down stairs, stick people falling off towers, etc. I bet you could do the same thing at colleges.</p>
<p>That is a great idea & one that wasn't available 20 years ago, unless you wanted to go through piles of film!</p>
<p>If you go to Rice at the right time of year you might find:</p>
<p>A TREEHOUSE!</p>
<p>Also, if you get desperate, hermann park (huge playground! water play area!), the museum of natural science, and the houston zoo are right across the street.</p>
<p>Also, ask your tour guide about the frog wall and the whisper wall.</p>
<p>lol soon as I read the title I thought of Colonial Williamsburg, but you already got it down. That's such a cool thing about the campus, that part of it is in Colonial Williamsburg. Also, Busch Gardens is about a ten minute drive from campus.</p>
<p>The University of Washington (Seattle campus) has a small outdoor climbing wall just south of the Stadium parking lot. Right behind the stadium, rent canoes and rowboats (February-October) from the UW Waterfront Activities Center and paddle along the shoreline of Lake Washington and the arboretum. I second HarrietMWelsch's razor scooter recommendation -- my preteen S loves this campus with a bike, scooter or ripstick. Red Square atop the central parking garage is a destination for H and S on bike rides -- they take a little (1") bouncy ball and have a blast bouncing it across the square near the Broken Obelisk sculpture. Kids who like wildlife might spot herons, ducks, turtles, nutria (destructive "swamp rats" that resemble beavers) in the water along the gravel road that runs behind the stadium.</p>
<p>also at cornell, there's also a hands-on science center that's off campus but near by. in the helen newman gym on north campus, there is also a full service bowling alley</p>
<p>at boston college there is the labyrinth directly to the right after you enter the main gates. it is meant as a memorial to bc alums who died on september 11, however children whom i used to nanny liked going and following the stone maze on the ground.</p>
<p>also at bc, you can go to the sports museum in the yawkey building and most days during the summer you can go into the stadium and run on the football field. a lot of dads like to reenact the Doug Flutie catch.</p>
<p>My son would drag his feet until he discovered that most east coast schools we visited had a Dunkin Donuts. And if it didn't we would bribe him with a stop at one at the end of the day. (we don't have Dunkin Donuts anywhere near where we live)</p>
<p>and the echo chamber at Cornell's Johnson Museum is great fun for anybody. plus one can just sit on the Libe Slope and enjoy the beautiful view of Cayuga Lake...</p>
<p>We took my little brother (10) to the University of Colorado and this is what he enjoyed:
-Street performers on the Pearl Street mall (outdoor walking mall less than a mile from campus)
-The climbing wall at the rec center (you have to call ahead to set that up)
-Hiking at nearby Chautaqua park (great views of the flatirons, short distance from campus)
-And then we bribed him to behave by telling him that we'd take him skiing at Eldora (30 minutes from campus) after the visit</p>
<p>A lot of colleges operate museums, farms and entertainment venues, but I think Maryland and Wisconsin are rather unique. Maryland has a air museum, farm with a fistulated cow (a cow with a hole drilled into it) to go along with crazy pathways, large quads, and Muppets and terrapin statues. Wisconsin features the world's best ice cream (outside of Ben & Jerry's) and sports hall of fame. Its Memorial Hall is the center of cultural nightlife during Madison summers with concerts, movies and water activities.</p>
<p>
[quote]
>>But there are also things to do that work most anywhere. Because I've visited lots of campuses with my son, starting when he was about 5 or 6<<</p>
<p>Im curious, as part of your work or with an eye towards getting him thinking about college?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>LOL. It's definitely part of my work as a college admissions writer/counselor. My son (with folding scooter in tow) has been dragged to dozens and dozens of campuses. Last year, during his February "vacation," we saw 19 schools (though a few were just drive-thrus). By the time we got to the last one, he put his hands over his eyes and proclaimed, "I will never look at another college again!"</p>
<p>Some folks tell him that he's lucky because he'll have a counselor right in the family to guide him through the college process when the time comes. But it could be the classic case of the shoemaker's kid who has no shoes. He's so up to his eyeballs in colleges now that he'll probably want to run off and join the circus when he's 17. :eek:</p>
<p>But, seriously, we do try to make the trips fun, and they always have some focus besides college visits. We've found "cool stuff" at many of the schools we've seen which, hopefully, will help my son to keep an open mind down the road, just in case the circus doesn't want him. :)</p>
<p>I second the oriental institute at University of Chicago. There's some super cool, giant sculptures in there. I know I'd have been fascinated by them at that age.</p>
<p>UW Seattle's library looks like Hogwarts. Plus, in that library, they do have the world's largest book. I might just be weird, but I thought that was really cool.</p>
<p>Other places that look like Hogwarts: University of Michigan's law school (especially the reading room and the Lawyers' Club dining room) and Harvard's freshman dining room.</p>