Taking Local Tours
A few months back, I was reading this blog post from Get Your Mess On and saved it in the back of my head for a future date. I thought it was such a cool idea: to take kids on a tour of a local coffee roasting company. It not only helps kids to understand where that stuff that mommy and daddy drink religiously comes from, but it also shows them how a local, successful company operates. Both fun and educational.
After reading that, I have been trying to think of other local companies that might offer tours that are also somewhat child friendly. You know, taking the kids on a tour of Tito’s Handmade Vodka might not be the best of times for the kids, although I think it might be a splendid idea for a mom only field trip.
I organize a local mom and kids group in Pflugerville and have been inspired by the tour of Texas Coffee Traders, but haven’t been able to come up with anything. I’ll admit that I haven’t done much research; the only two that are scheduled for the group so far this summer are tours of the local police and fire departments, which were both recommended by other moms in the group. Man, talk about falling down on the job! And now that summer is here and many of our kids are out of school, we need something to keep them active that is either cheap or free and that helps to educate them as well.
Do you have any recommendations for local companies that might be willing to offer a bunch of moms and kids to come in to take a tour of their business? Have you gone on any local tours that you and your kids have really enjoyed? Are there any companies that you’d like to check out but haven’t contacted yet?
June 22nd, 2009 at 9:25 am
I heard that Amy’s Ice Cream does tours at their manufacturing site on Burnett.
June 22nd, 2009 at 9:32 am
http://www.amysicecreams.com/ go to the ’bout the ice cream’ section and one of the tabs will take you to a link for tours. They say they only allow ages 5 and up but maybe they’ll make an exception?
June 22nd, 2009 at 9:43 am
Try some of your small family owned businesses. Our girl scout troup had a blast making their own pizzas at a local pizzeria… the owner taught them how to spin the dough in the air, etc.
They also decorated cakes at a Randall’s nearby.
June 22nd, 2009 at 4:54 pm
My friend’s MOMS group set up a tour of HEB.
June 23rd, 2009 at 8:57 pm
Pretty cool post. I just stumbled upon your blog and wanted to say
that I’ve really enjoyed browsing your blog posts. Anyway
I’ll be subscribing to your feed and I hope you post again soon!
June 23rd, 2009 at 9:34 pm
we have done the fire station and most recently we did a post office tour. i read somewhere costco will do tours and think i have seen signs at the pet store. i imagine if you just think about places your family patronizes, they would entertain the idea.
this isn’t really a tour, but we recently organized a cookie workshop at the austin cookie lounge, which was really fun (just did a blog post about it this week).
July 8th, 2009 at 5:52 pm
Fresh Choice offers fun tours for free to schools and moms groups. They give a tour of the kitchen, talk about healthy eating and let the kids make pizza. All you have to do is call the restaurant and schedule a time.
July 15th, 2009 at 9:57 am
Thanks for all of these suggestions! I will be making lots of tour plans in the coming days- as long as they are in air conditioned buildings!