Our favorite Children's Garden - Morton Arboretum

Our visit to the Morton Arboretum to see the Troll Hunt art installation included some time spent in the Children’s Garden, the award-winning, 4-acre, interactive, educational, and super-fun garden. Filled with numerous different areas of exploration, the Children’s Garden is the most fantastic nature-themed play area I have ever had the chance to explore!

The Children’s Garden has two main areas: Backyard Discovery Gardens and Adventure Woods. The two are linked by a Central Plaza, and have ten smaller, themed gardens within. Engaging and interactive activities abound throughout, and just outside the Children’s Garden is an additional Maze Garden, a one-acre puzzle of hedges, complete with lookout tower.

“At The Morton Arboretum, imagination lives, curiosity grows, and kids flourish in the Children’s Garden. Splash through secret streams, climb colossal acorns, and slide down giant tree roots all day long. Explore, learn, and play among trees and the natural world.”

Leaf Station at the Morton Arboretum Children's Garden

Upon entering, stroll the Kids' Tree Walk and Tree Finder Grove, and spin the one-ton kugel ball in the Central Plaza.

Then head into the Adventure Woods portion of the garden. There you'll encounter Wonder Pond, Under the Trees, Grotto and Secret Stream, Grassy Meadow, and Evergreen Walk and Lookout.

The kids spent more than an hour playing in the stream, building dams and waterfalls. The Lookout was another favorite spot, complete with hanging bridges and multiple vantage points to the Children's Garden, seemingly located far up in the tree canopy. 

The tadpoles that hatch each spring in Wonder Pond are American Toads. This is a natural occurrence, but if you asked the kids, each glimpse of a tadpole was a magical happening! Bring a dry change of clothes if being dry is important to you, otherwise keep playing and the kids will be dry by the time they get in the car... unless they find the stream!

Next, in the Backyard Discovery Gardens area: Curiosity Garden, Bloom, Zoom, & Sprout, Every Which Way, and the Windmill Garden. The Every Which Way Garden allowed the moms to sit down and rest for a bit, while the kids played among tree 'roots', examined live pollinators in the monarch waystation, and learned how it feels to be a plant being watered in the giant mister - yes, you'll have to give them another hour to dry out again!

The Children’s Garden hours vary by season; please visit their website for more information. Children under 16 must be accompanied by an adult while visiting the Children's Garden, and there is an employee stationed at the entrance to help monitor that kids don’t leave the garden without their parents.

In addition to the Maze Garden, there are two other nature play spaces on our grounds: Mud Kitchen and Word Garden. Visitors to the Arboretum through the end of 2018 can also participate in the Troll Hunt; see my post Hunting for Trolls at the Morton Arboretum.