Fort Lee Rainy Days for Kids

If you’re looking for a place for your kids to play on a rainy day, the McDonald’s and Burger King in Hopewell both have play areas, though I think McDonald’s is better. They both have wifi.

McDonald’s Play-place

For older kids, there is the Swaders Sports Park in Prince George, they have mini-golf, a play area, a video game area, a laser tag room and a snack bar.

Swaders Sports Park

For younger kids, there’s the Playroom Tricities in Chester which is full of bouncy castles, dress up costumes, air hockey, play kitchens and giant building blocks. It has wifi and it’s only $6/kid for unlimited play. They have a military discount on Tuesdays and Sundays.

Playroom Tricities

If you want to head a little farther from base, the Children’s Museum of Richmond is worth a visit or two. It’s not the best children’s museum, but it’ll keep them entertained for a few hours. They have stuff for kids from crawlers to 5 or 6 year olds.

 

Children’s Museum

If you’d like to get some shopping done, you can always bribe your younger kids with a trip to the play areas in the various area malls.

Library Time

The library here on base at Fort Lee is very disappointing, it is a small section of the Logistics University library and the children’s section is even smaller, about the size of a large area rug.

Before we PCS’d here we had a wonderful local library, with a whole children’s room and lots of kids programs. The children could play and didn’t have to be quiet the whole time, there was a large variety of books and some kind of children’s program going on almost every day.

The Fort Lee library has just started a once weekly preschool story time and a sort of “get your books and get out” attitude is encouraged. You can tell that the librarians doing story time have very little experience with small children.

Fortunately, after a little research, I have found a great local library! The Hopewell branch of the Appomattox Regional Library is the main branch and it is amazing!

The Hopewell Library

They have a very good selection of adult books and a large children’s section that includes books and a play area. They have a computer area for adults and a separate computer area loaded with age appropriate, educational children’s games. They also have movies, cds, and audio books.

It’s too big for me to fully capture, but the children’s computer area is INSIDE A GIANT SHIP, complete with sails and everything! How cool is that?!

The library has a weekly story time for preschoolers and younger children with a professional librarian whose whole job is to travel to the different branches of the Appomattox Regional Library doing kids programs, she is very friendly and very good at her job.

They also have a program called “Book Buddies” for older children in grades 2-4. The children in this program read to therapy dogs to help build their reading skills and confidence.

They have a lot of other children’s programs too, like Game Day, Summer Reading, Pirate Day, Holiday Parties, etc..

A small section of the library

They have programs for teens, preteens and adults as well, you should check out the library here. This library has definitely turned into one of our favorite places to go while stationed as Fort Lee, and I’ll be sad to leave it.

Another small section