Strawberry Picking at Warbington Farms

With two pre-schoolers, the week between Pre-School ending and “Big School” ending a week later is solid kid-activity GOLD.  Big kids are still in school, nobody’s doing field trips the last week, and school-year discounts are still in effect.  Solid.  Gold.  So what I’m really saying is I’m exhausted from trying to hit every normally crowded kid place around here before they get… you know, crowded.

Today’s effort included a really magical trip to one of the U-Pick strawberry farms.  We chose Warbington Farms in Cumming, and loved it.  While I can’t quite help rolling my eyes at myself for actually paying to pick my own food, the kids loved it.  And when they got tired after awhile (5 minutes) it was a great opportunity to talk about all the work that goes into getting fresh food grown and picked and into our grocery stores.  Obviously we left out a few steps there (again… preschoolers), but we had a great conversation about what it takes, and I flatter myself they had a greater appreciation of people who own or work on farms.  For at least a few minutes.

After two buckets of picking (they lasted longer than I expected!), Warbington had a bunch of other great kid activities within a perfectly sized area for our age group.  There was a huge playground area with several different types of play spaces, lots of running around room, a petting zoo of baby goats, a big jumpy thing (technical term),a  tractor ride with cows to feed, and covered places for our picnic lunch.  And an added bonus, the bathrooms were easily accessible and very clean.  Overall it was a perfect mix of free play and learning, and of course there’s the take-home prize of freshly picked strawberries.

I would definitely recommend it for my kids’ age group, and I’ll leave it to others to weigh in on how long kids still find this fun.  Speaking for myself, mine did NOT want to leave.  Recommended take-alongs include:

• WATER (or you can buy some there).
• sunscreen and a nice shady sun hat… there’s not much shade.
• snacks or lunch as there’s enough to keep you busy long fpr enough to want one.  Or you can always just eat your strawberries.
• Sanitizer/wipes whatever makes your hands feel clean after a petting zoo.

Happy picking!  Feel free to comment with your kids’ favorite places to play and learn.  We’re always interested in checking out new ones!