Lafayette with kids: a children’s museum, a lake with paddleboats, storytimes and therapy dogs

Start with the museum. WOW! Children’s Museum, at 110 North Harrison Avenue a block east of Public Road, is open Tuesday to Saturday 9 to 5 and, from November 8, Sundays noon to 5; children 1 to 11 are $15, adults $9, babies under 1 free, and everyone is $2 off after 3 pm. The weekly programs come with admission: Littlest Learners for the under-3s on Wednesdays at 9:30, storytimes Tuesdays at 10 and Thursdays at 11, STEAM to the MAX after school on Thursdays and Science Spot on Fridays. It is closed Mondays, on Thanksgiving, and from 3 pm on November 7 for its 30th birthday party, which is for grown-ups. Across the street, The Read Queen opens at 7 with coffee and children’s books.

The library

The library on West Baseline Road runs a storytime at 10:30 most mornings: babies on Tuesdays, families (toddlers to preschool) on Wednesdays and Fridays, bilingual on Thursdays, through November 20, and a Saturday storytime for all ages through December 26. A Sensory Storytime for ages 2 to 8 is on November 28. One Sunday a month, kids 5 to 10 read for fifteen minutes to a therapy dog at Paws to Read, next on November 8 and December 13 at 1:30; on November 21 and December 19 a bilingual Lotería bingo follows the Saturday storytime at 11:30; and on the first Wednesday of the month a drop-in wellness craft runs from 3:30 to 4:30. Older children get the Studio 775 Makerspace, with 3D printers and a laser cutter, in drop-in hours Tuesday to Thursday afternoons (a child in fifth grade or below needs an adult over 17 with them), and Mondays 4:30 to 7:30 are the Teen Maker Hangout for grades 6 to 12. The makerspace closes December 21 to January 1.

The recreation center and the lake

The Bob L. Burger Recreation Center charges $4 a day for children 2 to 17 and $5.75 for adults, with a $15 family rate for two adults and two children on weekend afternoons; the pool, the Rose Lueras Pool, closes half an hour before the building. The City teaches group swim lessons there from 6 months up, with sessions starting November 2 and December 1, and runs youth sports by season: winter is basketball from kindergarten and indoor soccer. On school days off it runs School’s Out camps, 8 am to 5:30 pm, $60 a day for residents; the dates match Boulder Valley’s calendar, November 11, 23, 24 and 25, the winter break weekdays, January 4 and 18, and February 15 to 17.

Waneka Lake Park, west of Public Road at 1600 Caria Drive, is the park for a whole afternoon: a loop trail, a nine-hole disc golf course on the east side, four pickleball courts, stocked trout fishing (a license from 16), and the boathouse, which rents paddleboats, kayaks, canoes and stand-up paddleboards by the half hour each summer, $10 to $18 for a paddleboat, with a 16-year-old required on any multi-person boat; low water ended the 2026 season early. No swimming. On weekend afternoons from September to April, 1 to 3, volunteers open The Shack, a small nature station by the Greenlee Wildlife Preserve.

Outside

The Coal Creek Trail is soft-surface and flat, 3.3 miles through Lafayette on a 14-mile county trail, with a restroom at the Flagg Park trailhead; a section near the water reclamation plant has been closed for construction since September 8, so check the City’s ConeZone map. The City’s Open Space program walks it with children welcome: wild turkeys on November 14 and winter plants on December 13, both from Elysian Field Drive, registration required. In Old Town, Festival Plaza runs its splash-pad fountains from Memorial Day to Labor Day, 10 to 8, and the Great Outdoors Water Park on East South Boulder Road opens again in late May, $7.50 a child at the gate for residents.

The calendar

The City’s annual children’s events are in spring: a Leprechaun Gold Hunt at the recreation center in March, the Eggstravaganza at Waneka Lake with an egg hunt and the Bunny, and a Kids Fishing Derby at the lake in May. This fall and winter, besides the library, the Chamber’s Holiday on the Plaza is Saturday, December 5, 2 to 6 pm, on Festival Plaza, and the Friends of the Library’s holiday book sale fills the library lobby December 4 to 6, $5 a bag on the Sunday. The school days off are on the Families page, with the City’s camps beside them.