Plans for babies and toddlers have to fit around naps, snacks and a short attention span. This list gathers the shows, workshops and outings around the city that are made for kids up to age 3, or welcome them from the start. It refreshes as new dates come in, so check back before the weekend.
An all-white stage fills up with color, one shade at a time, until everything is mixed together. Vases roll away, feathers fly around, soap bubbles turn into a crown and balls decide they are ladybugs.
When the show ends, the kids get to play in the set themselves, among all the colors of the rainbow.
Club Abbey is a family café and indoor playground in one, inside the car-free Oostpoort shopping center. The wooden, Scandinavian-style play area is built for toddlers and preschoolers, with a separate baby corner in the conservatory, a big train table and a dress-up box.
Parents get good coffee and fresh sandwiches while the kids play, and almost every dish on the menu comes in a kids' version.
A gentle, cheerful show about butterflies, built from dance, music and paper props. Kids help hunt for butterflies that hide and pop up again, meet fireflies under the moon, and end up in a sea of butterflies.
Afterward, everyone is invited onto the stage to play in the set of butterflies, raindrops and grass. It suits toddlers and preschoolers who would rather move than sit still.
A gentle, almost wordless show that moves through spring, summer, fall and winter with dance, pictures and live music. Everything makes a sound, even clothes on a washing line, and bits of Vivaldi drift through on kalimba, ukulele and drums. Afterward kids get to play in the set with the leaves, the "snow" and other bits of nature. With so little spoken, it needs no Dutch.
Stilte is an interactive show by Club Wauw about all the noise young ears take in every day. Two performers with a microphone go looking for silence and find it full of rustling, rattling and creaking from everyday objects like cardboard tubes and hoses. Toddlers sit close and get invited into the play, and parents take part too, since the show is made for kids and grown-ups to share.
Beatrixpark dates from 1938 and is laid out around canals, a duck pond with a fountain, and wooded paths crossed by eight bridges. For families, the draw is the round paddling pool with concrete stepping stones and a mermaid statue kids can climb, beside a playground with a big sandpit. The Artsenijhof, a herb garden from the 1972 Floriade, sits along the canal path.
A read-aloud for the youngest listeners, from babies to preschoolers, in a children's bookshop. It is short enough for small attention spans. Parents stay close and can have coffee or tea in the shop's coffee corner while the reading happens.
Playhood is a roleplay play space built as a child-sized neighborhood: a bakery, a supermarket with shopping carts, a fire station, a theater and more, all stocked with props and dress-up outfits. Kids run the shops while parents play along or sit in the Good Hood Café on site.
At the Good Hood Pizza shop, kids put on a chef's hat and apron, pick their ingredients and top their own pizza.
Oosterpark is an English-style landscape park, the first large park the city laid out, with ponds, streams, a pond with a small island and long walking paths. Kids head for the wading pool and the natural playground by the Generator Hostel, where they dig in sand, swing, slide and climb through a pole forest.
The park also holds the National Slavery Monument, the focus of the Keti Koti festival each July 1.
A girl goes looking for her big sister and asks everyone she meets if they have seen her, adding one more clue each time: blue eyes, a coat with pockets, a yellow hat. Hoge Fronten turned Joke van Leeuwen's prize-winning picture book into a show with live music, painted sets and oversized costumes drawn from her illustrations. Van Leeuwen herself acts and plays music on stage. Performed in Dutch.
Candy Castle is an indoor play paradise inside a restored historic church, with climbing frames, slides and tunnels set under the old church interior. The main play structure is for bigger kids, and a separate toddler zone keeps the youngest apart.
Play zones are laid out so parents can watch from the seating, and a café serves food with halal and gluten-free options.
At the west end of the Vondelpark, Het Kinderkookkafé has let children do the cooking since 1981. At the Help-jezelf-Bar, a self-serve counter at kid height, young kids follow photo cards to bake cookies, decorate cakes, build a pizza or cut vegetable shapes, then eat at the family table. Staff handle the oven. Parents get coffee, toasties and homemade cake. Older siblings join in too.
A small public city farm in Amsterdam-Noord with ponies, goats, sheep, a pig and many smaller animals. Kids can pet the animals and play outside, and the farm often runs activities. It is a neighborhood meeting spot as much as an animal visit.
Kinderboerderij De Werf is a small city farm on the edge of Watergraafsmeer, run by about forty volunteers and two part-time caretakers. Kids can see goats, ponies, rabbits, chickens and guinea pigs, then ride the farm's little bikes around the yard or play in the playground.
The canteen sells coffee and soft drinks. Visitors may not feed the animals, but staff gladly take a bag of fresh-cut grass.
De Uylenburg is a children's farm inside Rembrandtpark that has welcomed families for more than 50 years. Kids can get close to sheep, goats, a pony, a donkey, pigs, rabbits, cats, chickens and ducks, then head to the playground on the farm grounds. A terrace and small shop sell drinks and snacks. Volunteers help care for the animals, and the farm puts their welfare first.
A neighborhood city farm on the Kostverlorenvaart canal in Oud-West, open since 1996 on a plot locals still call "het landje van Ome Kick". Kids meet six goats, two Gasconne pigs that hunt for hidden nuts, sheep, rabbits, guinea pigs and chickens that roam a long mesh tunnel through the garden.
Boerderij Westerpark is the city's largest farm, run by staff and volunteers in the middle of Westerpark. Kids meet Kunekune pigs, Dutch spotted and Frisian milk sheep, pygmy and Nubian goats, several breeds of chicken, golden pheasants, pigeons and the farm cat.
When the meadow is open, families can walk in among the goats and sheep. De Hooikeet, the farm's neighborhood café, serves coffee, tea and apple pie.
A small city farm on the water on Bickerseiland, one of the Westelijke Eilanden, with views of boats and old warehouses. Kids walk among the animals: two pigs, two pygmy goats, three sheep, rabbits, guinea pigs, ducks and chickens.
There are no cuddle sessions or animals on laps; the team shows kids how to approach each animal at its own pace. The farm shop sells drinks, ice cream and fresh eggs.
A neighborhood petting farm with goats, sheep, ponies, donkeys, pigs, rabbits, guinea pigs, poultry, an aviary, cats and a bee colony. There are also terrariums, aquariums and a tortoise, plus a small native-plant garden (heemtuin).
Volunteers run short drop-in sessions where kids brush guinea pigs and rabbits, and a craft table where the project changes every week.
Plans for babies and toddlers have to fit around naps, snacks and a short attention span. This list gathers the shows, workshops and outings around the city that are made for kids up to age 3, or welcome them from the start. It refreshes as new dates come in, so check back before the weekend.
An all-white stage fills up with color, one shade at a time, until everything is mixed together. Vases roll away, feathers fly around, soap bubbles turn into a crown and balls decide they are ladybugs.
When the show ends, the kids get to play in the set themselves, among all the colors of the rainbow.
Club Abbey is a family café and indoor playground in one, inside the car-free Oostpoort shopping center. The wooden, Scandinavian-style play area is built for toddlers and preschoolers, with a separate baby corner in the conservatory, a big train table and a dress-up box.
Parents get good coffee and fresh sandwiches while the kids play, and almost every dish on the menu comes in a kids' version.
A gentle, cheerful show about butterflies, built from dance, music and paper props. Kids help hunt for butterflies that hide and pop up again, meet fireflies under the moon, and end up in a sea of butterflies.
Afterward, everyone is invited onto the stage to play in the set of butterflies, raindrops and grass. It suits toddlers and preschoolers who would rather move than sit still.
A gentle, almost wordless show that moves through spring, summer, fall and winter with dance, pictures and live music. Everything makes a sound, even clothes on a washing line, and bits of Vivaldi drift through on kalimba, ukulele and drums. Afterward kids get to play in the set with the leaves, the "snow" and other bits of nature. With so little spoken, it needs no Dutch.
Stilte is an interactive show by Club Wauw about all the noise young ears take in every day. Two performers with a microphone go looking for silence and find it full of rustling, rattling and creaking from everyday objects like cardboard tubes and hoses. Toddlers sit close and get invited into the play, and parents take part too, since the show is made for kids and grown-ups to share.
Beatrixpark dates from 1938 and is laid out around canals, a duck pond with a fountain, and wooded paths crossed by eight bridges. For families, the draw is the round paddling pool with concrete stepping stones and a mermaid statue kids can climb, beside a playground with a big sandpit. The Artsenijhof, a herb garden from the 1972 Floriade, sits along the canal path.
A read-aloud for the youngest listeners, from babies to preschoolers, in a children's bookshop. It is short enough for small attention spans. Parents stay close and can have coffee or tea in the shop's coffee corner while the reading happens.
Playhood is a roleplay play space built as a child-sized neighborhood: a bakery, a supermarket with shopping carts, a fire station, a theater and more, all stocked with props and dress-up outfits. Kids run the shops while parents play along or sit in the Good Hood Café on site.
At the Good Hood Pizza shop, kids put on a chef's hat and apron, pick their ingredients and top their own pizza.
Oosterpark is an English-style landscape park, the first large park the city laid out, with ponds, streams, a pond with a small island and long walking paths. Kids head for the wading pool and the natural playground by the Generator Hostel, where they dig in sand, swing, slide and climb through a pole forest.
The park also holds the National Slavery Monument, the focus of the Keti Koti festival each July 1.
A girl goes looking for her big sister and asks everyone she meets if they have seen her, adding one more clue each time: blue eyes, a coat with pockets, a yellow hat. Hoge Fronten turned Joke van Leeuwen's prize-winning picture book into a show with live music, painted sets and oversized costumes drawn from her illustrations. Van Leeuwen herself acts and plays music on stage. Performed in Dutch.
Candy Castle is an indoor play paradise inside a restored historic church, with climbing frames, slides and tunnels set under the old church interior. The main play structure is for bigger kids, and a separate toddler zone keeps the youngest apart.
Play zones are laid out so parents can watch from the seating, and a café serves food with halal and gluten-free options.
At the west end of the Vondelpark, Het Kinderkookkafé has let children do the cooking since 1981. At the Help-jezelf-Bar, a self-serve counter at kid height, young kids follow photo cards to bake cookies, decorate cakes, build a pizza or cut vegetable shapes, then eat at the family table. Staff handle the oven. Parents get coffee, toasties and homemade cake. Older siblings join in too.
A small public city farm in Amsterdam-Noord with ponies, goats, sheep, a pig and many smaller animals. Kids can pet the animals and play outside, and the farm often runs activities. It is a neighborhood meeting spot as much as an animal visit.
Kinderboerderij De Werf is a small city farm on the edge of Watergraafsmeer, run by about forty volunteers and two part-time caretakers. Kids can see goats, ponies, rabbits, chickens and guinea pigs, then ride the farm's little bikes around the yard or play in the playground.
The canteen sells coffee and soft drinks. Visitors may not feed the animals, but staff gladly take a bag of fresh-cut grass.
De Uylenburg is a children's farm inside Rembrandtpark that has welcomed families for more than 50 years. Kids can get close to sheep, goats, a pony, a donkey, pigs, rabbits, cats, chickens and ducks, then head to the playground on the farm grounds. A terrace and small shop sell drinks and snacks. Volunteers help care for the animals, and the farm puts their welfare first.
A neighborhood city farm on the Kostverlorenvaart canal in Oud-West, open since 1996 on a plot locals still call "het landje van Ome Kick". Kids meet six goats, two Gasconne pigs that hunt for hidden nuts, sheep, rabbits, guinea pigs and chickens that roam a long mesh tunnel through the garden.
Boerderij Westerpark is the city's largest farm, run by staff and volunteers in the middle of Westerpark. Kids meet Kunekune pigs, Dutch spotted and Frisian milk sheep, pygmy and Nubian goats, several breeds of chicken, golden pheasants, pigeons and the farm cat.
When the meadow is open, families can walk in among the goats and sheep. De Hooikeet, the farm's neighborhood café, serves coffee, tea and apple pie.
A small city farm on the water on Bickerseiland, one of the Westelijke Eilanden, with views of boats and old warehouses. Kids walk among the animals: two pigs, two pygmy goats, three sheep, rabbits, guinea pigs, ducks and chickens.
There are no cuddle sessions or animals on laps; the team shows kids how to approach each animal at its own pace. The farm shop sells drinks, ice cream and fresh eggs.
A neighborhood petting farm with goats, sheep, ponies, donkeys, pigs, rabbits, guinea pigs, poultry, an aviary, cats and a bee colony. There are also terrariums, aquariums and a tortoise, plus a small native-plant garden (heemtuin).
Volunteers run short drop-in sessions where kids brush guinea pigs and rabbits, and a craft table where the project changes every week.
