533 Millgrove Side Road, Dundas, is just a short drive from many locations in Hamilton and best of all, has a petting zoo which is free!
For a few months, our toddler has been super keen on animals, including reading books with animal photos, learning animal sounds (he’ll yell “baaaaaaaaaa” loudly from the back seat as he reads his farm books in the car), playing with his Fisher-Price Little People farm, and asking us to sing Old McDonald over and over again by proclaiming “ee-i, ee-i” (which he learned from his Fisher-Price See n’ Say).
His favourite part was definitely the bunnies who have a large enclosure, but some of them were out and about grazing on weeds. We’ve been having a lot of fun at home singing “Hop little bunnies” as he practices trying to jump, so he got a kick out of seeing these bunnies in real life. Being used to toddlers, the bunnies took shelter easily under some of the play structures, making it a perfect situation where our toddler could look but not touch. It was so sweet to see the way he’d crouch down to get a closer look at the hidden bunnies, and to see him figure out that there could be other critters hiding down low.
Our little guy is a little small yet to explore play structures on his own, but for kids probably 2 and up, the petting zoo has many hand-made wooden play structures such as trains, buses and more that they can get in and pretend to steer. They also have many Little Tikes climbers with slides and more to let the little ones burn off steam. For kids who like water, there’s a long bridge over the farm’s pond that has a giant fountain as well. The bridge is well protected, making it safe for little ones to cross.
On the way out we passed the rooster, which led toddler to shout out a loud “cock a doodle doo!” It was like the icing on the cake for him, having seen all his favourite barnyard animals in living colour. I can definitely see us returning to the petting zoo many more times as little one gets older, and making more of an afternoon of it by taking a picnic to share and letting him spend more time with other kids on the play structures. As he gets older he’ll probably take greater pleasure in offering the bunnies leaves to eat and trying to hold them.
What are your favourite country destinations to visit with your little Hamiltonians? I’d love to hear your recommendations for where we should take our little one next!
Comments