Free & low-cost activities for kids and families in Wichita, and Kansas, this summer

One of the best frugal family fun options is back for its third summer.

By downloading and registering on the Sunflower Summer app — a program developed by the Kansas Department of Education — Kansas families can get free admission to about 100 Kansas attractions, historic landmarks, museums, zoos and state parks.

Every Kansas student from pre-kindergarten through 12th grade and up to two accompanying adults can get a free single-use ticket to each participating attraction from now until Aug. 13 or until funding runs out. The app includes a passport feature to help track visits.

Sunflower Summer — which the KSDE started in summer 2021 using two rounds of federal COVID relief funds — has become a popular program.

Participation nearly tripled from 2021 to 2022, with more than 203,800 people using the program last year, compared to 71,000 in 2021, according to figures provided by the KSDE.

Last year, KSDE got a second COVID grant, this one for $6 million and was planning to spend $2 million for the next three years on the program. But because of the program’s popularity, it ended up spending $2.8 million last year, according to a spokeswoman, and this year it’s putting the remaining $3.2 million into the program.

“During the pandemic, students across the nation experienced learning loss and increased struggles with mental health. In response, the Kansas State Board of Education created the Sunflower Summer program to provide Kansas students an opportunity to extend their learning during the summer months while encouraging family engagement. The response has been unbelievable,” wrote Denise Kahler, the KSDE’s director of communications and recognition programs, in an email response to questions.

The program has become so popular that the Kansas Legislature has agreed to pick up the funding to continue the program for the next two summers, with $3 million budgeted for each year.

While the KSDE created the program to keep up learning during the summer, parents may not want to spoil the fun by telling their kids that, even though there are plenty of educational sites included in the program.

Instead, families can use the program to plan wallet-friendly activities practically all summer long, including visiting newly opened attractions like the Amelia Earhart Hangar Museum in Atchison or seeing special traveling summer exhibitions like “Dinosaurs Around the World” featuring animatronic prehistoric creatures at Wichita’s Botanica.

Here’s how to use the program: Parents or legal guardians download the app and after registering themselves, they can add their children to the account to create a family account. Within the app, users can search participating attractions by category or name. The app has a trip-planning feature if you’re looking for day-trip possibilities. If a child is traveling with another family or an adult not registered with the family account, the registered adult on the account can transfer the child’s ticket to the account of another registered adult.

Besides Botanica, other participating Wichita-area attractions include Exploration Place, where the summer exhibition is “Circus! Science Under the Big Top;” the Kansas Aviation Museum, which recently opened a new Black aviators exhibit; the Wichita Art Museum; the Sedgwick County Zoo; Tanganyika Wildlife Park; and Field Station: Dinosaurs.

Wichita’s Great Plains Nature Center and the Kansas Wildlife Center in Riverside Park, both of which are always free to visit, are also part of the participating attractions. Visit at noon to catch feeding time at the Kansas Wildlife Center. The nature center offers a variety of special programming that can be found on its website, gpnc.org, including its annual O.K. Kids Day, set for 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on June 3, featuring bird hikes, archery, fishing and other activities.

For day trips using the Sunflower Summer attractions as your guide, you can head to Hutchinson and visit the Cosmosphere and Hendrick’s Exotic Animals Farm. Or motor to Manhattan to visit the Flint Hills Discovery Center, the Sunset Zoo and the Midwest Dream Car Collection. On the way, you can stop at the Tallgrass Natural Prairie Preserve, another participant. Some Salina attractions on the list are the Rolling Hills Zoo and The Garage Automotive Museum.

Or hit the highway for Hays to visit the Fort Hays State Historical Site — famous figures associated with the fort include Wild Bill Hickock, Buffalo Bill Cody and Gen. Armstrong Custer — and the Sternberg Museum of Natural History, which has millions of specimens including its most notable fish-within-a-fish fossil. There are several other western Kansas sites participating in Sunflower Summer.

In Topeka, participating attractions include the Historic Ritchie House, built by abolitionists John and Mary Ritchie in 1856, which became a station along the Underground Railroad; the Brown vs. the Board of Educational Historical Site, where visitors can learn about the pivotal U.S. Supreme Court decision that led to the desegregation of schools; the Evil Knievel Museum, dedicated to the daredevil motorcyclist; and the Topeka Zoo.

In Abilene, families can visit the Eisenhower Presidential Library, where tours of Dwight Eisenhower’s boyhood home have resumed after undergoing preservation work.

Participating nature areas include all state parks, where participants can get a free vehicle permit for same-day park access. Three state parks are offering one-night campouts for select nights: June 2 and 3 at Milford State Park; June 9 and 10 at Cheney State Park; and June 16 and 17 at Historic Lake Scott Park. Eisenhower State Park is offering a special, limited campout July 13 and 14, where tents and supper are provided to pre-registered families.

For more information about the Sunflower Summer program, visit sunflowersummer.org

If you’d like to supplement the Sunflower Summer visits, here are a few other non-participating budget-friendly options in the Wichita area.

On Sundays, it’s free to visit the Wichita-Sedgwick County Historical Museum and Old Cowtown Museum, unless special events are planned at Cowtown. A new exhibit, “Art Deco on the Plains” will open June 4 at the historical museum, while a new building and exhibit, Carriage Works, is set to open this summer at Cowtown, showcasing the transportation modes of buggies, carriages and wagons of early Wichita. Remember to mark your calendar for noon, July 3, for the historical museum’s July 4 holiday carillon concert that can be heard best from the streets nearby.

The galleries of Mark Arts are always free to visit from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. It also offers free family art-making sessions called Art Together, which usually incorporate a theme and even performances, on the second Saturday morning of the month.

On June 1, local musical artist Rudy Love Jr. kicks off the five-week free Bradley Fair summer concert series that runs Thursday evenings in June, starting at 7:30 p.m. Another special treat will be a “Broadway Unplugged!” concert June 15 put on by Music Theatre Wichita. For the complete schedule, visit bradleyfair.com.

“Much Ado About Nothing” is this year’s play that will be performed for free during this summer’s Shakespeare in the Park season. Held weekends in June, the performances are staged at eight different parks in Wichita, Park City and Derby with a final indoor performance at University Friends Church. Performances start at 7 p.m. For more info and the schedule, visit wichitashakespearecompany.org

Seneca Bowl in Wichita and Derby Bowl in Derby are participating in this year’s national Kids Bowl Free program where kids can bowl two free games on select days. Shoe rental rates apply. Register at kidsbowlfree.com.

For some nighttime family fun, plan a visit to see the 10-to-15-minute show incorporating music, lights and water at Fountains of the WaterWalk, 605 S. Wichita at 8, 9 and 10 p.m. nightly Thursday through Sunday. (There’s also a noon show.) For a double feature, visit the lighting of the firepots around the iconic Keeper of the Plains sculpture at 9 p.m. The 15-minute Ring of Fire show happens nightly unless there are high winds, rain or other weather factors.