WCPO 9's Stephen Knobel covers Butler County. If you have a story that you'd like Stephen to look into or a news tip, email him at stephen@wcpo.com.
LIBERTY TWP., Ohio — Cars lined the parking lot and families filled the grounds at Niederman Family Farm Tuesday, where kids ran between activities while parents watched and joined in the summer fun.
The farm is opening up its weekly Summer Play Days, held every Tuesday.
For Liberty Township mom Kaitlyn Lang, the setting offers something harder to find as development continues across the area: open space where kids can be kids.
“So many of the farms and the land in our area are still being built and developed, so Niederman is such a nice little gem that is available to us,” Lang said.
On any given Summer Play Day, children are scattered across the farm jumping rope, swinging on monkey bars and jumping onto a massive inflatable pillow, large enough to span roughly half a football field.
Nearby, families move between a barn filled with animals, including bunnies, ponies, a Highland cow and a small hay maze built for younger kids to explore.
The scene is intentionally unstructured. Kids aren’t guided from station to station. Instead, they move at their own pace, choosing what to try next.
WATCH: Parents discuss how Summer Play Days help their children
“I have a 5, 3 and 1-year-old, and every activity that we do, there’s something the 1-year-old can get out of it and the 3 and 5-year-old can get out of it,” said Kristina Blankinship.
Inside the barn and across the fields, the focus blends play with learning. Seed planting activities introduce children to agriculture while still feeling like part of the day’s fun.
Bethann Niederman, the farm’s director of fun, said that balance is intentional.
“We feel that the education is very important so that the next generation knows where our food comes from,” she said.
Summer Play Days cost just $10 per child, compared to an estimated $80 per day average for camps cited by the American Camp Association.
But families say the value goes beyond cost.
With no rigid schedule, kids decide where to go, what to try and how long to stay, whether that’s testing their agility on the low ropes course, saying hi to the animals in the barn or running from one activity to the next.
“The kids can play where they want to play. It’s not me telling them go here and do that,” Niederman said. “We want them to come in and enjoy the day.”
For parents like Lang, the result is simple: a summer day filled with laughter, independence and maybe a little mud.
“It’s really nice for them to kind of explore and just be kids and, you know, get dirty a little bit,” she said.
Have a story idea or tip for WCPO 9 Butler County reporter Stephen Knobel? Email him at stephen@wcpo.com.
