KIDDIES' KABOODLE

Carl Kozlowski discovers attractions that'll have your tykes talkin'


Summer is the endless season -- if you're the parent of young kids who have ninety straight days off from school. Just thank God that in a city as big as ours, there are plenty of fun ways to get them out of the house and exploring the world around them. Here are a few of the new wrinkles at Chicago's most kid-friendly institutions.

If your kids want to be detectives, enroll them in the series of week-long summer camps at the Museum of Science and Industry, 57th & Lake Shore Drive, (773)684-1414. "Mystery at the Museum" sounds the most intriguing, as participants will learn how to use imaging technology and forensic science to solve crimes via hair samples, fingerprints and X-rays. After a week, your nine-year-old could be more competent than the entire LAPD! Older children can also spend a week learning how to create electric car models or an entire electrically operated city. (So long as the museum folks don't teach them how to design electric chairs, it should be healthy fun.)

In addition, the museum is displaying a tribute to Chicago's musical history, with re-creations of the Old Town School of Folk Music, famous blues clubs and an assortment of memorabilia, including Louis Armstrong's favorite trumpet. The Museum of Contemporary Art, 220 East Chicago, (312)280-2660, isn't just home to Chicago's strangest paintings and sculptures. It also offers kids' summer camp weeks, featuring classes in Portraiture; Animation and Collage Techniques; Architecture and Neighborhoods; and the Internet, Arts and Culture Around the World. Yes, your kids can be part of the next generation of controversial NEA-supported artists.

If you want to teach your children a lesson in truly bizarre biology, take 'em to the Shedd Aquarium, 1200 South Lake Shore Drive, (312)939-2438. There they can witness the "Seahorse Symphony" and observe one of the few species on earth in which males get pregnant. Male seahorses also provide unusual behavioral lessons, as they spend all day hanging around home at the coral reef while the females do all the work. (Or maybe that's not so unusual, after all.) Combine tons of facts about these critters with the fantastic dolphin shows and you've got a full day. And on Thursday nights, you can take the family out to "Jazzin' at the Shedd."

Finally, Six Flags Great America, I-94 & Rt. 132, Gurnee, (847)249-1776, has achieved the most difficult union outside of the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks -- thanks to the new Camp Cartoon Network. This park section brings together the greatest cartoon characters in history: Hanna-Barbera's legion of greats such as Scooby Doo and Yogi Bear join forces with Loony Tunes favorites like Bugs Bunny and Pepe Le Pew for a set of rides that quadruple the park's fun area for kids. Whether you're riding the Loony Tooter train ride or the Spacely Sprocket Rockets roller-coaster, it'll be pretty damn hard to ask for directions without smirking with embarrassment. But hey, the kids'll love it, and that's what it's all about.

SUMMER TRAVEL
Snappy suggestions for places you can drive in a day

VIDEO PARADISO
Scanning the racks of Chicago's international video emporiums

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