Kidsburgh activities and family fun rule the Pittsburgh Home & Garden Show

With over 10 acres of exhibit space, filled with more than 1,700 exhibits and 10,000 products, parents will have plenty to grab their attention at the 36^th annual Duquesne Light Pittsburgh Home & Garden Show running March 10-19.

But kids have good reason to want to tag along.

On Level Two, in the Children’s Village, Kidsburgh has organized loads of activities and fun for little ones who’ve lost interest in garage doors and gardening tips. Mom and Dad can relax, too, while kids play at the Shady Lane Family Activity Center.

Kidsburgh pals – from groups like Science Tots, Girls of Steel Robotics, and Pittsburgh Center for the Arts – are bringing their bags of tricks to keep kids active and challenge their imaginations.

A few highlights:

Pittsburgh Cultural Trust will offer kids the chance to make some buttons for their backpacks featuring characters from the upcoming EQT Children’s Theater Festival performances, including Elephant & Piggie. As a take-home bonus, they will give away temporary tattoos featuring Elephant & Piggie and the theater festival frog. Visit the Trust’s Story Corner where they’ll read some of the books upon which the festival shows are based, such as “The Way Back Home” by Oliver Jeffers. While you’re there, enter to win free tickets to one of the EQT Children’s Theater Festival performances

The Children’s Museum will keep kids busy making playdough. To practice their measuring skills, kids will measure and mix flour, salt, oil, water and food coloring. The activity is a preview of the museum’s new exhibit, “Measurement Rules,” opening on March 10. This interactive exhibit explores height, time, volume and other measuring concepts. A second project is making PA Cyber bookmarks. Kids create their own unique bookmark by decorating contact paper with tissue paper.

Pittsburgh Filmmakers Youth Media will host a stop-motion animation activity. Using small objects, colorful backdrops, tablets and apps, participants will create short, animated movies that can be shared and viewed digitally.

KidsPlus Pediatrics will give kids a chance to burn off a little energy with games to encourage fitness through play. Included are “floating” soccer, balance pods, bouncy balls, and floor tic-tac-toe.

Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh will bring Cubelets. With Cubelets, families can make small robots that move and light up.

LED light-up flower pins will be the focus of Assemble. This activity incorporates the use of battery-operated LED lights and origami flowers in a wearable craft, which combines technology and art.

Join the Pittsburgh Association for the Education of Young Children (PAEYC) for creative play with enormous blue blocks called “Imagination Playground.”

Kids can run toy trains with the TCA Kids Club, the youngest part of the Train Collectors Association.  Another annual favorite – live turtle races — will return, too.

The Intermediate Unit 1 Fab Lab will help kids create laser-cut paper flowers. Watch your creation come to life as your build your flower using pre-cut templates and only a few materials, such as paper, pipe cleaners, and double-sided tape.

The Duquesne Light Home and Garden Show runs March 10-19 at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center, Downtown. Admission is $10 for adults, $4 for ages 6-12, free for those younger than 6.