• Doctors in training can check out the bullet that killed Abraham Lincoln, a pool of live leeches and the world's largest collection of microscopes at the National Museum of Health and Medicine (www.nmhm.washingtondc.museum), located on the campus of the Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

• Presidents-to-be can take one of the kid-friendly Washington Walks tours (www.washingtonwalks.com), including one at the Lincoln Memorial that introduces children to a young Abe Lincoln and another at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Memorial as seen from the eyes of Roosevelt's famous pooch, Fala.

• Kids celebrating bar mitzvahs and bat mitzvahs should see the exhibition Remember the Children: Daniel's Story at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum (www.ushmm.org). It tells the historically true story of a fictional German boy named Daniel, following Daniel from his middle-class home to Auschwitz.

• Animal lovers can talk to volunteers at the National Zoo (http://nationalzoo.si.edu/) and even help out at the on-site farm. Check out the Asia Trail, which not only is home to the zoo's famous pandas but also for sloth bears, fishing cats, clouded leopards and even a Japanese giant salamander.

• Young actors and actresses have their pick of productions to see, and more than 30 area theaters offer a free ticket for each child 17 and under with each adult ticket purchased. (Visit the League of Washington Theaters at www.lowt.org.) The Kennedy Center (www.kennedy-center.org) has a special family theater, while the National Theatre (www.nationaltheatre.org) touts special free children's entertainment each Saturday. The Kennedy Center is also featuring the Shakespeare in Washington festival through June.

• History nuts can talk to costumed interpreters at George Washington's plantation home in Mount Vernon (www.mountvernon.org), located 16 miles south of Washington, and see what 18th-century rural life was like, from the slave quarters to the mansion to the colonial farm site. There are plenty of hands-on activities for kids.

The kids will be too busy having a good time to realize how much they're learning. Good job.

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