The Best Free Summer Spots Your Georgetown Preschooler Will Love

Georgetown summers are amazing if you know where to look, and even better if you don’t want to spend a fortune doing it! The list of free options for preschool families here is stacked. Splash pads, story walks, library reading clubs, sunset movies on the lawn. You can fill an entire June with zero admission fees and still wind up with a four-year-old who falls asleep happy at 7:30 p.m.

This guide pulls together local spots we love and know you’ll enjoy before everyone’s back to school. Most picks are inside the city, all are free or low-cost and every one gives your preschooler a chance to learn something.

Have a Blast at Camptastic Summer Camp

Once preschool wraps for the year, our Georgetown campus rolls right into Camptastic, our summer camp built for preschool-age kids. Every week has its own theme. Think space, science, art, and outdoor adventure, all packed with hands-on activities and special event days that keep a four-year-old’s brain turning. Spots fill up week by week, so register for Camptastic at our Georgetown campus early to lock in the weeks you want.

Cool Off at the Garey Park Splash Pad

Garey Park’s splash pad is one of the strongest reasons to live in Georgetown with a preschooler. The nearly 7,000-square-foot pad runs 28 motion-sensor water features, including five water cannons, two water tunnels, a spider spray, and a giant water mill at the center! It’s open daily during park hours from April 1 through October 31, weather permitting, which covers the entire stretch when you actually need it.

Park admission is free for Georgetown residents, and the playground beside the splash pad has separate climbing and slide structures sized for younger and older kids. Pack a swim diaper if you need one, and bring a towel that’s already a little wet, because asking your preschooler to leave the first time takes a while.

Build a Routine Around the San Gabriel Park Splash Pad and Story Walk

If Garey Park is the destination, San Gabriel Park can be your everyday default! The 2,000-square-foot splash pad here features 22 programmable water jets surrounded by colored concrete and a grove of oak trees, and it’s open from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily April through October. The surrounding 180-acre park has shade, walking paths, and the Tales on the Trails story walk where pages from picture books line the path.

Little kids love the story walk. You read one page per signpost, walk a few steps, then read the next. By the end, your preschooler has covered actual ground, exercised their legs, and finished a book without realizing they were doing reading practice!

For more park-focused ideas, our Georgetown kid-friendly parks guide breaks down which spots fit which mood.

Make the Georgetown Public Library Your Air-Conditioned Backup Plan

Texas summer afternoons regularly push into the 90s, and the air doesn’t cool until the sun’s halfway down. The Georgetown Public Library is your backup plan for those hours, and the kids’ programming is excellent.

Summer storytimes run from June 1 through July 31, with Baby and Me storytime for the under-18-month set on Mondays and Wednesdays at 10 a.m., and Family storytime for ages up to 5 on Thursdays and Fridays at 9:30 and 10:15 a.m. The library also runs Storytime Playdates in San Gabriel Park near the splash pad on selected dates, which gives you a brilliant excuse to stack two free activities into one outing!

Summer reading for children up to 12 runs June 1 through July 31. Your preschooler picks up a tracker at the children’s desk, colors in a stripe each week they read, and turns it in to enter a grand prize drawing. It’s the kind of low-pressure motivation that builds a real summer reading habit.

Catch the Sunset Movie Series

Once the sun finally drops, Georgetown’s free Sunset Movie Series is one of the easiest ways to wrap up a summer evening with a preschooler! Movies show outdoors at San Gabriel Park on select Friday nights through the summer, with activities starting at 7 p.m. and the film at 8.

Bring bug spray, a fleece for after sundown when the breeze finally shows up, and snacks your preschooler doesn’t usually get on a weeknight. The novelty does most of the work for you!

Swing by Creative World School!

We love watching how much Georgetown kids absorb just by being in this town for a summer, and we love being part of that for the families we work with. At Creative World School in Georgetown, our days are built around hands-on inquiry in the Exploratorium™, plenty of outdoor play, and the kind of warm, curious classroom energy your preschooler will love. Register for Camptastic to grab summer weeks, or schedule a tour at our campus just in time for back-to-school season!