I have been wanting to do a corn maze with our family for the past few years, but I wasn’t sure at what age of our kids it would be best. We decided that this year was the year! My youngest turns 5 this month, and the others are 6 and 8. I tell you their ages because I want you to know what our experience was like for kids of those ages.
DEAL AVAILABLE >> $18 For A Family 4-Pack Of Tickets To The Regular Or Flashlight Corn Maze (Reg. $36) (Valid Friday, Saturday, & Sunday)
The first thing I want to note, is that the Oregon Dairy Corn Maze is very well organized! They know what they are doing and they give you good instruction so that when you enter the maze, you know what you’ll be doing too. The kids loved listening to the instructions and reviewing the map.
As we maneuvered through the maze, my husband and I definitely helped our kids read the map a lot, but they were able to understand some of it on their own too. The hardest part was to keep them turning the map in their hands so they knew which direction they were facing.
At each numbered station of the “All Creatures Great and Small” corn maze, there is a stand with a number to be rubbed on your map. The first one we found was #1. The kids loved to take turns rubbing the numbers.
One thing I absolutely loved about this maze was their wide path around the perimeter of the maze. This another reason that makes it a very family-friendly maze. Its easy to find your way if you’re lost, or let’s say you get tired and need to head out quickly, or maybe the kids need to run where you can see them without getting lost. Its just perfect!
For a good portion of our maze extravaganza, the 4 and 6 year old, were our “wheels”. They decided thats what they were because if our navigator (8 year old) told them to turn left, they turned left, and so on. They also decided that it would be best for them to hold hands so the wheels would always turn together and keep us safe. 🙂
At each rubbing station there was a sign showing you where you were, and challenging you with a trivia question. We loved guessing the answers—the next station gave us the answer to the previous station’s question!
It ended up being an 80 degree day the day we did the maze and we were really overdressed for it! As a result, our 4 year old needed some extra encouragement and my wonderful husband offered to carry him on his shoulders for the rest of the maze.
One thing we would definitely do differently would be to carry bottled water with us. Total mom fail here, especially for an 80 degree day! Let’s just say we were thrilled to enjoy the free ice cold water at the end of the maze.
While we drank the water we checked the time to beat on the challenge board. We are thrilled that our family was able to find all 16 stations in 60 minutes—not a record, but I’d say pretty good for navigating it with kids on a hot day!
The corn maze area also has a really neat play area, including some paid rides. I thought this area was incredibly creative and unique. My kids loved the pumpkin skeeball, pumpkin bowling and the huge sandbox-like area (small stones instead of sand).
We were also super-excited to learn that one of the prizes for exiting the maze and finding all the stations included a FREE calf dip ice cream for the kids. Needless to say, we used them right away! 😉
Saving on the Corn Maze
If you’d like to enjoy the corn maze with your family, you can visit the corn maze any weekend in September and October. Check their website for more info on hours and special dates. They also have a flashlight corn maze in the evenings.
DEAL AVAILABLE >> $18 For A Family 4-Pack Of Tickets To The Regular Or Flashlight Corn Maze (Reg. $36) (Valid Friday, Saturday, & Sunday)
This is the best deal I have found for local corn mazes! Plus, from what I’ve heard and experienced so far, this is really one of the best corn mazes for families to navigate.
