Kids love animals!  The Chicago area is full of wonderful places to see them.  Brookfield Zoo (www.brookfieldzoo.org) in the Western Suburbs, Shedd Aquarium (www.sheddaquarium.org),  and Lincoln Park Zoo (lpzoo.org) in the city are among the world class places you can visit.    But you can’t do big trips with the kids every day, so younger children might enjoy setting up a pretend zoo with play animals and blocks.  Older siblings can create a map of the zoo’s exhibits and “tickets” for host moms and dads to use while touring the zoo.  And, of course, nothing is more fun than adding the soundtrack (animal sounds!).  The library is full of animal books.  For young ones read Dr. Seuss books like If I Ran the Zoo and older ones will enjoy checking out animal fact books or DVDs like National Geographic’s Blue Planet. Animal fun will go as far as your creativity can take you!