re: Riding the train to NO, what to do with my 10 year old

Serious question: are you riding on the City of New Orleans (MS to NOLA) or the Crescent (AL to NOLA). Reason I ask is that the Park Service used give in-train "tours" of the ecology / biology of the areas you pass. I'm sure with budget cuts and/or (insert your favorite political complaint here) those days may be long gone, but I sure enjoyed learning about all the history of the route along the west bank of Lake Pontchartrain and up through Southern Mississippi.

Example: where did Summit, MS get its name? Answer: because it was the highest known point along the original rail route between Memphis and New Orleans.

You might want to ask Amtrak if anything like that still exists.