These two ideas do not go well together. If you want the children to play outside safely, and visit the hens, you do not want the roosters free ranging in the same area.
If you try to keep the males, I would strongly recommend you provide a run for them, rather than letting them loose all the time.
Can you maybe get a dog kennel? The kind with panels made of chain link or similar material, plus some kind of a cover to keep chickens in and rain out, can work reasonably well as a chicken run.
It is not completely predator proof, given that some predators can rip through the usual tarp-type roof and reach through the chain link, but it does contain the chickens and does protect from many daytime predators (hawk does not see chickens under the cover, stray dog cannot get in to get chickens, even raccoon is slowed down because chickens run to the opposite corner.) For nighttime safety, shutting the chickens in a secure coop would work.
And if you do not keep the roosters long-term, a dog kennel can come in handy for many other situations when you need that much fence (example: if you have a patch of weeds and want a garden, put the kennel there and let your hens eat weeds & scratch all day, and at some point it will be nicely weed-free.)
I think we will probably pass them on at this point but I like this as a backup if we need to separate them from the hens but have trouble finding them a home, or want to give them some more time before we cull. Thanks for your advice!
