Today is the first "official" day of summer break for those in school at our house! Yay! Of course that doesn't necessarily mean anything in the area getting to sleep in...but I'm sort of a morning person so that's okay.
In the last few years of my teaching, I can say that we have never gotten out before Memorial Day! This is a first for me (although I do have a lot of professional development and work to do as my classroom is moving) and the kids have certainly enjoyed the beginning of summer.
Memorial Day weekend was a nice, long weekend for our family (pictures to post later). We went to Salato Wildlife Center, which is a great family outing (and FREE) and then out for pizza. This worked out great, because it was also my niece's birthday and my sister and her family came along as well. We built the ice cream truck at Lowe's Build and Grow Workshop (also FREE and a must-do, the next projects are from Madagascar 3) and wrapped up our weekend cooking out with family and swimming!
We have already signed up at our local library for summer reading and today, we've laid around (doing the minimal laundry, dishes and some light pick ups). After this post, I actually plan on reading some of my own while the little guys are napping. I did want to let you in on some great activities and freebies that take place throughout the summer. We love family time and the summer is a great time to enjoy some free fun!
1. When do you sign up at your local library, you will receive coupons for great KY attractions. These include the Explorium, Newport Aquarium and the Louisville Zoo are all attractions that are included in this set of coupons-and many more.
2. Half Price Books Feed Your Brain Summer Reading (kids log the time they are spending reading and can earn a $5 gift card! Click on the link to print off the book log and other materials.
3. Barnes and Noble has a great summer reading program as well (in addition to their regular story times)- giving your kids the opportunity to earn a free book. Visit the link to see printables such as a reading log and journal pages.
4. Joseph Beth has great events for families this summer. This includes a camp and summer reading program in addition to their regular story times!
One great resource you may want to utilize this summer as I write about reading programs is called TumbleBooks. Go to your local library's webpage, for my library it is HERE. Find the link to TumbleBooks and instantly gain access to the Tumble Book Library (online read along books, story books as well as games and puzzles). I tried to do this while not using a link from my library webpage but it seems as though this is a website that you need to utilize from a school or library link and not on your own.
Well, that is is for now! Hoping I can do some reading of my own and then implement my cleaning schedule in the next couple of days, and be a little more regular with my blogging (I have more good freebies and some "crafty ideas" I may give a try from pinterest...but for today just take it easy.
I always like seeing your list of activities!! I have been making our summer bucket list, trying to fit in lots of fun (and free if we can) activities for family fun!
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