Summer Fun

It's that time of year again! Schools out Wednesday and it's time for me to plan a few things to keep my kids occupied. They do well on their own, but after a while they get annoyed with each other. Unfortunately, we don't have too many kids their age in our neighborhood which means we seek out the kids at other places. We'll be travelling some this summer, visiting my parents and the beach with my friend and her family. My sister will be sending her kids (all three of them) to my house in August. So I've got to plan ahead for a few things to keep them busy and not at each other's throats. ;)

Here are a few of the ideas I have in mind so far..

AMC Summer Movies (free movies)

Regal Family Summer Movies (free movies) (alternatives to AMC)

FISHING! Now that my kids have discovered it, we'll go and enjoy. Found a great site related to this: www.takemefishing.com.

READING! Thanks to my friend, my son has discovered the Secrets of Droon series. He now owns 19 books in the series (thank you goodwill). 15 of those he hasn't read. My daughter has discovered the Magic School Bus series. She now has 11 that she hasn't read (thanks ebay). I've also signed them up for the local library reading club and plan to sign them up at Barnes & Noble. Another person recommended this: www.bookadventure.org which allows kids to read, take tests, and earn prizes. A lot like the AR program at school.

State Parks - quite a few of our parks have free (or very cheap) programs like nature hikes and such.

Local cities - some of the smaller cities in the area have movies in the square (free or small charge) as well as other activities. Duluth has "flicks on the bricks" and "Brown bag lunches".

Swimming - we have a membership to the local county pool. We'll probably spend half our time there.

Zoo Atlanta - we have a membership here.

Georgia Aquarium - membership (mostly free as I'm a volunteer).

Pokemon Learning League - when your kids are as poke-oriented as mine, it's a great way to get them to learn or at least not forget over the summer.

If I come up with more ideas, I'll add them later.