Summer Activities...

I've been trying to think of some fun activities to keep the kids busy this summer. I've been looking forward to trying Letterboxing (or check out this link). Whether we try one that is already hidden or "make our own" and let the kids find them, I think they will enjoy following the clues and find what is hidden. Heck I'm not above buying the cheap party favor animals, you know the bag of 6 or 12 little plastic themed animal packets and spreading them in the yard, the park and sending the kids on a hunt for the animals! =) Lately all Bella wants to do at daycare is look for bugs so I'm thinking a simple kids bug catcher might be in store for her!

Our local library has a great reading program. Every year they have a "theme" and then you sign up and read all summer (you choose whether you are tracking in 15min, 30min, or 60 minute increments) and you keep track of how much time you are reading, being read to, listening to audio storybooks, etc and then I believe it is for every hour you get a BOOK BUCK to be spent in their "store" (aka trinkets or used books) or they can be used for a raffle ticket for multiple different prizes. At 10 hours of reading you are rewarded with a new reading bag. Here is this years bag.

They are great quality bags and quite large. We are still using our bags from last summer for vacations, simple playing around the house and of course for trips back to the library!

I am hoping to talk with our local fire department about making a trip there or having them come the the house and get a group of people together for that. Kind of hope to work a whole safety them for a week or two. We have recently taught Bella our phone number so next we will work on our address and Ethan slips up a little still on that one (usually just the house number).

I would love to work with Bella a lot more on reading. She is getting really close to figuring it all out. I hope to work some on the sounding out and the Dolce sight words too. I found this great Kids Zone website that has multiple grades and options which works perfectly for both my kids.

Now of course we are still planning on hitting a few fun places too; like the park/carousel/water fountains, the local water park, play dates and just general fun stuff! Looking forward to a great summer....Only one more week of school.