Mommy Moments
Free Stuff and Cool Stuff We Enjoyed this Summer
So my long-distance friend recently asked me, “What have you been doing this summer with the kids to stay busy?” As she mentioned, she was running out of ideas and the summer was starting to wear on her, as the kids were probably getting a bit stir-crazy.
I was surprised to find that I had accidentally (and happily) filled up our days this summer with fun activities. Many of the activities were free or very affordable. And all of them involved staying cool, since our heat index has been about 105 degrees each day here in Florida. I apologize for getting these ideas to you at the end of the summer and not the beginning! However, I thought it might be nice to get these ideas out there now and if you find anything useful, maybe you can hold onto it as “ammunition” to get through next summer. Especially if you’ll be home with kids and if they are not headed for camp.
Swim Lessons. My kids are five and three – swimming is one of the only outdoor activities that we can do together in the summer, thanks to the heat. If you’re going to invest in any kind of lessons over the
summer in Florida, I highly recommend swim lessons. The faster they learn to swim, the safer you will be. I’ve heard good things about the swim lessons at Calypso Bay Waterpark in Royal Palm Beach, Lake Lytal in West Palm Beach, Wellington’s Aquatic Center pool and Santa Luces High School in Lake Worth – all reasonably priced. We chose Santa Luces swim lessons (to join a few of their friends) and were impressed with the quality of the teaching and the affordable price of the lessons. These lessons are taught in two-week sessions, Tuesday thru Friday, in half-hour sessions, all for a total cost of $50 per child. The swim instructors were kind, patient and consistent. Both of my kids went from swimming with water wings to swimming without them. My five-year-old daughter already does the strokes with good form, including the crawl and the backstroke – thanks to just four weeks of lessons. She learned the elementary backstroke too. Unfortunately (like most kids I’ve seen) she never chooses to use it. For those parents who are more interested in one-on-one lessons, there are other great local instructors – Sharon Powers (561-596-5199) and “AquaPam,” also known as Pam Smith (561-758-1869).
Another activity we’ve enjoyed over the summer is going to Playmobil Fun Park. Admission for all day is just $1 and you can bring a picnic lunch and eat it in the café. It’s cool, clean and very entertaining for young kids. The German-designed Playmobil toys capture the imagination of your children, whether they are into dinosaurs, princesses, Roman empires, hospitals, animal rescue or something else – there’s something for everyone. See our “AW Spotlight” story about Playmobil and related brand Lechuza last month!
Summer Movie Specials! There are so many free or affordable summer movie series for kids in our area. We tried out the Wellington Marketplace Summer Movie Fair (561-792-7334) with a couple of friends this summer. For just $5 per person, you get tickets to 9 movies (over 9 weeks). The movies are generally a year or two old. Since my kids have seen very few movies in the theaters (actually my 3-year-old had never been to the movie theater before), this really didn’t matter. My kids actually liked the first one in the series the best “Alvin and the Chipmunks, the Squeequel.” We didn’t make it to the end of every movie – because a few of the films were “just too scary,” according to my kids. Yet overall, it was a good experience. Good practice behaving in a dark theater (and not talking). A nice break for Mom…or Dad too!
Just today we went to the South Florida Science Museum in West Palm Beach (561-832-1988) and visited their Planetarium too. We were happy to get in for free (on the first weekend of the month) because of being Bank of America customers. We still paid for admission for the kids, but it was just $6 per child. There are many
hands-on learning activities for the children. Our kids were fascinated with the Shadow Freeze room, the ball rollercoaster, the spinning tops and the dominos play area. The latter two were part of the Science in Toyland exhibit, presented by Bank of America. Also, my three-year-old son was thrilled to be in his first planetarium, since his favorite topic is the planets right now. We saw a show called “The Friendly Stars” which was age-appropriate and just perfect for anyone else who has a budding astronaut in the family. The museum just re-opened their Observatory and telescope, which is featured on a special evening on the last Friday of each month called “Nights at the Museum.” Parents, take advantage of these special nights, where many science experts are there to explain the different exhibits and activities are going on from 6pm to 10pm, in addition to telescope viewing. When we visited the last Friday night in August, they taught the kids how to dissect a shark and let them use the tools to do it. Ewwwww! But cool stuff, if you can stomach it.
Don’t forget your local library. They do a nice job of storytimes and other activities over the summer. We took advantage of a couple of special programs that were, of course, free. You do need to sign up in advance for these activities in the children’s section of the library. There was an excellent puppet show called “Oceans of Fun.” Also, on International Fairy Day (which, honestly, is the first International Fairy Day I remember celebrating), we made our own fairies, a cute craft involving a clothes pin and a magnet. Check out the Wellington Public Library or your closest library. It’s really possibly the best free resource that we have as parents. And in this economy, it’s a great thing to be able to come home with a huge stack of new books, CDs and DVDs every week – new educational material for your kids at no cost to you.
Have you got great, inexpensive ideas for things to do with your young children? Send them our way, email: [email protected]. Also check out “Kids Corner,” where super-mom Shawn Thompson has compiled a great list of “Kids Eat Free” nights at local restaurants. BTW, if you haven’t done so yet, don’t forget to “Subscribe” to our online magazine. It’s painless and we do not share our email address with any other entity! THANKS in advance for your ideas!
Krista Martinelli is the editor of www.aroundwellington.com. She’s the mother of a five-year-old girl, who is obsessed with Broadway musicals, and a three-year-old boy, who is obsessed with our solar system.