Explore Your City this Summer

This week’s Works for Me Wednesday is the Mom I’m Bored edition. I chuckled when I read this because my kids rarely say those words. When those words are uttered from a Happy child, chores are almost immediately assigned. My kids know better than to claim boredom, because cleaning soon follows.

Since we move every 2 to 3 years we try to explore our local area during that time. I kind of see it as a 2 year vacation to different spots around the United States (and overseas). Even if you have lived in the same place your entire life I am sure there are places you have not discovered, or at least your kids haven’t visited them yet. Why not make a list (with the help of your children) of all the places you would like to visit this summer? Then you can spend one day a week, or more checking out your local area.

Most cities have many free, or almost free events, especially in the summer. A quick search on swagbucks provided many free ideas for my local area. For example did you know that the service bands give FREE concerts almost every night of the week in Washington, D.C.? If you don’t feel like driving into the city, Allen Pond Park in Bowie also runs a free concert series over the summer. Another great resource for finding fun, kid approved activities in your area is the Kids Love Travel books. I wrote about this book a few weeks ago and plan to use my Maryland book to help my kids make their trip list.

Here is the plan. Next week the kids and I will make a list of every place we would like to visit in our area. Then working from the list we will try to visit one place each week. Since our summer is about 10 weeks long that means at least 10 new places we have discovered in the greater D.C. area.

Since I am a homeschooling mom and I just can’t resist turning everything into a school project my kids will also “review” the places we visit. I have one child who loves to take photos so he will be our official trip photographer. The kids will have fun and lea at the same time!

I tried this technique a few months ago and the kids didn’t mind writing and taking pictures of their adventure. Below is their opinion on the National Wildlife Refuge.

From my reluctant writer:

The center was really cool. I liked the tram ride the second most. The coolest thing was the animals in the glass walls. The center is a great place to go if you’ve never seen a beaver dam, turtles, and/ or eagles. So you should go MOM, it is cool, trust me. I mean please go mom. 🙂

From my child currently going through IEW.

On Sunday, April 19th, my dad took me and five of my siblings to visit the National Wildlife Refuge. Riding a tram around the grounds, we learned about some of the animals that inhabit the refuge. While the area was pretty, it would have been prettier still if we had gone later in Spring, when more of the plants had grown their leaves back. The visitor’s building had even more information about the creatures that live in the refuge. Eagerly, we felt the skins of animals such as rabbit, opossum, fox and otter. The refuge also had an auditorium where they were showing a movie on wetland wildlife.

The National Wildlife Refuge is a fantastic place to learn about endangered wildlife. Throughout the visitor’s center, there are numerous informative exhibits. Because it is a child-friendly place, there are many hands-on activities. Someday I would love to return with my family.

Photographs from my 12 year old.

The National Wildlife Refuge Center is free, but the tram ride costs $3 for adults and $1 for children under 12.

Between day trips and cleaning out my entire house my summer seems full already. What are your summer plans?