Day Trips in Your Own Hometown
A little time away with the family is important for your relationships and to show the kids what the world has to offer. Fancy vacations and long getaways are not necessary to have a fun time with your loved ones. You can take a simple day trip in your own community, making the most of what your town or nearby bigger city has going on. Here are four ideas for spending time with family on a day trip excursion. They are all great ways to give your kids an appreciation of culture, learning and they’ll see there’s more to fun than video games and television!
Bookstore Reading
Many local bookstores have reading groups for kids where the author comes to the store to make an appearance and reads their book aloud to young fans. What a nice way to incorporate the joy of reading into an educational and memorable day! Oftentimes, the author will sign autographs and take photos with the kids. Check out the events calendar at your local bookstores and libraries for upcoming appearances. Your kids will be even more eager to read when they get to meet the author and other book-loving families at the bookstore! Finish the day at the bookstore coffee shop for some hot cocoa and snacks.
Museum
There are many museums geared towards children or with special kid-friendly exhibits. A day at the museum is like a little getaway into a world of new findings and interesting things to learn about. Kids love “touch” museums where you are allowed to feel the exhibits and get hands-on with the pieces and sculptures. Art museums often have kids’ sections where the art is actually made by kids. See if there are any classes your kids can attend to create a masterpiece themselves! Natural history museums are always a hit with dinosaur bones, wild animal exhibits and pre-historic men and women. The kids will be having such a blast, they won’t even realize how much knowledge they’re absorbing!
Cooking Class
Kids love to participate in cooking and baking, and with a kids’ cooking class, they can do just that. Lots of community centers, religious institutions and cooking schools hold classes just for kids based on age and kitchen experience. Kids can learn to bake pies, create pasta specialties, broil a roasted chicken and decorate chocolate candies. Who knows what your mini-chef will learn to cook? Cooking and baking teach mathematics (for recipe amounts), patience, teamwork and nutrition. The bonus? A delicious treat to taste test at the end of the day. What a great mini-vacation as a day in the life of a chef!
Botanical Garden
Explore the beauty of nature with a day trip to a botanical garden. The kids will love seeing all the varieties of plants and flowers and will learn all about how they grow and where they thrive. It’s amazing to see little faces light up when they smell all the glorious scents and see flowers and plants they have never seen before from every country. A trip to a botanical garden is not only fun, but it gives kids an appreciation of the world around us and the care it takes to handle delicate plants and flowers. You may even have a future florist on your hands!
Have you taken a fun day trip with the kids? Where’d you go? We would love to hear more kid-friendly ideas. Read more info like this at All My Children Daycare.
By: Melissa A. Kay