A lot of us enjoy the Butterfly Pavillion in Exposition Park (see previous post). However, visiting costs money, and if you are traveling with the entire family or a group, the price can add up.
In Orange County, there’s another place to see butterflies and much more: the Environmental Nature Center of Newport Beach. I’d recommend checking out the website in the hypertext above for exact hours and directions. You’ll find a Butterfly House and light hiking in shady woods, picnic areas, a small museum, and educational programs for the whole family–and it’s free! Today, our family took a lovely stroll at the Redondo Beach Wilderness Park. This is a medium sized park with lots of shady trees, a delightful ocean breeze, creeks, two ponds stocked with koi, turtles, and ducks, several picnic areas, tadpoles (you could see some getting their limbs!), butterflies, dragonflies, and several species of waterbirds. The trail is short--not serious hiking for grown-ups, but fun for the kids.
Beware of blackberry brambles (they've got nasty thorns) and the challenging entrance/exit (you can only get in facing one direction). I'd map the trip before going. I stopped by the library today and got the complete schedule for the free summer kids' programs. All occur Wednesday afternoons at 4.
June 27--Bubble-Ology 101 July 11--The Magic of Allen Oshiro July 18--Make your own Pet Rock July 25--Puppet show by Jim Peace "Dream Big, Wish Big" August 1--Make your own cartoons with professional cartoonist, Dave Boatman August 8--Storyteller and musician, Karen Golden--very interactive Additionally, kids 9-14 years old can join the Youth Scrabble Club. It will meet Sundays 1-3 pm on June 17, July 15, August 12, Octover 14, November 18, and December 16! Rancho los Alamitos is a great place to explore our Southern California heritage. The site has been inhabited for hundreds of years, and the house has many layers to it. My kids loved the old-fashioned Western decor and cowboy memorabilia. My favorite part: the porch where the rancher’s wife fed all the ranch hands.
The barn and much of the outdoors area at Rancho los Alamitos has been under an extensive renovation for a couple years. The job is now complete and we’re all welcome to a grand re-opening this Sunday, June 10! If you don't make it then, find time later this summer--it's really a nifty place to visit. The barn has all sorts of animals for the kids to get up close and personal with. By the way, Rancho los Alamitos was owned by a member of the Bixby family–the brother of the Bixby who owned Rancho los Cerritos, just a few miles away. Visiting the two will give you a fantastic picture of life in SoCal 100 years ago. image from ClipArt ETC
Here's a post that I originally wrote for my author blog: I'm not a Pinterest fan, but here's a wonderful post by a fellow blogger at the Nerdy Book Club that gives super projects to make summer reading fun in your family. Summertime is the perfect time to develop a love of reading in your kids. Kids can select their own reading material based on their own interests rather than what their teachers think they should be reading. They can also read at their own pace without meeting a deadline. If your family (or your child's camp bunk) go on an interesting outing, they can select books that dovetail nicely with the subject matter. Many libraries have summer book clubs that your kids can join (including Beverly Hills and L.A. city libraries). Just go see the children's librarian for details at your neighborhood branch. These useful sites will give you a heads up on all sorts of fun things to do around SoCal.
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