Don't forget to visit our site next summer, or any time throughout the school year when you are looking for free or cheap fun. Fall is a great time to go fruit and veggie-picking on a Sunday or day-off, winter in Southern California often brings nice, cool weather for hiking (or rainy days that suit museum visits), and spring means strawberries.
We Klempners had a great summer family camping, and we hope you had a great one, too. School starts tomorrow, so we celebrated out last day of vacation with a pancake breakfast, a trip to the library, swimming for the big kids, and a park for the tots.
Don't forget to visit our site next summer, or any time throughout the school year when you are looking for free or cheap fun. Fall is a great time to go fruit and veggie-picking on a Sunday or day-off, winter in Southern California often brings nice, cool weather for hiking (or rainy days that suit museum visits), and spring means strawberries.
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Tonight will be the National Night Out 2013. This annual event helps our community meet and join forces with the agencies that keep our neighborhoods safe. Kids will love meeting police officers and learning how they can help stop crime.
For LAPD activities, look here. (There will be multiple venues to choose from, including at Pershing Square and in Marina del Rey.) For Beverly Hills activities, look here. If you liked John Henry in Carlson Park, I've got a new lead for you about free theater in Culver City! Every Saturday and Sunday in August in Media Park (across the street from Trader Joe's), the Actors' Gang Theatre will present a kid-friendly performance at 11 a.m. This year, the characters of "The Twelfth Night" will be super-heroes! Look here for more info!
Thanks to Mimi S. for telling me about the following deal:
We've always wanted to go to Sky High Sports for lots of jumping fun, but the price -- $12 an hour -- gave us sticker shock. Enter the Woodland Hills location's Family Night Tuesdays: a large pizza and 1 hour of jumping for a family for 4 is just $30.00! And, reportedly, kosher pizza is available! For more details, see the Sky High Sports website. Red Tricycle today posted an excellent list of water play areas in the L.A. area, with addresses, etc. all in one place. I added another great splash pad in the comments. Check it out!
We went to the Underwood Family Farm location in Moorpark today (although a friend told me the blueberries in Somis were fabulous if you're headed out that way). I thought it worth mentioning that there's road construction right at the exit at Tierra Rejada, so be prepared with a detour in mind.
Also, we listened to The Mouse and the Motorcycle on CD. So much fun, and almost exactly the perfect length for the trip! And then I remembered a couple other great audiobooks that we've enjoyed: The Watsons Go to Birmingham -- 1963 and By the Great Horn Spoon. Another final heads-up: yesterday, we went to the Science Center in Exposition Park. We had a great time, but the fountain in the middle of the rose garden is under construction and a bit of an eyesore. For the first time ever, I had a paid speaking engagement today. I was fortunate enough to be invited by a local parenting group to present on the topic, "Cheapskate summer: How to have fun without busting your budget." Basically, that meant I got to yammer on about family camping for an hour and a half...something I love to do even for free! The best part of the presentation for me were all the wonderful tips the moms present shared with me...and now I'm going to pass a bunch of them along to you! Shared by Francine P.: Free art workshops on Sundays at Barnsdall Park and the WAZE app for directions on all those roadtrips. Also, she followed up with me after my talk and says you can schedule walking tours for kids of downtown L.A. with at least 3 weeks notice and a minimum of 15 people (8 on a weekend) and reminded me of someplace I've always wanted to visit, Angel's Flight. Shared by Sharona K.: If you want your kids to improve their keyboarding skills, a free program is right on the Santa Monica Library site. Shared by Orly S.: Geocaching as a lure for older kids to participate in your outings as a family. Shared by Lisa A.: For discount tix and coupon codes on all sorts of outings, try Retail Me Not. Shared by Shauna K.: Two fun places for kids to tour near Solvang are an ostrich farm and a miniature horse farm. Shared by Nechamie: A fabulous park - Montebello Park And last, but not least... Shared by Leebee M.: a whole list of fun stuff to do over the summer! Just click to download as a Word document. Wow!
All our children are gifted and talented, regardless of their test scores or academic achievements. Here's a wonderful list of links from the GATE folks at LAUSD with classes, museums, etc. that can develop the gifts and talents of your children:
http://www.lausd.k12.ca.us/lausd/offices/GATE/stud-par-6.html LAUSD will be out of session in just a week, with most of the private schools out a week or two after that. We're planning for summer 2013! Our latest lead was that the Kids Skate Free program includes a location in Northridge. Check back for more new tips for free or cheap summertime fun in the coming weeks.
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