Free Summer Fun!

This week we finally got a chance to use our Kids Bowl Free passes! Massachusetts is one crazy, wacky state (commonwealth)? Whatever. They don't have regular bowling, only candlepin, eh (apparently candlepin is popular in some parts of Canada too)? On the plus side, the balls are small and easy for kids to hold and throw. The pins don't fall over like regular bowling pins, though. It's more likely they fall to the back than knock each other down. Also? YOU GET THREE BALLS PER FRAME! What? You'd think you'd bowl 10 every frame, but it happens far less often than you'd think. In any case, it's still fun.

If you haven't signed up, check out the website and see if there's an alley near you! We always get the adult pass, too. I've found it well worth the $25 for 4 named adults!

Another free thing we'll try tomorrow is the Bookworm Wednesdays at our local cinemas.

If the kids (ages 6+) fill out a one page book report, they get to see a movie for free! Tomorrow is Despicable Me 2, and of course my boys find the minions in the movie hilarious, so we are going to go. Here they are working on their reports:

I had my 6yo write the title, author, one sentence, and his name. I wrote a few more sentences he dictated to me, since he is still working on his writing confidence. He got a little frustrated, so I guess that means we need to spend a bit more time on it. We've slacked off on our more formal homeschooling the past few weeks in lieu of summer activities. We tend to be pretty relaxed homeschoolers, but we do try to work on reading and writing skills as they are important as a learning foundation.

We participated in another free program where you log reading hours and get free passes to Six Flags with the Read to Succeed Program, but I'm not sure we will actually use them as it's not close and would be a very long day trip. We also have plans to visit a different, more kid-friendly theme park so I'm not sure we need to do both anyway!

What free or almost free activities do you have in your area? Do you school through the summer?