Summer is here and families are excited to make the most of the season… but with rising costs, hybrid work, and school brain drain… no one wants to hear the dreaded, “I’m bored.”
We share ways to show families how they can have fun, spend time together, and maybe even learn a little something regardless of what your budget is. From family adventures to backyard grilling and more, we’ll equip you and share ways to make the most of the Summer months.
Journey Through A Book with Osmo
Feeling bored, pick up a book! Reading can take us to places we’ve never dreamed of but learning how to read is foundational to that process. Learning to read doesn’t have to feel like work, or school, rather it can be fun and game-like with the help of hands-on technology that magically comes alongside helping children through their journey. Osmo has created a personalized reading program developed with educators geared for kids 5-7 years old to build their skills and confidence.
We love Osmo because it combines hands-on learning with digital play and the new Reading Adventure series adds in automatic speech recognition technology to cover critical reading skills. For example, when my son was playing the game and he mispronounced a word, the game could tell and had him try again. Kids read physical story books, use an interactive crystal wand, and what they do gets translated into the digital world, like magic. I love that it also includes skill building games and activities, and adapts to meet the skill level of the child for a more dynamic, fun reading experience. Learning how to read is such a foundational key to all aspects of their learning journey, but if a child gets frustrated or discouraged it can affect this. That is why I love Osmo. It makes practicing reading and learning sight words fun. The kids beg me to play and I love that it is a positive form of screen time. We also couldn’t be more excited that Osmo named Levar Burton as their Chief Reading Officer. We grew up watching Reading Rainbow and it helped instill a love of reading. Burton will share insights and information with parents and educators on ways to inspire kids to increase their reading time. A champion of early childhood education, Burton will also make special appearances to engage with kids, families, and educators in an effort to reduce the literacy gap.
In addition to the Reading Adventure series, Osmo has the Math Wizard series, Coding games and more. Osmo is an app-based system that works with your iPad or Fire Table. From coding to learning math and how to draw your favorite Disney characters, we love that it has a wide-range of games for all ages.
Switch it Up, Bake on the Traeger Wood Fired Grill
We love cooking as a family. The excitement of tackling a recipe, the math of ingredients and the joy of the flavor. But this summer we’re switching things up and instead of baking with the kids in the kitchen we’re firing up the grill and making everything from cakes and casseroles to meat and even hot chocolate. It’s a twist that brings both delight and deliciousness… and of course we turned to Traeger Wood Fired Grills since they invented the original wood-fired grill over 30 years.
A Traeger grill will transform the way you cook because it creates consistent results, every single time with it’s precision temperature which allows for endless possibilities. You can grill, smoke, roast, bbq, braise and bake. So I grabbed the kids and searched Traeger’s GrillGuide® which has step-by-step cooking instructions and alerts for over 1,500 recipes, and we landed on Baked Coffee Cake.
Traeger has different flavored wood pellets and this recipe called for the Pecan. So we loaded in the pellets (don’t worry there is a pellet sensor to remotely monitor fuel levels) and then we got all the ingredients, and pressed the MAKE NOW button in the app.
Let’s talk a minute about this WiFIRE technology… on our Ironwood 885 I can control the grill through Traeger App or a smart home device. Originally created in conjunction with NASA to let astronauts cook on the moon, WiFIRE® will elevate your grill game to all new heights by monitoring and adjusting temps on the fly to letting you know when your food is up to temp, WiFIRE makes it simpler and more convenient than ever to create the best meal possible.
With the guesswork out, we let the grill do the work and when the timer went off, our delicious treat was baked to perfection. We had to also make bacon and sausage to go with our breakfast and keep in mind the variety of sauces and rubs from Traeger. It all smelled amazing, and tasted even better so now the only question is what to make next?!
Stay Cool, Stay Local at Town & Country
Kids can feel bored when they have the same scenery, even if it’s fantastic. You work hard for a great home and backyard or access to parks but sometimes you just need to getaway. But at what cost? Well, at Town and Country Hotel they just remodeled and now have the longest hotel water slide in San Diego, tunes by the pool, games galore and dive-in movies… this staycation provides a change of scenery, so much fun and it won’t break the bank. In fact it might cost less than what it takes to fill up the gas tank in your car, depending on what you drive! With rooms starting at $191, it is definitely a fun way to stay cool this summer.
We had a blast enjoying some fun in the sun. With a 10,000-square-foot pool complex complete with a zero-entry pool, children’s pool and four-story, 150-foot “Twister” waterslide, there is truly something for everyone. We enjoyed going back and forth between the slide, pool and hot tub. I loved that there were plenty of lounge chairs too for when I wanted to take a relax and just watch the kids. On Saturday nights, you can even catch a “Dive in” movie featuring classic movies poolside. For those needing a little break from the water there is sand volleyball, corn hole, ping pong, bocce ball and shuffleboards. We love some good family competition. And when you get hungry, Town and Country has some tasty options for the entire family. We enjoyed burgers and tacos from Lapper Kitchen and highly recommend saving some room for sundaes and shakes from Trixies.
STEAM Workshops for FREE
From craftronics to slime, virtual reality to earthquakes, all these interesting workshops are completely FREE! That’s right, these awesome STEAM based hands-on (mostly in-person) classes are for elementary through high school, thanks to the local library in your community.
Initially started as a pilot program at six San Diego libraries in 2017, Library NExT (Network of Education x Training) a series of workshops for elementary, middle, and high school students on topics including circuits, Python programming language, virology, and 55+ other STEAM courses, has expanded to 24 locations in 2021 with plans to be offered at all City of San Diego library locations. This San Diego Public Library program is a collaboration with UC San Diego Extension and Sally Ride Science.
