Now that is school is out it’s time to start thinking of how you will keep your kiddos busy this summer. While they can certainly play outside, there will be days where it will be miserably hot. A great place to visit that will keep them cool and entertained is Discovery Gateway!

We’ve already made our first visit to Discovery Gateway this summer. As you can tell from the picture above, it’s been one of our favorite things to do in Utah since Lily was a baby. And that’s one of my favorite things about Discovery Gateway – there is something for all ages. On our latest trip, we arrived at opening and didn’t leave until 4 pm. The kids loved every second of it!

Be sure to enter the giveaway at the bottom of this post as well as check out some tips of how to get the most out of your visit. But first, here’s a little about this fun museum!

Discovery Gateway children’s museum is located in the Gateway Mall in downtown Salt Lake City. Discovery Gateway offers 60,000 square feet of interactive, hands-on fun. You can explore their engaging workshops, programs, and exhibits that invite the whole family to create, learn, and play together!

Exhibits Include:

• The Garden- A 30-foot beehive greets visitors to The Garden, an exhibit where children and adults work together to keep things “buzzing.”
• Kid’s Eye View– In the Kid’s Eye View exhibit, children can explore the big, wide world on a kid-sized scale.
• Story Factory- From classic stage to modern multimedia, the Story Factory exhibit offers visitors numerous ways to explore telling a story.
• Media Zone- Anchor the evening news or report the weather using the green screen in our Media Zone exhibit that takes visitors behind the scenes.
• The Studio- The worlds of the artist, scientist, and engineer combine in this hands-on creative space.
• The Terrace- Put your rescue skills to the test as a pilot, paramedic, or commando.

Now, we’ve been quite a few times and we’ve learned a few tips along the way about how to get the most out of your day.  Ready for some insider tips?!?!?

1.  Be on the look out for good deals! When we went last Friday, this was the best deal out there!  Loved saving 37 percent off my tickets!

2. Be there when it opens so that you can sign up for the extra classes before they fill up. They do put out additional sign-up sheets for the later classes around noon so you will want to check back in before you have lunch. These classes are one of my favorite things about Discovery Gateway. From counting fun with octopus art projects to learning about and creating their own Matis masterpieces, the classes are fun, up-beat, and educational. Our favorite day to go is Friday, because there are three different classes offered during the summer. It is the perfect way to break up the day. Check out all of the classes and times here. 

3. Take a sack lunch to enjoy at their picnic tables on the bottom floor by the entrance. I put string cheese and frozen gogurts in a small insulated bag and they were perfect for lunch time. Food and drink is not allowed in the museum so plan for snack times/meals down at the picnic tables.

4. Establish expectations before you enter the museum. My children are ages 7,5, and 3 and all love different exhibits. Before we got out of the car, we made a plan to rotate who chose the next exhibit to visit. We would stay at each exhibit for 30 minutes or until the person who chose decides it is time to go. This seemed to work pretty well for us. We also made the rule that you had to be able to see Mom at all times.

5. Ditch the purse/diaper bag and wear a backpack. I put our lunches, my wallet, changes of clothes, etc. all in a backpack so that I would have my hands free to play with the kids. This made it so much easier than having to keep track of a purse. You need both hands free to take fun videos like this of the Hurricane Simulator.

For more details about our favorite exhibits, check out this post. 

Giveaway Time!

I am excited to be giving you the chance to win a 1-year family membership for 4! This is a $115 value!

Enter using the rafflecopter widget below. You must be a Utah resident to win. Giveaway ends 6/22/15. Good Luck!

Disclosure: This blog is not responsible for prize fulfillment or shipment. I was not compensated to participate in this giveaway.

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The post Tips for getting the most out of your visit to Discovery Gateway + Family Membership Giveaway & Discount Tickets! appeared first on KeepMovingForwardWithMe.

It has been all things Disney in the Parker/Trost households as we get ready for our 2014 Walt Disney World trip. To help us prepare, each family member has been assigned a secret service agent. Every month we give our secret service person Disney-related tasks and rewards. The creativity in our family has been amazing – just you wait for the fun blog posts to come about the secret service agents!

With any activity/vacation I do with my children, I like to make sure that it is fun AND educational at the same time. We’re learning north/south/east/west through treasure hunts with Captain Hook and Schmee, practicing reading and writing with character-themed print outs from DisneyJunior.com, you get the picture!

This month, the little girl who I serve is going to have fun with Doc McStuffins. Side note – how much do I love Doc McStuffins! So appreciative that my daughter watches cartoons where the girls are imaginative and smart to boot. Lucky for me Disney Junior has an entire section of their site dedicated to Doc McStuffins – from printables, to Halloween videos, to games. I am e-mailing my secret service person a link to the Halloween activities as well as giving her this cute stethoscope with an activity pack I picked up at Wal-mart for .97 cents.

If you have a daughter or son who loves Doc McStuffins be sure to check it out!

Now my lovely readers, you are in luck because I am teaming up with two other fabulous bloggers to give away the perfect Christmas present for your little Doc McStuffins fan – the Doc McStuffins Get Better Check Up Center.

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Thank you to the other sponsors who made this giveaway possible!

Cupcake Diaries

Reality To Dreams

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Earlier this week these words came out of my six-year-old’s mouth, “I don’t want to read. Reading is boring.”

Gasp! As a child I carried a book wherever I went and could not get enough of the library.  How could I give birth to a child who doesn’t like to read (or at least tells me so in a frustrated moment. This too shall pass, I know)?

My husband or I read several books a day to our children and we listen to classics like The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe while we fall asleep at night. But how to encourage my little socialite to independently read on her own?

Time to make reading fun!

I busted out the sidewalk chalk, leftover pop-it’s from the 4th of July, bikes, and water balloons. Covering the driveway with a mix of site words and easy to read words, I also mixed it up by using different colors and shapes. This way, my four year could participate a little easier as well.

The kiddos were quite excited when they came outside. I could see it in their eyes, “what has crazy mommy been up to now?”

We turned reading practice into 5 easy and fun and outdoor games.

1. Pop its! My children love pop its. I passed out several to my six year old and four year old. As I called out a word/shape/or color, they would find it and toss down a pop it like the word was a bulls eyes. Reading + noise = fun!  (please only use pop-its with adult supervision.)

2. Bikes and wiggle cars. I also had the children drive or ride over words as I called them out. Another fun idea would be to have your child ride over certain words to make a sentence!

3. Modified hop scotch. The kids came up with this idea on their own. They would jump from word to word reading each one. They had fun seeing how many words they could read in a row.

4. Writing practice. My daughter got in on the fun by using the chalk to write her own words. She wrote out words and her little brother wrote out letters.

5. Water balloons. Clean up is easy with water balloons! The chalk will stay on your drive way for awhile, but if you want a quick clean up – bring on the water balloons! Just like the pop its, have your child toss a water balloon at the word. Washes the chalk right, off!

We will definitely be bringing out more chalk, water balloons, and pop its for future spelling practices. The children loved it and mommy liked that they were learning, too.

What is your favorite learning activity to do with your children?

Are your children back in school yet?

How do you prepare for the school year?

The post Back to School – Outdoor Reading Games appeared first on KeepMovingForwardWithMe.

During the summer, I am planning learning activities for my children as many days I can.    I view summer learning as a fun way to reinforce skills and concepts learned during the school year. This sneaky mom doesn’t want the kiddos to catch on that they are actually still learning!

Last week I may have blown up over 30 balloons for Lily’s sixth birthday. Those balloons have been bopped, kicked, and chased all over the house. This week my goal was to introduce our new Alphabet Flash Cards from Educational Toys Planet. I needed an activity for my emerging reader, six-year old Lily, and my pre-reader, three-year old Cortland.

Enter in the balloons and the flash cards – such a fun combination! I took the word from each flash card and wrote it on one of my balloons so that each card matched a balloon. Put 26 balloons in one room and you are bound to have fun! I gave each child a card and sent them on a treasure hunt to find the right balloon. My daughter matched the words while my son matched the first letter. When they found a match they tossed the balloons on the bed until they had matched all the pairs. My children loved this activity and have asked to do it several times.

After we made all the matches, we played several games that were outlined in the card pack. We mixed up all the letters and then sang the ABC song to put the cards back in order. Once they were in order we matched the pictures from the lower case letter cards to the right upper case letter card. I love that ABC Flash card set came with both upper and lower case letters! The cards were colorful and my kids thought the pictures were fun.

The best part of this activity was the smile on my daughter’s face when she found a match. Success – fun and learning! I am so excited for the rest of our summer learning activities. Stay tuned for a fun 4th of July reading activity as well! Until then I am going to be trying out a great idea from my sister who blogs over at Live to be Inspired. Shooting site words with a nerf gun – pretty sure my kids can get into that!

I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

Linking up to Tot School!

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