Morris Arboretum, a little explorers paradise

One of the most beautiful places to visit with kids in Philadelphia is the Morris Arboretum of the University of Pennsylvania. Formerly an estate home and now an official arbortetum of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the Morris Arborteum offers many opportunities to kids and families to explore and learn about nature. 

We have a family membership to the arboretum so that we can visit frequently.  Today, the week before the official start of spring, was absolutely beautiful and a perfect day for a trip to the arborteum.  We met our favorite family of girls and had a little picnic on the "Rapunzel" gazebo.  The kids had a blast running around and creating thier own little games of fun.  They enjoyed exploring the Log Cabin and the bird's nest on Out on a Limb, an incredible exhibit!

Because it is still technically winter, the fountains, water features, and some of the rest rooms were still not operational.  The train exhibit was also closed, but is set to reopen Memorial Day weekend and we can hardly wait!  The model trains in the garden railway are just amazing.  Each year they are set to a different theme and at Christmas time they open for a few weeks to celebrate the winter holidays.  My son LOVES the trains!  They even have several Thomas trains and special Thomas weekends during the summer.

We are looking forward to many more visits to the arboretum now that the flowers are blooming and sunny days are ahead!

An introduction to Summertime of Fun

The first post of my new blog!  I created this blog as a means to plan and keep track of the summer activities my family participates in during 2012.  Since becoming a parent, especially as a stay at home parent, I have come to appreciate summer in a different way.  For years, prior to parenting, summer was just a season of hot and humid Philly weather.  Now that I have a child, age four and a half, I see summer through his eyes.  It is three months of fun days, no school, not much of a schedule, and lots of time to play. I have some great mommy friends who we get together with regularly to have fun all summer long.  We coined summertime as "Summer of Fun" a few years ago.  It's not just about the kids having fun, but the mommies and the whole family having fun.

My son is a preschooler currently.  While I admire parents who homeschool their kids full time, I don't have it in me to do it full time.  I do supplement my son's education by encouraging learning through experience and play.  From visiting local farms and our CSA to going to the zoo or fun playgrounds, I encourage my son to learn from interacting with his environment. When we aren't out and about doing and activity, we are at home playing in the back yard, making crafts, reading or just playing using toys and lots of imagination.

I plan to feature activities and events in the Philadelphia and surrounding area in which we participate.  I'll also include day trips and vacations we go on. At this writing, none of the activities planned are sponsored or comped in any way.  If an event, organization or company chooses to provide complimentary admission or other services/products, I will disclose that in the post.  All opinions expressed here are honest and my own!

If you have a suggestion for an activity in the Philadelphia region, I'd love to hear about it!  Leave a comment or email me at summertimeoffun at gmail dot com.

Looking forward to having another Summertime of Fun!  The 2012 edition!