Kids Climbing the Walls? Use These Tips/Tricks to Finding Things to Entertain Them.
I have had a couple people ask me where I hear about various promotions, free activities, and other activities. I thought that I would share some useful links as well as tips on how to find these things in your area. Some things like 31 cent scoop night at Baskin Robbins, a free meal for dressing up like a cow at Chic-fil-a, or a free corn dog at Hot Dog on a Stick are things that you can check on each year to find out when or if they will happen again. One thing that I do so that I don’t have to remember to go checking is when I hear about a promotion like a free hot dog, pretzel, or $1.00 smoothies at Jamba I go to their website and sign up for the e-mail mailing list. That way when they have promotions in the future I will hear about them. A few that we go to yearly are 31 cent scoop night at Baskin Robbins and free slurpee day at 7-11 on July 11th. Some new ones that I have heard about this year are free pretzel day at Pretzelmaker, free donut day at Krispy Kreme, free corn dog at Hot Dog on a Stick, and of course the $1.00 super fruit smoothies at Jamba juice.
As for activities, a lot of those I have learned about from hear say. It is important to note that thanks to the zoo, arts, and parks tax you can take advantage of free days at several venues in Salt Lake. Once a year Discovery Gateway has a free day. Hogle Zoo has a free day the last Wednesday of the month from October or November (not 100% sure which) to February. Every month of the year you can go to the Utah Museum of Natural History for free on the first Monday of the month and to the Utah Museum of Fine Arts on the first Wednesday of the month (both of these are at the U of U). I recently learned that the Monte L. Bean museum at the Y is free all the time and we intend to make a trip out to see it. Wheeler Farm has a free May Day Festival every year during the month of May. Salt Lake City holds a festival called Living Traditions festival each year in May or June and it is free admission. Canyon Rim park holds a yearly Venture Outdoor festival which is usually during the month of June. You can go to a family fun day at This is the Place for free during the month of July as part of the Days of ’47 celebration. They also hold an annual Easter Egg hunt that is free admission as well. Gallivan Center has a free lunch bunch concert series all summer long and they also have Radio Disney Days. You can also attend the free concert series at Brigham Young Historic Park. They have concerts every Tuesday and Friday June through August. http://www.lds.org/event/s/ConcertsParkSchedule_2010.pdf Barnes and Noble book stores do reading activities and story times through out the year as well and Home Depot has Kids Workshops the first Saturday of the month all year for 5-12 year olds. Lowe’s does kid workshops as well and that info. can be found at https://www.lowesbuildandgrow.com
The other thing that I do is go to my city’s web page and look at their event calendar. A lot of cities have free movies in the park weekly or monthly during the summer. I know that a near by park is doing free family night in the park every other week through out the summer. You will also be able to get information on any special events going on in your city as well as Independence Day and Pioneer Day details. Most city websites also have info. regarding the parks in the city, hiking trails, and other recreation. You can go to the website of the rec center in your area and it will have event info. for their facility. I know that South Davis Rec. Center does a free swimming day during the summer and that Alta Canyon has dive in movies (for a fee) in the evening a couple of times during the season.
Lastly, I have found a couple of good websites that post activities on them. My favorite is the No Bored Kids calendar found here. A couple more good sites are Nowplayingutah.com and http://gocitykids.parentsconnect.com (you will need to put your location in on this site so that the info. is for things in your area.) You can also visit the local library (or their website) and check out their events calendar. Many libraries have story time and some will even do other activities. For instance, I recently took my toddler to our neighborhood library for a one time music class. He LOVED it. At the Salt Lake County libraries you can check out a discount day pass for Utah State Parks. I have also gotten books from the library and compiled a short list of easy hikes in the Salt Lake County area. If you want this list comment on this blog entry and be sure to leave your e-mail address so that I can send it to you. I would also recommend picking up a copy of the Utah Mama’s Handbook because it is chock full of things to do. It doesn’t have to be the most recent version, just be sure to double check with the facility before assuming that the activity/hours/prices are the same. I hope that all of this info. helps you to keep your kids and family entertained through out the year. Let me know if you have any questions and happy discovering!