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The National Aquarium in Baltimore has started up its off-season Fridays After Five program. Families can visit the (usually very expensive) Aquarium every Friday after 5 pm for only $8 per person. This promotion is good every Friday until March 26th. The last admission to the aquarium is at 7:30 pm and you can tour up to 90 minutes after the last admission time. We visited the Aquarium one Friday last year for this program (its hard to pass up, since its about 1/3 the regular price!). It can be crowded, but still manageable. Specials shows and exhibits might cost you extra.
Summer at the Library
I guess this could be called part two in my “what the heck are we going to do with the kids this summer?” series. (You can read part one here.) Don’t get me wrong – I am very glad that my son gets to be home this summer. As I mentioned previously, he is going to school full time in the fall, so I am trying to make the most of this last bit of extended time with the little guy. But let’s be real! Some days, good intentions and feeling sentimental about your kid growing up is not enough! Even if you are working or your child is going to a few camps this summer, you will still have days when it is 95 degrees, and the little, medium and big guys are bored. So what do you do in if you don’t want to keep the TV on all day? You can go to the library!
As part of the Montgomery County libraries’ Summer Reading program – called Be Creative at Your Library! – the libraries in Montgomery County have planned 194 (!!) FREE programs for school aged children. The libraries scale way back on the programs for pre-school and toddlers in the summer (although there are still story times scheduled), and put their resources into activities for the older kids. And some of the stuff is amazing. The Maryland Science Center is visiting most of the county libraries this summer to give presentations about chemistry, dinosaurs, brain benders and more. You can also see magicians, meet animals, hear musical performances, see puppets and theater, and do arts and crafts in all of the libraries. And of course, it is all FREE. (OK – you pay taxes – but at least it’s going toward something fun and not another speed camera.) Summer programming starts in earnest next week, when the public schools have finished up the school year.
One complaint that I have had about the libraries’ website is that it is not easily searchable. You had to plow through multiple screens to get to what is going on, and then if you hit the back arrow, you lost everything. The library has gone a long way to rectify this situation, and has set up a special website for the Be Creative at Your Library! Summer Reading Program. You can see what special events are planned for the next week in all the libraries, search for programs by library location, and look up book recommendations by age for your summer reading programs. See the highlighted link above for this great website and the listing on all the cool summer programs!
A note: All library programs are free, but some do require that you pick up free tickets ahead of time. I noticed this for the programs at the Olney, Germantown and Aspen Hill Libraries.
Baltimore Aquarium
Anemone
Dolphin Show
Smiling Parrots
I think that there might be some fish at the Aquarium too!
Fun and Learning 