Tuesday, July 8, 2014

Free (and Almost Free) Fun Summer Activities for Middle Schoolers in Boston, MA: Introduction

Summer's here. Yippee! Oh...wait. School has barely let out when I hear my kids' plaintive wails: "I'm bored."
"What are we doing today?"
"Can we go somewhere, anywhere, now?"

Yep. They're middle schoolers. Our kids are now too old for Lego building in the Children's Room at the library but too young to...I don't know...get a job.

While I don't believe that it is my job, as a parent, to entertain my children, I do think it is my job to make sure that they come to appreciate other people, travel, history, ideas, and these United States in which they live. My parents did this for me, and put up with me rolling my eyes at their disquisitions and whining about absolutely everything. Now it's my turn, so I've declared this the Summer for Exploring Green and Other Spaces and decided to begin at "the Hub:" Boston, Massachusetts. I've also decided to (finally!) create my Everymom blog, dedicated to parents and primary caregivers for children everywhere. It's a complement to the articles I write, in a more journalistic voice - and, incidentally, called "hubs" - on HubPages (http://everymom.hubpages.com/).

Most articles or blog posts/series (including this one), use the word free in their titles much too freely. We adults all know that there is no such thing as a free lunch. So, full disclosure: these activities are all almost free because the reality is that you will have to pay for round-trip transportation for each member of your family over the age of 11 (the T subway and bus lines are absolutely free for all children 11 years old and under) and/or for snacks, lunch, drinks (yes, even if you pack your own picnic lunch), and, possibly, a T-shirt, a stuffed swan, or a porcelain frog.

Please join us, three times a week (Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays), as my family, friends and I walk above, through and beneath the streets of Boston on our summer of discovery. Feel free to use these posts as your go-to Boston planning guides, for day trips, "staycation" activities, or longer vacations. And, of course, a blog should be a dialogue, a conversation, between the author and you, the reader - so make sure to share your comments!

See you on Thursday, when you'll be able to read about our trip to the North End and playing under a fountain on the Rose Kennedy Greenway!

Peace,
Everymom

PS Check out my post on Where to Eat in Boston's North End!

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