It’s back to school time!  It’s always a mix of feelings at this time of year — excitment for new classes and seeing friends again, adjustment to school bedtimes and schedules, and a little mourning for the carefree days of summer. 

I’m excited to be linking up with a group of great kid bloggers so we can share our back-to-school ideas with you!  Below you’ll find some fun ways for both kids & parents to get excited about the new school year.

Getting Involved at School

As a parent, I always look for different ways that I might get involved at my child’s school.  When the kids were very young, it was easy to volunteer in the classroom and at school events. 

We were involved in a wonderful book exchange program this summer that was coordinated by my friend Kim from The Educator’s Spin on It. 

The Summer Book Exchange included 30 bloggers who each chose a great book for summer reading, created some fun activities & crafts to go along with the story and packed it all up in a box to exchange with a ‘surprise’ partner.

Welcome to the ‘Edventures with Kids’ Blog!  We’re so happy you’ve stop by to
Discover, Learn & Connect with us.  Some of the regular items we’ll
share with you include:

• Exploring Kansas City

Advertise in our Family Directory   KCEdventures receives more than 40,000+ visits each month from parents and teachers.  We are looking for services and businesses who cater to families and want to reach our rapidly growing community!      Choose a listing that fits your business & budget — our packages start as low as …

I love today’s theme for the Discover & Explore linky!  Ok, I really love all of our themes but this one is really fun because we get to talk about Vacations!

I adore vacations — heading out to explore a new place, relax and reconnect with the family. 

I had two amazing parents who would take us on vacation every year and we’ve continued this tradition with our kids.  We make travel a priority so we save year round for our trips and take advantage of every minute we have on our trips.  Traveling is such a great experience!  It allows you to discover new things (foods, animals, etc) explore different cultures & areas and also learn more about yourself.

I can’t wait to see what everyone shares in the linky this week!  I’d love to see great places that your family has visited, fun vacation memories or wonderful tips & ideas that make the trip special.  I thought I would start off by sharing a few places that we’ve enjoyed on past trips.

We know it’s coming — the heat of summer is creeping in and soon we will all be seeking out the comforts of shade and air-conditioning.  For the kids, they would much rather run under a sprinkler or enjoy some ‘cool’ water play! 

This week’s feature posts from the Discover & Explore Summer Fun linky won’t disappoint!  There are TONS of great ideas for keeping cool on those hot summer days!

One of the most popular attractions for families is the zoo.  I’m not sure if it’s all the curiosity that we have about animal behavior or the fact that most of our kids act like animals so we think they’ll feel at home during their visit 😉

And June is National Zoo Month!  Our last Discover & Explore linky theme was Zoos & Wild Animals and we had some great reviews of family friendly zoos that were shared.

Attention Parents:  What do you do when you see something like this?   Do you send your kids over to play and explore?  Or do you pick up a mallet and make some music?   I have a summer challenge for you — Go Play at the Playground! Notice I didn’t say “Take the kids …

Welcome to the June Virtual Book Club for Kids!  Each month, we choose a different author and highlight their books along with some fun activities. And I’m so excited for this month’s author because she is one of my favorite for kids — Gail Gibbons!   Using Non-fiction Books to Engage Kids Ms. Gibbons writes …