With the kids out of school, I’m sure many parents and caregivers are often in search of what to do next. You can only take so many trips to the mall, pool, beach before it gets too cumbersome. For us, even though my kid is not in school yet, outdoor play is a huge part of our day.
As city dwellers, we relied heavily on our playgrounds for not only playtime, but for our social time and escape from our small space. Most days, we’d travel to the park down the block to play with friends. Other days, when we were looking for a change of scenery, we’d head to the park on the Hudson that overlooked Manhattan. If we were hot and were needing to splash in the water, we’d go to the park that had the fun water features. Whatever we were in the mood for, there was a park that would fit the bill. We were quite fortunate to have so many wonderful play spaces in our little town.
Since we’re in the middle of a move from our beloved urban town out to the NJ suburbs, I knew there would be a lot of changes involved, including how we’d entertain ourselves. Not too long ago, I saw that KaBoom, a national non-profit dedicated to saving play for America’s children, was having a call for Challengers for their Park-A-Day Summer Challenge. Realizing I didn’t know much about our new surroundings combined with our passion for outdoor play, the kid and I were up for the challenge.
Together with eight other parents, I was tapped to be one of the Park-A-Day Summer Challengers. As part of the challenge that begins today, we will be taking our kids to a new park every day this summer, starting July 1. We will be uploading photos and videos over on KaBoom and talking about where the challenge is taking us. Because we’re still in Va. temporarily, I will be starting our challenge down here in my hometown, and will eventually head back up NJ.
As the new kids on the block, I couldn’t think of a better way to transition from the city to the ‘burbs, while getting to know our local play spaces in the process. I will be updating over on KaBoom regularly, and may post a blurb or two here on NKT or on the fanpage.
I know many of you are big on playing outdoors, too, so it’d be great if you could share your thoughts, experiences and adventures over on KaBoom too! There are a variety of other groups to check out, so be sure to check it out.
And just a note, this challenge is purely a volunteer campaign…not that I need any compensation to play with my kid, but I wanted to clarify. Get out and play!
