Our summer fun has begun! I told you we have tickets to almost every fun thing in Atlanta and we have already started using them. I hope you don’t mind if I show off our adventures. I’ve been thinking a lot about this post from The Nester about her kids’ 18 summers. I want to make sure this summer creates memories and shared experiences that will last forever.

You know, you don’t always have to do a Bible craft, watch a Bible video or tell a Bible story to communicate God’s Love to your kids. Just lovin’ on them does the same thing–hanging out with them, doing what they like and creating a fun family environment shows them Jesus in the flesh.

So, to kick off our Summer o’Fun {is that a great title or what?!} we took my niece to the Atlanta Botanical Gardens. I don’t know if this is a common thing in other cities, but this giant garden is smack dab in the middle of downtown Atlanta. But when you step inside, you forget your are in the concrete jungle and are immersed into God’s huge garden!

There are tons of mini-gardens (the Southern Season was one of my faves!) for exploring and the kids loved this one with the waterfall best because they discovered mini snails at the water’s edge. I sat on a bench and watched them look at those snails for ages. I finally got up and said, “Can we keep moving?!” They were so totally into them!

The best part of the garden for the kids is the Children’s Garden. There was a dino-digging site, Peter Rabbit’s den, Mr. McGreggor’s Garden, a Native American garden, Grandma’s backporch garden, a frog pond, bumblebee hives and more. Peter Rabbit’s garden was their favorite and they pretended to be Flopsy, Mopsy and Cottontail the rest of the day! (Seriously, they even told another adult at lunch they were little bunnies.)

After the kids’ garden, we went to the Japanese Garden, the edible garden, the orchid house and even a tropical greenhouse. That was super cool because there animals inside, too.

It was so fun being surrounded by God’s beautiful, fragrant, delicious, exotic and awesome creations! We had a blast looking at everything and experiencing it close up ourselves.

If you have a big botanical-type garden in your city, you must go visit it! If you’re in Atlanta, or close to it, the Atlanta Botanical Garden is a must-see!

Have you ever been to a big garden before?

disclosure: I was provided with the tickets to the ABG as a member of the media.

***Impress Your Kids has some new digs at ohAmanda.com! Come visit us there for all the Impress Your Kids archives and all our new posts–including our Easter newsblast with fabulous tips for celebrating a meaningful Easter with your kids!***

It’s summer! School is out and our desk is already dusty. I’m loving having Lydia home every day. (But maybe missing my Mommy & Asa days…) However, I didn’t want this summer to be a big blob of nothingness. If we’re going to homeschool (even partially), I want our lifestyle to be learning. I want my kids to love learning!

So, I’ve been thinking about something creative and fun, yet laid-back to do this summer. Well, good for me, I was invited to an event for Atlanta bloggers to connect with almost every fun museum, park, etc in the city. This summer the kids and I will be visiting the Botanical Gardens, Center for Puppetry Arts, World of Coke, Fernbank Museum, Georgia Aquarium, High Museum of Art, the Children’s Museum, Stone Mountain and Zoo Atlanta! I am so excited!

I am hoping to use these “field trips” as launching pad for other activities that interest the kids. And hopefully, we can even bring a little of God’s Word into our adventures, you know, as we walk along.

Anyway, I thought it would be fun to chronicle our summer with journals. I read this awesome post about journals for 2 and 3 year olds and thought Asa would love it because he loved his writing notebook during school. Then it would give Lydia some writing practice during the summer, too.

So, I pulled out all my stickers and let the kids have at it decorating their journals. (And when I say “my stickers” I mean it–because many of them are mine from when I was a kid! I just can’t throw away stickers. I love ‘em!)

After we decorated, I let them do the first page: a self-portrait and their full name (which clearly, Asa cannot write).  They really enjoyed it. Now all I have to do is figure out some more topics! I was thinking 2 choices: 1) whatever we did that day which may include a little scrapbook-y type stuff with tickets or pictures from our fun outing or 2) draw a picture (and write a sentence for Lydia) about a topic I choose like…

• favorite Bible story
• favorite animal
• shapes (for Asa)
• a family member
• tracing/crayon rubbing items (for Asa, idea from this cute blog)
• what’s the weather today?
• colors (just coloring for Asa, but maybe for Lydia, how many objects of one color she can think of?)
• favorite toy/stuffed animal
• friends
• make up a story

I have no idea if this will go over well, so we’ll see what happens! I would just love to start a love for writing and journaling in my kids. I’ve always loved to journal and a blank book sets my little heart aflutter. Of course, now I tend to write more on my computer than with a pen and paper!

Do you have any ideas for me? Do your kids (pre-writers or great writers) have journals?

ps: If you’re gearing up for summer, too, don’t forget to check out our Super Sunny Day series from last year. I’ve put them all on a Super Sunny Day Pinterest board and added some more fun sunny day activities for you!

linked to TidyMom and 30 Handmade Days

***Impress Your Kids has some new digs at ohAmanda.com! Come visit us there for all the Impress Your Kids archives and all our new posts–including our Easter newsblast with fabulous tips for celebrating a meaningful Easter with your kids!***