Last Days of Summer Freebies for Kids

Summer is almost over. Sad isn't it? This summer moved so quickly that I barely was able to see it coming. Of course living on a mountain top I struggled with having to turn the heat on sometimes. lol. There are still summer freebies to be had for the children though so here are some updated events and freebies for the kids!!

1. Home Depot is offering yet another build to children on August 5th between 9am and 12pm. This time kid will be building a Penske Truck.  How cool is that? This is a completely free event and your child will  receive a FREE certificate of achievement, a Workshop Apron, and a commemorative pin while supplies last. Once the project is complete, your child can personalize their truck with stickers and paint. You do need to register and you can do that here.

2. American Girl asks that you join them on the first Wednesday of each month for a fun and free craft! Each month will feature a different craft and theme, including: Girl of the Year, Contemporary Characters, BeForever, and more. Girls must be 8 and up and it shows no fee for this event! Check your local stores for more details. This does show to be on August 2nd from 3pm - 4:30pm.

3. Disney Store has been hosting a Summer Play Days event that takes place every day at 3pm all summer long! Participate in an event each week and receive a FREE embroidered patch. There are only three weeks left to this event, so check your local stores to see if they are participating. The patches are adorable and can definitely be used to decorate school backpacks or jeans. :) Check your local store here.

4. Lego is having another build on August 8th and 9th. Your 6-14 year old child gets to build this LEGO® Fish model and take it home for FREE after. Quantities are limited to approximately 120 per store per night and time reservations are on a first come first serve basis. Models are not for sale and cannot be purchased. One registration with a maximum of 4 children per household. You must register your child here.

That's all that's on my radar right now but be sure to check out my other Summer Freebies posts for ongoing freebies such as FREE movie days, DISCOUNTED movie tickets, Kids courses and more.

Are you looking for MORE summer freebies and deals? Check out these posts!

Summer 2017: EVEN MORE FREE Kid's Classes and Events
Summer 2017: Summer of Kid's Freebies
Summer 2017: MORE Free (or cheap) Kids Programs

Summer 2017: EVEN MORE FREE Kid's Classes and Events

Good evening! I wanted to update everyone to some new activities and classes that are now open for your children to do for FREE!

1. Saturday June 10th (TOMORROW!) You can take your child to ToysRUs for Shopkins Swap! Receive a free Happy Places S2 delivery pack & trading tray and it's a Swap-Kins party that starts at 2pm and ends at 4pm. Total fun for the Shopkins lover!  This is totally free but if you decide to make a purchase they will have some exclusive sales prices. Also if you make a $15 purchase you get a FREE Shopkins Eiffel Tower Stamp. You do need to register for this event. You can register here!

2. Make a slime stress ball with Michaels! On Sunday June 11th (yes THIS weekend!) You can take your children to Michaels to MAKE a slime stress ball or customize slime for FREE! They'll provide all the supplies- including pre-made slime and mix-ins! Stop by on Sunday 1 - 3PM your local time at all Michaels Stores, no registration required!
Age 3 and up welcome.
Don't forget to share what you MAKE with #MakeItWithMichaels! You can view the listing here and don't forget to call your local Michaels just to double check. :)

3. Build a Bug House with Home Depot! Your child will receive the Bug House Kit, an apron, a pin and a Certificate of Achievement. They get to build the Bug House and customize it with paint. Pretty sweet deal and something that would make a very nice memory. It's completely free to do and will take place on Saturday, Jul 1, 2017 between 9am and 12pm. Just click to check you local store and register your children!






4. Pottery Barn Kids hosts a weekly Book Club every Tuesday at 11am. They will host games, activities and readings. Weekly Story Time is free. Contact your local Pottery Barn Kids to double check that they participate! You can check online by clicking here.

5. The Lego Store often does FREE builds with your child. They
would get to build a completely free Lego project and take it home with them. The next Monthly Mini Model Build is an Octopus! It's super cute and your child can build this on Tuesday, July 11 or Wednesday, July 12. It is limited to kids aged 6-14 with a maximum of 4 children per household. You must register HERE and registration for the July build starts on June 15th at 9am, so be prepared!

6. Lego is DEFINITELY giving us some nice activities. Here is another activity for your consideration. They will be hosting a LEGO Minifigure Swap Monday on June 19. Open to kids ages 6-14 only.

7. Lego is at it again with a Duplo Inspiration event. Drop buy the Lego store for 10 minutes of Duplo Inspiration with your child. This event is being held June 18-23 before 1pm. I have no idea why it's only limited to 10 minutes. Maybe because little ones have short attention spans. I know the little ones in my home do. Check your local store for further details as the website says just that. Nothing more.

8. This is PRETTY awesome and we have a few dates for this event. Bass Pro Shops is going to be hosting a Gone Fishing event. On Saturdays and Sundays June 10 and 11th and June 17th and 18th bring your child to your local Bass Pro Shop where they will have the opportunity to fish in Catch and Release "pond". Your child will also be able to take a photo with his/her catch and you can download it when you go home. From Noon until 4pm your child will receive a First Catch Certificate and if you are one of the first 100 people there you get a FREE Gone Fishing Door Hanger. And also receive a free Gone Fishing booklet while supplies last. This is an awesome event and it starts THIS WEEKEND. You can read all the details here! (Thank you Carrie for bringing this to my attention!)

Are you looking for MORE summer freebies and deals? Check out these posts!

Summer 2017: Summer of Kid's Freebies
Summer 2017: MORE Free (or cheap) Kids Programs

Summer 2017: MORE Free (or cheap) Kids Programs

Good Morning everyone! I have received some alerts for a few more FREE children's programs for this summer so let's dive right in!

The Lego Store often does FREE builds with your child. They would get to build a completely free Lego project and take it home with them. The next Monthly Mini Model Build is a Dragonfly! It's super cute and your child can build this on  June 6 and 7. This is limited to 120 stores so check to make sure your store is sponsoring this program, also it is limited to kids aged 6-14 with a maximum of 4 children per household. You must register HERE and registration for the July build starts on June 15th, no word on what that build will be though.

Through October, American Girl is hosting WellieWishers Friendship Tea Party and this looks to be happening VERY VERY frequently, sometimes multiple times during the same day. Parties will include a special menu, crafts, fun WellieWishers-inspired conversation cards, and a cupcake-decorating activity. This is NOT free, however it is only $13.50. Check your local American Girl store's personal website for dates and times. American Girl is also hosting Summer Vacation & Beach Cupcake Decorating Events, which happens on random days, the price for this event is $10. Your girl can enjoy a fun-filled time playing games, creating cupcakes perfect for a beach picnic, and personalizing her own craft license plate. She’ll get to take her craft license plate home! Her doll will get to rock her own cute travel style, too, with a summery T-shirt. They are hosting other events as well but some of those are upwards of $28 (Take a look at the Father's Day event!)

Regal Movie Theatres is bringing back their $1 movie events for kids! Check HERE to see if your local Regal is hosting these events. Each kid will only pay $1 to get into the movie and it IS older movies, but still, this will be very fun for kids to see movies in theatre and give you a slight break from chasing after them. This starts in June so mark your calendars! Here are the movies that will be hosted this year:

Kung Fu Panda 3
Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked
Ice Age: Collision Course
Trolls
Monster Trucks
The Secret Life of Pets
Sing
The Boxtrolls
Ratchet and Clank
The Adventures of Tintin
Rio 2
Happy Feet 2
Kubo and the Two Strings
The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water
Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore
The Lego Batman Movie
Storks

Admission to the Summer Movie Express is only $1. Tickets available for purchase at the box office and all movies start at 10:00 am. Each week both movies play on both days. A portion of the proceeds goes to the Will Rogers Institute.

 Cinemark is also giving us a Summer Movie Clubhouse this year! The movies are $1 for each movie OR you can purchase a pass for $5 for ALL TEN MOVIES. That is .50 per child! You can purchase the passes online or at the Box Office. There is a cute little printable schedule as well once you select your local Cinemark Theatre.

Movies showing are:

The Lego Batman Movie
The Iron Giant
Shrek the Third
Megamind
Goosebumps
Trolls
Sing
The Angry Birds Movie
The Secret Life of Pets
Hotel Transylvania 2

This is a Nationwide event so make sure to check the links I've provided. All screenings starting at 10 a.m. Punchcards are valid only at participating theatre box offices where originally purchased and non-transferable.

 The Disney Store holds a Showtime Event. You will definitely want to contact your local store to inquire about dates and times because the information on their website is someone sketchy. It appears that they Dance, Sing and watch either a movie or tv show. I'll definitely need to do some further research on this event. The Events do include everything from Princesses to Star Wars. How cool is that?

This is pretty cool, and it's an "At Home" freebie! You can send your child a personal invitation to watch Dreamtopia! You type in your child's name and your email address and you get a personalized invitation, then when you click on it to open there is a video invitation! Super cute. The movie is on Youtube and you can watch it completely for free. It's about 42 minutes long.

Summer 2017: Summer of Kid's Freebies

During the summer you seem to see a lot of bored kids around. I found a few things online that was pretty awesome so I wanted to share what I found to help ease off that boredom and the whining that quickly follows.

Kids can bowl for free! That's right FREE. The only thing you pay for is shoe rental and that would vary by whatever location you sign up for. In our area it was $5 a kid, so it would be more cost effective for me to buy them a pair of bowling shoes off of ebay than pay $5 per kid each time we take them bowling FOR FREE. You get 2 free games per day and they come in the form of a coupon through email. I signed up for 3 of the 4 kids. Last summer I actually bought bowling shoes from Offer Up for $10. So I wound up with 3 pairs of bowling shoes, the only kid I have to rent them for is the 3 year old. :) 

As a bonus you can also add a "Family Pack" that allows for up to 4 adults (and older children) to bowl those two games for free as well. It was only $30 which pays for itself!

Kids can skate for free! That's right FREE! (See a trend here?) These also come in the form of a printable coupon and it looks like you receive two free skate coupons per week. This is for kids under the age of 14, and there are only certain days you can use the coupons.

Kids can take Microsoft Summer Day Camps for FREE! This is an awesome offer. You can sign your kid up to take free Microsoft classes, some can last up to 4 days (a few hours each day). And there are a few that are only 1 day. I find the class topics fascinating as they are teaching kids how code games like Mindcraft. This year they added a DigiGirlz two-hour Workshop, which is awesome for girls aged 14-18. Last year the classes were all filled up but we spoke to the representative who handles the classes in our area and they told us to just show up that 9 times out of 10 several kids wont show up to the class. 

Kids can take a Apple Camp class for FREE! This is another awesome offer from a great company. Here is the blurb from their website:

Apple Camp is designed to help spark the imagination of kids ages 8 to 12. They’ll learn to make movies by storyboarding ideas, shooting video, and creating an original soundtrack. Or campers can create interactive books complete with their own illustrations and sound effects. At Apple Camp, kids and their creativity are the focus.

It sounds like a blast and it's completely free! This is great for keeping kids engaged and using their imaginations as they get older. You can't register yet but you CAN sign up for an alert when registration begins.

Saturday June 3rd, from 9:00am to 12:00p,  Home Depot will offer a free Tic Tac Toe build. This is pretty awesome as it is COMPLETELY free and they provide all the tools and items the kid need to make the project. They do this monthly.  Here is the blurb from their website:

 Join our hands-on workshop and you and your child can build a wooden tic-tac-toe game to play with family or friends almost anywhere. Once the project is complete, your child can personalize their game board and pieces with paint and stickers. All kids get to keep their project, receive a FREE certificate of achievement, a Workshop Apron, and a commemorative pin while supplies last. Children must be present at the store to participate in the workshop and receive the kit, apron and pin.

NOTE: You will want to change the store to your  most local store to register you child. They haven't released what the July build will be.

Watch this page at ToysRUs they often have in store events, such as TODAY they are doing a Pokemon Trading card event. They do a lot of different things throughout the summer as well as the Geoffrey Birthday Club.







The Barnes & Noble Summer Reading Program is here to help you on your way, encouraging you to read books of your own choosing and earn a FREE book, simply by following these three easy steps:


1. Read any eight books this summer and record them in your Summer Reading Journal (English or Español). Tell us which part of the book is your favorite, and why.
2. Bring your completed journal to a Barnes & Noble store between May 16th and September 5th, 2017. Find a Store
3. Choose your FREE reading adventure from the book list featured on the back of the journal.

The books your kid can get for free are:

GRADES 1 & 2
Amelia Bedelia Means Business (Amelia Bedelia Chapter Book Series #1) Herman Parish 9780062094964
Big Shark, Little Shark (Step Into Reading Series) Anna Membrino 9780399557286
Chase’s Space Case (PAW Patrol™) Kristen L. Depken 9780553538861
Eva and the New Owl (Owl Diaries Series #4) Rebecca Elliott 9780545825597
Inspector Flytrap (Inspector Flytrap Series #1) Tom Angleberger 9781419709654
Jorge el curioso construye una casa en un árbol (Curious George Builds a Tree House) H. A. Rey 9780544974623
Pinkalicious: Story Time (I Can Read Series) Victoria Kann 9780062410726
Plants vs. Zombies: Save Your Brains! (I Can Read Book 2 Series) Catherine Hapka 9780062294968

GRADES 3 & 4 
Completely Clementine Sara Pennypacker 9781423124382
Double Vision (Twintuition Series #1) Tia Mowry & Tamera Mowry 9780062372871
How to Tame a Triceratops (Dino Riders Series) Will Dare 9781492636175
Journey to the Orange Islands (Pokémon™: Chapter Book) Tracey West 9781338175653
Judy Moody Was in a Mood (Judy Moody Series #1) Megan McDonald 9780763648497
Las aventuras del Capitán Calzoncillos (The Adventures of Captain Underpants) Dav Pilkey 9780439226486
Ms. Joni Is a Phony! (My Weirdest School Series #7) Dan Gutman 9780062429292
Where Is the Great Barrier Reef? Nico Medina 9780448486994

GRADES 5 & 6
Fablehaven (Fablehaven Series #1) Brandon Mull 9781416947202
Gabriela (American Girl: Girl of the Year 2017 Series #1) Teresa E. Harris 9781338136982
Project Mc2™: Smart Is the New Cool Jade Hemsworth 9781250098917
Rump: The True Story of Rumpelstiltskin Liesl Shurtliff 9780307977960
The School for Good and Evil (The School for Good and Evil Series #1) Soman Chainani 9780062104908
Theodore Boone: Kid Lawyer John Grisham 9780142417225
The Thing About Jellyfish Ali Benjamin 9780316380843
The Unwanteds (The Unwanteds Series #1) Lisa McMann 9781442407695

Kids can send a letter to Mickey or the Disney Princesses and receive a signed post card back from

the characters. This is more for the younger kids. I was hoping you could do different characters but it looks like for all the responses I've seen posted online it's either Mickey and Gang or Cinderella and gang. We have two letters going out this week so I will post a photo with what does come back. 

You would want to mail the letter to:

Walt Disney World Communications

PO Box 10040
Lake Buena Vista, FL 32830 – 0040

Next up we have printables! I've found so many printable activity sheets and coloring sheets online it's ridiculous. At the bottom of this post I will link a few.

Here are some great printable sites:

Scholastic Printables - Last year this was free, this year there is a 30 free day "Trial".

Education Worksheets You only have a few pages you can print out per month unless you sign up and pay the yearly fee.

Crayola Coloring Sheets They also have some awesome printables for different topics such as Science and Social Studies, they even have Disney coloring pages.

Disney Coloring Pages

Barbie Coloring Pages Coloring pages AND activity pages. I love these. They are so easy to make "travel packs" for kids to take on road trips.

Hasbro Printables  Hasbro has My Little Pony, Baby Alive, and more!
Nick Jr Printables This includes printables from Shimmer and Shine, Paw Patrol, Blaze and Nella. They have coloring pages and activity pages. An AWESOME Shimmer and Shine printable for tracking the brushing of your child's teeth. So cute! They even have BIRTHDAY printables. And don't forget to sign up for your child's free birthday call from a Nick Jr. character. Sign up here!

And last but not least...we are introduced emailing to Eli last summer (he was 10). We emailed his favorite sports teams to see if they can send a fan pack. He sent out a total of 100 emails. and a few responses on the same day from some teams saying weather they will or will not send out anything. He was excited to the mail. With Alexis only being 7 I've yet to find something for her in this vein that would be interesting so if you have any ideas let me know!

The teams that responded back positively were: Los Angels Dodgers, the Los Angeles Clippers, Minnesota Timberwolves,  and the Milwaukee Brewers. We created a spreadsheet so he could keep track of what teams he had emailed as well as their responses. This will help him with his spreadsheet skills so it's a learning activity as well. 

We did get a really cool response back from the New York Jets asking him to write a letter through snail mail (Yay another learning experience!) to his favorite player to receive an autograph. 

Here is the address we were given:

Player Name

1 Jets Dr.

Florham Park NJ 07932

So do you know of something for the kids this summer that should be added? Let me know!