Local Color: Parks we Love

Parks we Love

• Discovery Park – A 534-acre natural area park – the largest city park in Seattle. On Magnolia Bluff overlooking Puget Sound, Discovery Park offers spectacular view of both the Cascade and the Olympic Mountain ranges. The secluded site includes two miles of protected tidal beaches as well as open meadow lands, dramatic sea cliffs, forest groves, active sand dunes, thickets and streams. If you have a little one and don’t feel up for a long hike, make sure you stop into the Visitor Center at the North lot where you can pick up a parking pass and park in the lot across from the beach (limited spaces). Or, park at the South lot and take the path about 300 yards to a huge sand pit for the little one with a nice view of the water for you!
• Carkeek Park – Miles of trails, picnic tables, views of the Olympics and Puget Sound, soccer and softball fields, picnic tables and stove shelters. Your kids will love it when the big train passes by and the beach is perfect for exploring the tidal pools.
• Gasworks Park – We love the play area with a large play barn and use the big hill for flying kites. If you have an easy flying kite for the little ones, there is plenty of easy sloping grass for a good running start. Don’t miss the sundial and you can’t miss the beautiful view of the Seattle skyline.
• Woodland Park –The side west of Aurora is devoted to the zoo, some picnic space, formal rose garden, and an amusement park for children. East of Aurora, the park is largely an informal picnic park with pleasant grassy hills and pathways. It contains ballfields, tennis courts, walkway paths, and a dog off-leash area.

Imagination Boost

The best thing about a child’s imagination is that it needs very little to kick it into gear. When our girls visit a friends house they always want to put on a show, which is usually a random assortment of running, hopping, and dancing to music. Here’s a fun way to give your budding actors a little more to go on (from: http://fun.familyeducation.com/):

You'll need

1. Large paper bags
2. Various household items for props

Directions
Ask someone who is not playing with you to put twelve props into the large paper bag. Things like a dust pan, scissors, underwear, wig, rag, card, toy, or anything else they can find.
Each group of two or more is given a paper bag and they must make up a skit using all the props in the bag. Have fun, laugh, and over-exaggerate!

During Thursday story time at Urban Kids Play Store: checking out what's in the bag

If you’re in the neighborhood on Thursdays at 10:30, stop in for some imagination activities and dress-up with Moon Paper Tent. We also serve free coffee for the adults and snacks for the kids.