Summer

The 2013 Free Fun Fridays schedule is out, and it’s time to start planning your family’s summer adventures! Every summer, the Highland Street Foundation gives us the opportunity to visit cultural attractions in Massachusetts for free each Friday, from the end of June through August.

The Free Fun Fridays are truly a gift and offer the chance to visit varied attractions, from art museums to historical villages. This year, the fifth anniversary of the program, there are six options each Friday – some venues are right here in Boston, while others are as far away as Western Mass. With so many wonderful choices, it can be difficult to decide which ones to visit.

I have chosen five to highlight, taking into consideration whether other significant discounts (such as library museum passes) are available at another time, how much money is saved, proximity to Boston, and whether the place is good for children.

What do you do when your kids run from the room screaming in protest when you merely mention the idea of camp? Sign them up and hope they get over their bizarre aversion? Send them to counseling instead? What if neither camp nor counseling are in the budget?

That’s where I found myself this summer. As a result, I ended up with a new job: Director of “Camp Mommy”. We’ve had a lot of fun this summer, bopping around the city, spending lots of active green time at the park, and having a steady stream of kids over for playdates. But coming up with a plan for each day – and successfully executing the plan – has presented some challenges. I have been tweeting “Diary of a Camp Mommy Director” entries about the pleasures and tribulations of my summer job. Read on for an expanded version of those entries, complete with links and ideas for anyone who has the job of entertaining  kids for a day, a week, or – like me – an entire summer.