Storybook Walks, Also Known As "How We Spend Our Summer Vacation"

 It has been a long summer inside the picket fence. We have had our grandchildren since the parents went back to work in late April/May. We had big plans for the summer since we had purchased season passes for the crew to a nearby amusement park. The passes also included a water park.  We live close enough to travel every day if we wanted.

We bought the passes at the end of the season last year and already got our money's worth! Preschool did not begin until after school had started so we would take the younger kids over about 9:30 a.m. and have a late breakfast in the picnic area in the fall. We would spend the rest of the morning, until about 1 pm,  bouncing around all the rides in kiddie land.  My youngest daughter was still on maternity leave and they even had a little house for babies with rocking chairs for nursing moms as well as changing tables.

Then our world turned upside down with the virus. I really struggle to find activities, besides playing in the yard in the 90 degree heat, that are close enough we don't have to use public restrooms and secluded enough we aren't running into other families. 

About two years ago (or maybe last summer, all time seems to run together now) our local library paired with a local service organization and then our local recreation department to create a storybook walk for children. It really is state of the art with very sturdy, protected stands for pages of the book and a boardwalk through the shaded trees. Along with the story, the bottom of each page has an activity (skipping, clapping, etc) to do on your way to the next page. This is a huge hit with the aged 1 to 7 year old group.

We took a "coffee break" at a position socially distant from the picnic area. 

We recently discovered that the county library system is also offering some storybook walks. This one is in outside a small community, behind a volunteer fire station. The only drawback is lack of shade, so we try to go early in the morning. 

The stands are more rustic and the pages are just inside page protectors, but we enjoy figuring out the words to the story! 

And there were benches under a tree over by the soybean field. 

Next we went to another small community south of our town. 

This one turned out to be along the driveway for the church, just a brief little walk.  They still enjoyed the trip and the story. 

We made up some activities to do between the stations

And we were able to sit under the entrance to the church to enjoy a picnic in the shade. 

We still have one more county library storybook walk to find. It is located in another farm community at a reservoir. Tomorrow we are going on a breakfast picnic to a park in our town with four of the cousins. 

All seven will be here on Wednesday where we will move to yet another village just west of us for a storytime in the park - socially distant on our own blankets. We will then hurry home because I am registered for the Booked for Lunch with Susan Branch! The actual luncheon with the author was booked for Boston, but the facility is closed to visitors. Susan herself will be in  her living room on Martha's Vineyard. I will be at my dining room table. The only sad thing is that I am unable to drive to Boston and pick up a boxed lunch at the caterer and drive home in time for the zoom meeting. And I am turning off my microphone since the background noise of the seven children aged seven and under will certainly make it fun for others. 

Wednesday is actually my day off from childcare. I guess we see how that worked out. Meanwhile, here is one of my favorite pictures. My youngest grandchild has picked a favorite. Since he couldn't see grampa if grampa pushed his stroller, we had to compromise with hand holding.