Here are some featured events, but peruse all the 300+ events to plan your summer. Also check out what’s happening on the Adventuremobile around town.
READING: When you and your family are reading, you become a part of the adventure. Aren’t you curious about what’s out there to read?
EXPERIENCES are anything that gets you active and thinking. Let your curiosity run wild! Stretch yourself a little to experience activities that aren’t part of your normal routine. Be sure and add some of your own experience ideas. See examples below.
Print a tracker if you’d like a paper version for your fridge. You must enter your reading time and experiences online to be eligible for the grand prize drawings.
English Tracker Rastreador en Español
- Sign up for Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library – your child will get a free book every month until they are 5 years old
- Make reading a routine like bath, book and bed
- Repeat reading the same book every single day
- When you read a book be sure to talk about the pictures
- Read a book with animal pictures and make animal sounds
- Draw and scribble with sidewalk chalk
- Play with play dough (Find recipes for homemade varieties in books and magazines.)
- Visit the Learn & Play Bus
- Attend Baby Bookworms, Musical Storytime or Toddler Time 1 at the library
- Visit the Kansas Children’s Discovery Center
- Play in a lawn sprinkler or swimming pool
- Take a walk outside and talk about the animals you see (birds, squirrels, lizards, ants)
- Make faces in the mirror together and talk about feelings like happy, sad, mad and silly
- Check out kids’ music from the library or download a few tunes using the library’s digital music on Hoopla
- Dance like no one’s watching – in the park, your living room or your backyard
- Cook from a recipe (find great cookbooks in the Kids Library)
- Read to a dog or cat (yours, a neighbor’s, a shelter dog or cat, or a Prairieland Dog at the library on Sunday afternoon in June)
- Help in the garden (yours or a community garden)
- Attend one of the 300+ events or classes at the library this summer
- Visit a local museum – Combat Air, Evel Knievel, Kansas Museum of History
- Visit the Sounds Like Art exhibit for kids at the library’s Alice C. Sabatini Gallery
- Go bowling
- Visit the Adventuremobile & join Curiosity Club
- Go to the Topeka Zoo
- Teens – you can volunteer at the library
- Learn about something new to satisfy your curiosity and share it with a friend
- Send a letter (with real paper, envelope and stamp) to family or friend
- Learn to play a new game (you can borrow some to play at the library)
- Operate a paddle boat or canoe at Lake Shawnee
- Attend the Fiesta Mexicana
- Volunteer
- Attend the Juneteenth Celebration
- Visit the library’s Cooking Neighborhood and cook a new recipe
- Attend library events
- Visit the Sounds Like Art kids exhibit in the library’s Alice C. Sabatini Gallery
- Learn to play a musical instrument
- Take an art class
- Learn a new skill from Lynda.com
- Build something you haven’t built before – maybe a birdhouse, planter or a chair
- Attend a poetry or story slam
- Walk on a trail (Shunga and the Governor’s Mansion are great trails)
- Attend a class at the Shawnee County Community Centers
- Write a letter (not an email, but a real handwritten letter)
- Visit a small town you’ve never visited (check out the Travel Neighborhood or a Sunflower Journeys video)
- Try a new food