NOTE: The YES Program only recently opened to individual students and their families and is only available on select days but you should check and see if your dates coincide with YES programs because your school-aged kids 6 and older get an exciting experience in the park behind the scenes (along with a chaperon) and your entire family gets discounted park tickets (our discount was 50% off the regular ticket price—an incredible savings). Fore more information, check out their website at http://www.disneyyouth.com/individual-enrollment/ and check out my podcast where I interview the YES Marketing Director about the program and learn more details at http://www.themompodcast.com/2010/10/03/educational-opportunities-and-disney/

The YES Program allows children from age 5 to Grade 12 participate in an educational experience at a Disney park (ones that are usually reserved only for school groups).  Not only do kids get to participate in a great program, but the participants, parents and other family members get to purchase tickets at the deeply discounted group rates (for us it was a discount of 50% off the regular ticket price and saved us $600).

For more information on the individual programs now offered to children who are not attending as a part of a school group, go to http://www.disneyyouth.com/individual-enrollment/.
UPDATE:  Check out Alex’s YES Experience

Don’t miss Jill’s Blog on VisitFlorida.com and remember that she is looking for questions from our listeners!

Dinosaur World

Wonderworks–the Upside Down Amusement Park

Princess Makeover at Disney

Check out her site and some great ideas at http://bookclub4boysinfo.blogspot.com/2008/12/start-book-club-for-your-boy.html

UPDATE:  Nancy’s son and his friends met for the first Boys Only Book Club and about 50% of the kids showed up, but they had fun and Barnes and Noble was very accommodating to help them choose books.  They chose Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians.  They will be meeting every 3 weeks over the summer to get them interested in reading.  They also joined the Barnes and Noble reading plan, the Borders reading plan and a local library reading plan that all give freebies to kids who read.

Check out these lists of books for kids in every age and group: http://childrensbooks.about.com/od/forparents/tp/summer_reading.htm

Check out the local library reading program

Check out bookstore reading programs like Barnes and Noble and Borders book programs.

Here are some of our kids’ favorite books:

• 39 Clues series
• Percy Jackson Series
• Diary of a Whimpy Kid Series
• When You Reach Me (2010 Newbery Winner)
• Savvy (2009 Newbery Honor)
• Hoot
• Flush
• Scat
• Bud, Not Buddy
• Hatchet
• Captain Underpants
• Stink
• Miss Daisy is Crazy
• Time Warp Trio Series
• Encyclopedia Brown
• Fablehaven
• Swindle
• Zoobreak
• Radio Fifth Grade
• Invention of Hugo Cabret
• No Talking (any Andrew Clements book)
• Magic Tree House Series
• Al Capone Does My Shirts

These are Shelly’s Results:

These are our friend Steffani’s results and her comments about how this has helped her kids:

“I let them each child take the camera and find things around the house that could look like the letters in their first name. After they took the pictures, we edited them on our computer, cropping them so that the most important part was revealing the letter.  It was a ton of fun.  I have our last name one printed up in a small oblong frame and underneath “Packer” it says, “Home is where the most important things happen” because all of the things we used for our letters were found in our own home. I want to have their first names printed out in 4×6 and deco-page them to wooden blocks to put in their room.  That part hasn’t happened yet.  But . . .  I have noticed that the kids (after doing this–even CY) are always pointing things out as we drive or go places.  ”Hey, that looks like an M! or  K!”  I think it is helpful in their brain development and creativity to think outside the box.