Category: Family Fun

In-person summer camp!
SEE Science Center (200 Bedford St. in Manchester; 669-0400, see-sciencecenter.org) is accepting registrations now for its in-person summer camps, which will be held in July and August, according to a press release. FIRST PLACE Invention Challenge camp (with sessions the weeks of Aug. 3 and Aug. 10; the cost is $350 per week) for ages 9 to 14 will feature Lego Mindstorms robots and a brand new FIRST Lego League Challenge for the 2020-2021 competition season, the release said. Camp Summer Science, for ages 7 to 13 (the cost is $250 per week), will feature an exploration of different science topics and run sessions the weeks of July 27, Aug. 3 and Aug. 10. The camps will feature small-size camp sessions and procedures to fit with the state guidance for day camps, the release said. Discounts are available for SEE members and families registering multiple children, according to the website.

More Mo
Earlier this spring, New England author Mo Willems of, among others, the Elephant & Piggie books and the Pigeon books, hosted a three-week, 15-episode series called “Lunch Doodles with Mo Willems!” (they’re still available at kennedy-center.org/education/mo-willems) that featured him in his studio showing his artwork and demonstrating doodles (of his characters and other drawings). Since then, more content has been added to the site. In May, Willems released four episodes of “Mo Willems’ Thank-O-Rama Thank You Thursdays,” which featured more doodling along with some thanks passed along to groups like teachers (a “Thank-O-Rama” wheel helps him decide who to thank). The newest video is called “The Yo-Yo Mo Show: An Evening of Musical Doodling” and features Yo-Yo Ma playing cello while Willems draws as well as Willems showing off some cool paper creations to Ma’s music. The website also features a playlist so you can listen and draw yourself.

More drawing inspiration
Find more drawing inspiration at the website of New England author Jarrett Lerner (of the EngiNerds series), jarrettlerner.com/activities. In addition to blank and half-done comics pages, the website’s “Activities” page features a series of “Thank You” prompt sheets (for teachers, sanitation workers and others), writing and drawing prompts and “How To Draw” pages for drawing pizza, robots, cats, fish, trucks and more.

Movie news
If your kids loved (or just gave you a moment of peace thanks to) Trolls World Tour (PG), released by Universal via video on demand in April, get ready to have another movie night/94 minutes to yourself. The animated movie, which features the voices of Anna Kendrick and Justin Timberlake, had its digital for-purchase release on June 23 and will be released on DVD, Blu-Ray and 4K Ultra HD on Tuesday, July 7.

Animal adventure

Sneak in a little learning during your walks through nature. The New Hampshire Fish and Game department have Wildlife of New Hampshire cards available on their website at wildlife.state.nh.us/nongame/cards.html. The two-page color pdfs are on subjects such as “Wildlife of Young Forests,” “Backyard Wildlife of New Hampshire” and “Wildlife of Rivers and Streams” as well as cards for hawks, wild bees, frogs, dragonflies, different kinds of birds and more.

Join a circus

The Flying Gravity Circus based in Wilton will be offering an at-home program called “Circus in a Box” this summer. With two programs (one for ages 6 to 8 and one for 9 to 14) and three weeklong sessions, “Circus in a Box” delivers circus-related materials (such as a puppet stage for the younger group, juggling balls for the older group and clown noses to everybody) in a box and then offers five days of programming for kids to follow at home, according to the website. The cost is $100 and camps run the weeks of June 29, July 6 and July 13. See flyinggravitycircus.org.

Circus Smirkus, the Vermont-based youth circus that has traveled to New Hampshire in past summers, won’t be touring this summer but Smirkus fans can still get in some clowning. Circus Smirkus will present Smirk-O-Vision, an online presentation of six events. A season pass costs $90 or individual events (six are scheduled) cost $15 to $18, according to the website, which lists the shows including “Inside the Circus: Backstage at the HQ” (on Aug. 6 at 7 p.m.), which looks at how they put on the shows each year, and “Inside the Circus: Directors’ Commentary” (July 2 at 7 p.m.). The group is also offering Smirkus@Home programming on subjects including juggling, magic, clowning, contortion and more, with classes for kids as young as 5 and schedules that include one-day classes, weeklong classes or sessions with weekly classes. See smirkus.org.

Bee prep

Netflix’s new documentary Spelling the Dream (see page 24 for a review) is all about kids (and their families) competing in the Scripps National Spelling Bee. The movie is rated G and might be a good way to inspire kids who are “meh” about spelling but like competition, trophies and the idea of going on ESPN. And, if they catch the Bee bug (or if you are just looking for ways to get kids spelling practice), you can check out the official Scripps app Word Club. It has a paid component, of course, but it offers some free word lists that users can be quizzed on in a variety of ways. The app presents the phonetic spelling, audio of someone saying the word, definition, part of speech and other information similar to what you’d get in a bee.

Photo courtesy of https://www.smirkus.org/

Escape rooms go virtual — for free

Escape rooms have been hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic, but some have come up with creative ways to keep players engaged while their doors are closed.
Five New Hampshire escape rooms — NH Granite State Escape in Manchester, Break Free 603 in Amherst, Monkey Mind Escape Rooms in Portsmouth, Mystery NH in North Conway and Time Quest NH in Littleton — are among 25 escape rooms from around New England that have come together to develop a free, at-home virtual escape room experience for players.
“We have to remind people that we’re still here and, ideally, will still be here at the end of [the pandemic],” Beth Scrimger of Mystery NH Escape Rooms said. “Hopefully, it will give people a glimpse into an escape room they weren’t familiar with before so they [think], ‘I can’t wait until it opens again.’”
The escape room concept originated as a subgenre of point-and-click video games in which the player is locked in a room and must find his way out using only the objects within the room. Real-life escape rooms have various types of objectives, based on a theme or backstory, that involve finding clues and solving puzzles around the room.
The theme for the virtual escape room experience is “Everyday Superheroes: Always Saving Our Butts.” As the story goes, an evil villain named Dr. T.P. Rolls has snuck into town in the middle of the night and stolen every last roll of toilet paper.
“He’s cleared out every bathroom, linen closet, and store shelf and brought the stash to his hidden toilet paper warehouse,” reads the story description on the New England Room Escapes website. “Your help is desperately needed! Assemble a team of everyday superheroes — from doctors to police officers to teachers — to find the secret lair and Save Our Butts!”
“There are so many people out there keeping our world turning right now,” Scrimger said. “Teachers, farmers, [mail delivery] drivers, grocery store [workers] — they are our everyday superheroes, so we decided to come up with a story that honors them.”
To play, visit the NERE website, where you’ll find links to each virtual escape room on the participating escape rooms’ respective websites. Each virtual escape room is unique and features different objectives and puzzles.
“The escape rooms have all developed their own concepts with their own flair,” Scrimger said. “Some are really challenging; some are super simple. Some require you to write things down on a piece of paper to solve the puzzle, or you have to complete a certain task to make something else happen.”
Upon completing an escape room, you’ll be given the name of an occupation of an everyday hero. That occupation is your “key.” Return to the NERE website and input the key for that escape room to receive credit. Players who complete all 25 escape rooms by June 30 will receive discount codes to use at those escape rooms once they reopen for business and will be entered for a chance to win the grand prize: two tickets for one free game at each of those escape rooms.

“Everyday Superheroes: Always Saving Our Butts”
Visit neroomescapes.com to start your virtual escape room adventure, going on now through June 30.