February is a great time to make snowmen and drink hot chocolate start thinking about summer camp. Dulles Town Center is hosting a summer camp and activities fair on Saturday February 26 and Sunday February 27, 2011. It’s a perfect opportunity for those who wish to meet representatives from many local camps at once.

If you like to do your researching online, here are a few local options to check out:

YMCA Summer Camp

My six year-old tried a week of nature day camp at Camp Highroad last August and he loved it. I signed him up thinking a full day camp experience might be helpful in the transition to first grade, and he came home completely exhausted and missing some item he had taken with him (lunch box, socks, towel, etc.) every day. I’m not sure I’ll send him again, but he can’t wait to go back. They offer before and after care, which allows for working parents to drop off and pick up without taking time away from the office.

Audubon Society Nature Camps

The Audubon Nature Society (ANS) is my go-to source for nature-based early education in the DC Metro area. They offer camps at the Broadlands Nature Center in Ashburn, the Rust Nature Sanctuary in Leesburg, and the Woodend Nature Sanctuary in Chevy Chase, MD. Both my kids enjoyed first camp experiences at the Rust Nature Sanctuary in Leesburg. The camps are small enough to be intimate, true to ANS’ mission of connecting people with nature in the DC Region, are lots of fun, and manage to stay low key enough not to overstimulate and exhaust the average child to the point of meltdown. To preview the ANS style of working with kids, I encourage you to stop by their annual Spring Nature Fair.

Vacation Bible School (VBS)

I know very little about the many vacation bible school options, but from what I hear the local churches often offer summer camps quite cheaply, so if budget and/or faith are a top priority, VBS might be a fit for your family. The following churches have offered vacation bible schools in past years. You can check their websites for 2011 information as summer approaches.

• Ashburn Presbyterian
• Bethel Presbyterian (Leesburg)
• Blueridge Bible Church (Purcellville)
• Cornerstone Chapel, (Leesburg)
• Hamilton Baptist Church
• Loudoun Bible Church (Ashburn)
• Our Saviour’s Way Lutheran Church (Ashburn)
• Purcellville Baptist Church
• St. Francis deSales Catholic Church (Purcellville)
• St. James Episcopal (Leesburg)

There are many other options!

• C3 Cyber Club (Ashburn)
• Destiny Preschool for the Arts (Leesburg)
• Ida Lee Summer Camp (Leesburg)
• Loudoun County (guide available online 3/4/2011 includes camps @ Douglass and Claude Moore)
• Red Gate Farm (Hamilton)
• Sportrock (Sterling, ages 9+)

You can also search the American Camp Association database of ACA accredited camps if you are looking for camps for a specific activity or age group.

Please don’t hesitate to use the comments feature to share your Loudoun County area camp offerings or camp experiences. The more local families who post, the better this resource becomes for all of us!

Info about the upcoming Ashburn MOMS Clubs’ preschool forum is quickly spreading through various moms groups throughout the county. The announcement follows.

The MOMS Clubs® of the Ashburn Area are pleased to present:

Ashburn Preschool Forum

Saturday, January 23, 2010
9:00am – 12:00pm
The Mills Recreation Center
43895 Grottoes Drive in Ashburn Village

Are you considering preschool for your child?

Come get the parents’ perspective on our local schools!
Information about the preschools in our area will be available and moms with children in the various schools will be speaking about their personal experience with the teachers and schools.
Open to ALL Ashburn Area parents!

For more information, please contact MOMSClub@tjdjmail. com

**** We’re currently looking for parents of children in the preschools to speak at the forum. This is the 4th year we’ve held the forum and the people attending always seem very grateful to have some “inside knowledge” about the schools.
Here are the schools we hope to include at the forum, so if you’d like to volunteer to speak for about 5 minutes about your experience with one of these schools please email momsclub@tjdjmail. com. We also hope to have some of the special needs programs represented so if you are willing to share your experience with those we’d love to have you. Your participation would be very much appreciated!

A Child’s Place Preschool
Arcola Christian Preschool
Ashburn Children’s Center
Ashburn Village Country Day School
Audubon Nature Preschool
Bean Tree Learning
The Boyd School
Briar Woods Early Learning Lab (Preschool at the Woods)
Broad Run Early Learning Lab
Busy Bees (Kari Vance)
Celebration
Chesterbrook Academy
Christian Fellowship School
Classroom of Discovery
Claude Moore Preschool (formerly Sterling Annex)
Discovery Oaks Academy
Dulles South Preschool
Fit 2 Learn
Goddard School (Belmont Greene)
Goddard School (Ashburn)
Golden Pond
Growing Minds (Judi Ratcliffe)
Heaven Sent Christian Preschool
Hope Christian Preschool
Kids Under Construction
KinderCare Learning Center
KinderWorks in Brambleton (formerly Winwood)
Little Learners Academy
Little Sprouts Preschool
Loudoun Country Day School
Minnieland
Montessori Academy at Belmont Greene
Montessori Children’s House of Loudoun
My Favorite Place Preschool
Open Arms Christian Child Development Center
School of Spanish (Magnolia Inmon)
Sha’are Shalom Rosie Uran Jewish Education Center
South Riding Children’s Center
St. David’s Episcopal Preschool
Sterling Annex Preschool
Stone Bridge Early Learning Lab
Virginia Academy/Ark Preschool
Willow Montessori
Winnie the Pooh
Winwood Children’s Center

]]> http://activefamilyservices.com/blog/2010/01/09/ashburn-moms-club-annual-preschool-forum/feed/ 5 http://activefamilyservices.com/blog/2009/06/21/ashburn-library-childrenteen-book-sale-and-silent-auction/ http://activefamilyservices.com/blog/2009/06/21/ashburn-library-childrenteen-book-sale-and-silent-auction/#comments Sun, 21 Jun 2009 17:32:56 +0000 admin http://activefamilyservices.com/blog/?p=761

Just popping on to my neglected blog to share info on an upcoming book sale that has been passed along to me…

Come buy used children and teen books, videos, and music at the Ashburn Library Advisory Board (ALAB) sale on Sat, June 27th, 10 am to 4:30 pm at Ashburn Library ( 43316 Hay Rd ). Prices from 50 cents to $2.

We need donations! Used books, CDs, DVDs, VHS tapes, and software donations will be collected June 24–26 during normal library hours. Only children/teen materials, please.

ALAB will also be holding a silent auction from June 22 to July 2nd. Bid on a variety of items generously donated by local businesses. The silent auction bid sheets are in the library foyer. All proceeds support library programs.

Contact Douglas Nelms at alab_volunteer@yahoo.com if you would like to volunteer to help with the book sale on June 27th or the set-up for the sale on June 26. Thanks in advance for your support of our library!

Valerie Cook of Better Choices, a vendor participating in Earth Day @ Loudoun 2009, asked me to pass the following announcement along:

EarthDay@Loudoun 2009 Family Festival will be held on Sunday, April 26th from 11–3 at the Willow Creek Farm by Clyde’s, 42920 Broadlands Blvd.  Vendors will be offering green services and goods.  Local artists will feature “green” works of art.  Proceeds from the event will support environmental efforts to reduce the county’s ecological footprint.

I wish the organizers and vendors great success and hope many Loudoun families are able attend!

I have never been to the Ashburn MOMS club annual preschool forum, but their spreadsheet cataloging local preschools and the scribbled notes of parents who attend are hot commodities passed around moms groups throughout Loudoun County each year. Here’s the info they passed along announcing their upcoming event!

The Leesburg/ Ashburn Moms Meetup Group is fantastic. I have connected with wonderful mothers who I admire in all of the groups I have joined over the years, but never before did I see so many in the same group sharing with and supporting each other. There are moms of all ages and all parenting styles in this group and the group has a great energy.… active, friendly, and easy to jump into. Kudos to the dedicated (volunteer) organizer and the many active members and assistant organizers for all they have done and continue to do to keep this group’s momentum. I am so glad to have found you!

JumpingJackSports.com
44710 Cape Court Suite #128
Ashburn, VA 20147 (map it)

(703) 858‑9901

I have not checked this place out yet but have heard good things. In the meantime, check out their site. If you’ve been there, please share your impressions by leaving a comment below.

Campaign for Loudoun’s Future recently sponsored a local foods and farms celebration. American Flatbread, a new restaurant in Ashburn which uses some local ingredients for their pizzas, helped to host the event — which made it into The Post and Leesburg Today.

The kids and I stopped by the event, but I was too wiped out by the heat to write it up when I got home that night. Kudos to the many volunteers, local farmers, and animals who spent the day in the heat to expose the rest of us to some of our local food options. I’d like to say that we learned a lot, but the reality of visiting an event like that solo with two preschoolers is that we spent most of our time at the moonbounce and in the bathroom at American Flatbread. Regardless, fun was had, sheepskins were touched, and we found a new place to eat out. American Flatbread’s service was friendly and quick. You can see the flames in the pizza oven from many of the seats. My children kind of zone out while watching fires, so it makes them more managable in restaurants.

43546 Partlow Road
Ashburn, VA (map it)

Ashburn (aka Dinosaur) Park made it onto About.com’s best playgrounds in Virginia list. Who knew we were so lucky?

This playground holds a special spot in our hearts as it is one of the first places we visited when Peter was trying to sell me on the prospect of a move here so he could take a job in Ashburn. So, yes, we were the fools who drove straight from the cross country red eye to the playground on a cold, snowy day in February and suggested to our 15 month old that it might be fun to play while we waited for the rest of Loudoun County to wake up… and yes, he did play, and the park did impress me, and we did move to Virginia. My husband is a wise, wise man who knows me well.

My only complaint about this playground is that it might be a tad too big. It’s so big that independent preschoolers can accidentally wander out of sight… This is not an issue if you are only chasing one kid or have kids who listen all the same or if you don’t plan on letting down your guard. And, perhaps more to the point, it is not something that bothers the kids. 

Its a fun, well shaded place to play year round, plus the last time I checked the porta potties were pretty well maintained.

A local mom shared a site with me that could prove useful given all the upcoming summer movie screenings. kids-in-mind.com reviews movies and rates their appropriateness for children. I have looked over the reviews of a few movies we have seen recently and they seem to be accurate and thorough.

Summer Family Movie Screenings:

Regal (throughout the US including Ashburn, Alexandria, Fairfax, Fredericksburg, Manassas, Sterling and many other VA locations) See free movies on Tuesdays and Wednesdays at 10am. Show up early to get a seat! Click here for Maryland locations, including Frederick.

Tally Ho (Leesburg, VA) $1 Family Classics on Tuesdays and Wednesdays at 11am

Please drop us a line if you are aware of other theaters that have similar programs.

ETA: You can also check your local library for summer movie showings. I know LCPL has some scheduled.