What Will You Do In the Summer Heat?

Summer is well and truly here.  35 degrees Celsius on our deck, 28 in the house.  With two months of summer break ahead of us, what will you do with your kids?

Are you the "Sweat it out in the Sun" or "Hide in the a/c" kind of parent?  Or, maybe a mix of both?  Here are a few options for getting through the summer sanely, and maybe even joyfully, in Taiwan with your kids.

Go swimming!
You can choose to go to the beach (such as Fulong or along the North East Coast), the river (Pingling, Sanxia, or even a small local stream like in Maling Recreational Area), or a swimming pool.

Read!
Set a target with your kids, and make a Reading Passport.  For example, for each book they read, they get a stamp, and after say 30 books, they can choose a prize to the value of TWD100.  Get your books from the library, or from Book Depository. 

Play Games!
Visit your local Good Toys store, or check out this website (in Chinese but with English-language games) and have the games sent to you.

Catch a Movie!
Visit your local theater. 

We recently went to this one in Neihu (right opposite  Neihu MRT station). At $650 for one adult, one school-age child and one preschooler for a 3-D movie and snacks, and free parking in the basement, it's pretty good value.  The theaters are small and during the day there doesn't seem to be many people.  I heard that if you see an English-language viewing, you have a good chance of being the only ones in the theater.

Address: 台北市內湖區康寧路三段72號  (Kang Ning Road Sec 3, No. 72)
Telephone: :(02)2632-2693
Let The Kids Go Online!
Try a child-friendly site like http://www.kidzui.com/ or let them watch some educational movies at http://www.neok12.com/.

Do you have any suggestions to share with parents trying to make it through the summer?  Share them right here!