For a limited time Florida residents can purchase a 2 year annual pass for $189.95. This pass includes admission to both Universal Studios and Universal’s Islands of Adventure. This is the fee for both children and adult admission.

Universal Studios has several rides including BACK TO THE FUTURE…THE RIDE, and Shrek 4-D. Wow do you remember “Back to the Future”, the name take me back to some younger days. Okay, back to 2007.

Islands of Adventure is a water park with slides and splashing.

When looking at the cost of a pass like this, you should try to approximate how often you will be visiting the theme parks in the next two years and what it would cost to purchase one day or two day prices for those times. Don’t get overly excited about the special if you don’t plan on visiting the parks more than once, but if it is something you will be going to a few times a year then it could be a good deal for you.

When it summer time comes ,some kids would just like to become couch potatoes and just watch television or play video games all day. With only a few hours a week you can keep your kids minds active and ready for the next school year and it is free. Many schools hand out summer reading lists at the end of the school year and as parents it is a good idea to have your child read some of those books. School districts, such as Hillsborough County, have posted their reading lists online for you to view and actively use with your child. If the reading list is not a requirement, you may also try picking out a book that also a movie that made based on it. You can read the book and then watch the movie together and discuss the differences between the book and the movie.

13 year-old Evan O’Dorney became the 2007 Scripps National Spelling Bee Champion. Evan is a homeschooler from California. According to the Scripps web site, Evan likes to eat fish before his spelling bee competitions. This is Evan’s third time to the National Spelling Bee Competition.

“Cash prizes for competitors range from $50 to $20,000 for the national champion. All spellers receive a commemorative watch; the Samuel Louis Sugarman Award, which consists of a $100 EE U.S. Savings bond; Webster’s Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged, on CD-ROM from Merriam-Webster; a $20 gift certificate from Franklin Electronic Publishers; and an iQuest handheld from LeapFrog.

The national champion also receives an engraved loving cup, a $5,000 cash award from Franklin Electronic Publishers, a $5,000 cash award from LeapFrog Enterprises Inc., a $5,000 scholarship from Sigma Phi Epsilon Educational Foundation; from Merriam-Webster, a $2,500 U.S. Savings Bond, a reference library, and a $5,000 cash award and 50 reference works to the school or library of the champion’s choice; and from Encyclopedia Britannica, reference materials valued at more than $3,800.”

If you have a little one that dreams of becoming a spelling bee champ there are resources at spellingbee.com to help.

Source:SpellingBee.com

Schools across the Tampa Bay area will close for the summer. The question with many working parents is what to do with the children for the summer vacation. Some parents have elected to send their children to all day camps where children attend the program during the day and return home in the evenings. Others are going to sleep over camp. Some are fortunate to have a relative to watch the children.

It is not too late to consider a summer program for your child. The Tampa Bay YMCA is one organization that offers programs during the summer for children. You may also choose consider local county and city recreational centers. Many cities throughout Tampa Bay understand the need to have a safe place for children to stay during the summer and offer program for the children.

Many of the summer programs do work week by week so that you can still have somewhere for your child to go if you decide to take a family vacation during the summer.

Teenagers may decide to find a job this summer, instead of staying home. The opportunity is still available for teenagers to find a job this summer. Many fast food restaurants have jobs available year round. Retail is also an area of employment the teenagers can look for employment. Local libraries also have jobs with flexible schedules that teenagers can do for the summer and year round.

Summer Voluntary Pre-Kindergarten is available once again for those that have not used their allotted pre-Kindergarten hours for the 2006-2007 school. The purpose of the program is to get preschoolers ready for kindergarten and give them a better start in the academic career. This voluntary, as the name says, and parents can choose not to use the allotted free hours.

• Voluntary Pre-K
• Voluntary Pre-K web sites

 

Wishing and praying that every mom has a wonderful Mother’s Day. Call your mom and wish her a Happy Mother’s Day, if you cannot be with her today. Be happy moms , enjoy your day and know that your best gift is the person that calls you “Mom”, “Mommy”, or “Mama”

Happy Mother’s Day from Lowry Park Zoo. Mothers will get in free at Lowry Park Zoo on Sunday May 10^th on Mother’s Day. Mother’s will receive free admission with the purchase of full-priced child’s ticket. A regular child’s ticket is listed on Lowry Park Zoo’s web site for $12.50.

More Mother’s Day Events

It is still not too late to order online gifts for mother’s day. Some online retailers will be able to ship you gift by Saturday. The time to look is definitely now. Whether you are looking to buy flowers or any other girls you must act now to make sure that your gift does arrive in time for Mother’s day. Remember you are not the only one that wants to make your mom feel special on Mother’s Day.

Online retailers like amazon.comstill offer the ability to pick from a variety of gifts to that can still be delivered in time for mother’s day. Not every item on the site can be delivered on time so make sure you see exactly when the item will be delivered before completely your order.

Most parents that had a child take the FCAT (Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test) this year have received a letter in the mail with their child’s id and password for accessing the FCAT results. The FCAT is extremely important to 10^th graders because if they do not pass it by the end of their senior year they will not be able to obtain a regular diploma. The Florida Department of Education is now allowing high school students who have not passed the FCAT to use their SAT or Act score in place of their FCAT score. Of course, students must achieve a minimum score on the ACT or SAT for the results to be accepted in place of the FCAT. 10^th graders can continue to take the FCAT until they pass. You should talk to your child’s guidance counselor to find out what the exact test dates will be and what you can do to help your child pass the FCAT.

All across the country home sales have been down and amount of foreclosed homes have increased. It has become a home buyer’s market in most areas including the Tampa bay area. Home buyers will now see more incentives for purchasing a home. Some home buyers may get all closing costs paid or other incentives. One Builder, seeing the concern about the rise in property taxes, has tried to lure home buyers by offering to pay property taxes for a year. Other builders are offering free appliances, up to a certain price, with the purchase of a newly built home. Tampa Bay Home sales in March2007 were down 48% since March 2006 and the market that had many sellers giddy has now turned into a home buyer’s market.

The Tampa Chapter of the Florida Credit Union League is hosting the 13th annual Home Buyer’s Fair at the USF Sundome. The Fair has a 4-hour seminar aimed at helping potential home buyers in buying a home. There will be several different topics discussed at the Fair that will help home buyers ask the right questions and make the right choices when purchasing a home in Tampa Bay or other areas. As we may all know by now, Tampa Bay, Florida and the nation is now in a buyer’s market. There is a large inventory of homes available for sale. The Home Buyer’s Fair ,on May 12, 2007, should prove valuable to first time home buyers and those that are thinking of buying a new home in Tampa Bay.

Child star Kim Fields recently gave birth to her first child on May 4, 2007. Kim had a 6 lb 4 oz baby boy, who she named Sebastian Alexander Morgan. Kim Fields may best be known for her portrayal of Tootie on the “Facts of Life”, which ran during most of the 1980s. (I know that I just didn’t want to miss a night of the “Facts of Life” and that theme song just made me dance each time I hear it). Fields starred in a sitcom, “Living Single” with rapper and actress Queen Latifah in the 1990s. She has also been in several movies and guest starred on many television shows during her acting career.

Tampa will be having a city wide clean-up effort with volunteers from all over the city of Tampa. This event will be to help remove a lot of the litter from the streets of Tampa.
The city-wide effort will be held in Tampa neighborhoods with registration beginning at 8:30 a.m. in the south parking lot at Raymond James Stadium, located at 4201 North Dale Mabry. The clean-up will be from 9 a.m. until noon, with a celebration for all participants to be held at Raymond James from noon until 3 p.m. The celebration, featuring live entertainment and refreshments, is free and open to all participants.

Volunteers will be assigned a neighborhood to pick up litter. The event will cover five districts including New Tampa, north Tampa, east Tampa, west Tampa and south Tampa.

The Clean City Day “Cleanup Initiative” will include: 

• implementation of a city-wide Trash Receptacle Program 
• introduction of the city’s new Anti-Litter Campaign 
• implementation of the Adopt-A-Street Program

“Clean City Day” is a collaboration of the City of Tampa Clean City Division, the Friends of Clean City, the Division of Neighborhood and Community Relations, the Solid Waste Department, the Tampa Police Department, the Mayor’s Beautification Program, Hillsborough County Schools, concerned citizens and many other civic organizations and businesses.

According to tbo.com

The clean-up effort starts with registration from 8-9 a.m. at Raymond James Stadium and at these other staging areas:

• North/New Tampa District: Rowlett Park, 2401 E. Yukon St.; Sulphur Springs Pool, 713 Bird St.; and Benito Middle School, 10101 Cross Creek Blvd.
• South District: Friendship Playground, 4124 Bay to Bay Blvd.; Corona Playground, 3702 Corona St.; and Himes Avenue Complex, 4501 S. Himes Ave.
• East District: Giddens Park, 5209 N.12th St.; Belmont Heights, 2007 E. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.; and Grant Park, 3724 N. 54th St.
• West District: Al Lopez Park, 4810 N. Himes Ave.; MacFarlane Park, 1720 N. MacDill Ave.; and Riverfront Park, 1001 North Blvd.
• For more information, contact Tonia Hightower at (813) 931-2187, or Tonia.Hightower@tampagov.net.

Tampa Bay should feel very proud. We are home to two 2007 Presidential Scholars Finalists. This is very high honor and is only bestowed on extremely talented graduating high school seniors in the United States. Tampa Bay Parent has provided a list of all the 2007 Presidential Scholars’ Finalists, Semi-Finalists, and Candidates. Congratulations to Helen M. Johnson of Saint Mary’s School and Charles M. Zhu of C. Leon King High School.