Bored Already?

Bored already? Wish you were back in school? Don't worry! Here are some summertime fixes to keep you busy during the (hopefully) sunny months of July and August.

Interested in LEGOS?

See a monumental and detailed model of the Minnesota State Capitol made entirely of LEGO® bricks. Built by LEGO® ambassador Roy Cook, the six-foot-long, four-foot-wide and three-foot-high model is made of more than 75,000 bricks and took more than 150 hours to build. Free guided tours of the State Capitol building are available on the hour daily during regular hours.

Where: State Capitol, St. Paul MN
When: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday
Go, it's FREE!

Like Exhibits?

Visit the Minnesota History Center in St. Paul! Each Tuesday night from 5 pm to 8 pm, the History Center offers free admission to the museum exhibits like "Minnesota's Greatest Generation", "Weather Permitting", "Grainland" and more!



Visit the Depot in Duluth for great exhibits like "18-The Civil War Exhibit" or the "J.C. Ryan History Room"!

When: Summer Hours: Monday-Sunday 9:30am-6pm

Cost: Children 3-13: $6
         Adults 13 and over: $12

Can't ride your bike to the Cities or Duluth? No worries! Visit the exhibits at the Moose Lake Depot!

"Housed in the former Soo Line Depot, the Moose Lake Depot contains exhibits about the history of the area railroads and tells the story of the huge 1918 fire. The fire burned 250,000 acres, took more than 450 lives and devastated the Moose Lake-Kettle River area."

When: Summer Hours: Monday-Saturday 10am-4pm and Sundays Noon-3pm

Visit: mooselakeareahistory.com for more details!

Like to Read?

Try these books!

"The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian" by Sherman Alexie. Budding cartoonist Junior leaves his troubled school on the Spokane Indian Reservation to attend an all-white farm town school where the only other Native American is the school mascot.

"Nothing But The Truth: A Documentary Novel" by Avi. Ninth grader Philip Malloy is suspended for humming the National Anthem during homeroom. When the story hits the national news, the results of telling nothing but the truth unfold in surprising and thought-provoking ways.

"The Boy in the Striped Pajamas: a Fable" by John  Boyne. Bored and lonely after his family moves from Berlin to a place called "Out-With" in 1942, Bruno, the son of a Nazi officer, befriends a boy in striped pajamas who lives behind a wire fence. The story of The Boy in the Striped Pajamas is very difficult to describe. Usually we give some clues about the book ont he jkacket, but in this case we think that would spoil the reading of the book. We thiink it is important that you start to read without knowing what it is about. If you do start to read this book, you wll go on a journey with a nine-year-old boy called Bruno. (Though this isn't a book for nine-year-olds) And sooner or later you will arrive with Bruno at a fence. Fences like this exist all over the world. We hope you never have to encounter such a fence.

"Revolution is Not a Dinner Party: A Novel" by Ying Compestine. Ling, the daughter of two doctors, struggles to make sense of the Cultural Revolution, which empties stores of food, homes of anything deemed bourgeois, and people of laughter.

"The Watsons Go to Birmingham--1963: a Novel" by Christopher Paul Curtis. Two young boys travel with their parents to Birmingham, Alabama in the middle of the tumultuous civil rights movement.  Violence and racism are everywhere, but the family does a great job of protecting itself until an unspeakable event impacts all of them. 

"Bud, Not Buddy" by Christopher Paul Curtis. Bud, a motherless boy living in Flint, Michigan, during the Great Depression, escapes a bad foster home and sets out in search of the man he believes to be his father--the renowned bandleader, H.E. Calloway of Grand Rapids.

"Crossing the Wire" by Will Hobbs. Fifteen-year-old Victor Flores journeys north in a desperate attempt to cross the Arizona border and find work in the United States to support his family in central Mexico.

"Kimchi and Calamari" by Rose Kent. Adopted from Korea by Italian parents, fourteen-year-old Joseph Calderaro begins to make important self-discoveries about race and family after his social studies teacher assigns an essay on cultural heritage and tracing the past.

"Blood Secret" by Kathryn Lasky. Fourteen-year-old Jerry Luna, mute since her mother's disappearance, is sent to her great-great aunt Constanza's house, where she discovers a trunk that draws her into the world of her ancestors during the Spanish Inquisition.

"The Art of Keeping Cool" by Janet Taylor Lisle. In 1942, Robert and his cousin Elliot uncover long-hidden family secrets while staying in their grandparents' Rhode Island town, where they also become involved with a German artist who is suspected of being a spy.

 

Hope you're having a great summer!