Summer is rapidly coming to a close. Who can believe it? Where did the time go?

As early as next week, some Tristate school systems will resume classes for the academic year. What does that mean for Cincinnati seniors? It means time is running out to spend quality weekday time with your school-age grandkids!

Today, let’s take a look at six activities for seniors and their grandchildren to enjoy in Cincinnati before the kids have to hit the books once again.

1. Take in an outdoor movie

Several communities in and around the Tristate offer free, outdoor viewings of family movies during the summer. This August, check out the movie schedules for Deerfield Township, Cincinnati’s Mount Adams neighborhood, Colerain Township or Anderson Township.

2. Take ’em bowling

Have you heard about Kids Bowl Free? It’s a cooperative effort in which participating alleys offer children two free games of bowling every day, all summer long! The idea is to get children interested in the game.

Here in Cincinnati, 3 bowling centers participate in the program: Colerain Bowl, Heid Bowling Lanes, and Strike & Spare Western Bowl. In addition, there are several bowling alleys in surrounding communities that also participate in Kids Bowl Free.

To be eligible, participating children need to sign up on the Kids Bowl Free website. Get them registered, then pick up the grandkids and take them out to roll!

3. Take them for a spin on a classic carousel in Smale Park

Remember the simpler days, when carnival rides weren’t scary and even little guys and little girls could enjoy a fanciful turn on horseback? You can relive them — without having to pay an expensive amusement park admission — in downtown Cincinnati’s Smale Park.

Admission to the park is free. Rides on Carol Ann’s Carousel are just $2. Take a stroll along the riverfront lawn, or lose yourselves in the labyrinth. And, afterward, you and the grandkids can cool off in the water play area, which features squirting fountains and a waterfall. Make sure you bring your swimsuit!

4. Playground, anyone?

Great Parks of Hamilton County offers a number of safe playgrounds in parks around the area. Some are traditional outdoor playgrounds, some are indoor playgrounds (like Sharon Woods’ Adventure Station) and some are splash ’n’ play wet playgrounds.

Check the Great Parks website for locations, hours of operation and (where applicable) admission fees. Or, if your suburb or township has its own local parks and playgrounds, load up the grandkids and a picnic lunch and enjoy the outdoors!

5. Take a day trip

There are so many natural, historical and scientific places of interest to take the grandkids in and around the Tristate. Within a driving radius of two or so hours, you could take them to:

Museums and Scientific Exploration

• The National Museum of the United States Air Force
  
• COSI
• Ohio History Center
• The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis (Pictured)
• The Louisville Slugger Museum
• The Frazier History Museum
• The Louisville Glassworks
• The Kentucky Horse Park

Geological and Natural History

• Ohio Caverns
• Big Bone Lick State Park
• Mammoth Cave National Park
• Caesar Creek State Park fossil beds
• The Falls of the Ohio
• Hocking Hills
• Red River Gorge and the Daniel Boone National Forest

Historical Sites, Living History Centers and Native American Archaeological Sites

• Old Fort Harrod
• Boonesborough (Pictured)
• Henry Clay’s Ashland estate
• The Mary Todd Lincoln House
• Serpent Mound
• The Miamisburg Mound
• The Seip Earthworks
• Fort Ancient
• Shawnee Lookout
• Fallen Timbers Battlefield
• Fort Meigs
• Tippecanoe Battlefield
• Perryville Battlefield
• Camp Dennison
• Tecumseh! outdoor drama
• The Stephen Foster Story outdoor drama

6. Take them out to the farm

It’s absolutely worth an hour’s drive north on US 68 to visit Young’s Jersey Dairy, just outside of Yellow Springs, Ohio. Young’s has been a summer institution for decades.

Get some homemade ice cream, made with fresh milk from the dairy’s Jersey cows. Take a hayride and a tour of the barns and milking rooms. Grab some dinner in Young’s country fare restaurant. Or, get in a game of goofy golf with the kids!

And if that’s not enough to fill your day up, head on in to the funky, artsy town of Yellow Springs for some eclectic shopping and hippie viewing.

These are just a few ideas. There’s so much to do in and around Greater Cincinnati!

Brainstorm your own ideas. Google activities and attractions in the Tristate. Or, just plan to have the family over for a good, old-fashioned family grill-out and potluck dinner.

We still have a few days left this summer. Plan to spend some of them getting in some quality time with your grandkids. They’ll remember the fun times they spent with you for the rest of their lives.