How is summer over? I dropped my kids off at school this week for their first day and I’m not sure any of us were ready for school to start. We have had a great summer of adventures and it’s hard to go back to daily routines and I wonder how hard it’s going to be for the guys to settle back into the daily grind of school. I barely even got a first day of school picture. Thankfully my kids really love to read and they’ve gobbled up a ton of books this summer. My guys are 10 and I am always looking for books in the 8-12 year old range that focus on sports, exploration, adventure and fantasy. Do you have kids in this age group too? It is such a hard age to find books for and especially for boys! I was recently sent a few books from National Geographic Kids that they’ve had some fun reading and I always love it when we find books that might inspire them to learn a bit more about the world.
Explorer Academy: the Nebula Secret is full of fun animal facts and breaks reading into shorter snippets so it’s a great book to bring along on adventures when there might be some waiting time in a restaurant or in a line. There are fun things like the 19 cutest animals or 19 facts about lasers. My family is very into helping animals and I really like that there is a chance for kids to win a $500 gift card to host a lion conservation party (the contest ends on December 3 2018 so there is still a bit of time to complete an entry). One of my guys gravitates towards non-fiction reading over fiction and loved reading and re-reading the pages about meerkats and the way dolphins think.
Explorer Academy: the Nebula Secret is part of a 7 book series and it’s a great fact-based fiction book for kids in the 8-12 year old range. The opening bit reminds me a little of Harry Potter (and my guys also said they made it think of the Stuart Gibs Spy School series), with a letter sent to the main character Cruz inviting him to an exclusive Explorer Academy. My kids are into adventures so this kind of school would be dreamy for them. And I kind of wish we had this kind of option for school, where kids could learn from renowned scientists, explorers, photographers and journalists. This is one of the reasons why I travel with my kids and try to explore places that teach us where are food and other things we use on a daily basis come from. I want my kids to learn from the best and be inspired to do something interesting with their lives.
On that note, I totally hope we or someone we know wins the Explorer Academy Trip from National Geographic Expeditions. I don’t know any other way to make the awesome adventures we read and dream about any more real than to actually experience something like this. National Geographic is giving away a trip for a family of four to see Alaska’s Inside Passage to celebrate the launch of the Explorer Academy series and you have until May 31st 2019 to enter.
There is also an Explorer Academy website with a code-breaking game and a video book trailer. I totally hope this book becomes a movie one day because I think the videography would be stunning. I was also sent a Weird but True book by National Geographic Kids and my kids loved reading the interesting facts in this book too-and if you don’t have any of these books already, Weird but True Giftset is a great bundle.
Are your kids into adventure books and books about exploring? And do your kids have books that have inspired them to travel or learn more about a place? And if you’ve been to Alaska and have posts about the trip, I’d love to read more!
(PS. this is a sponsored post on behalf of Moms Meet and I have been sent books to review and there may be affiliate links and as always the opinions and thoughts in this post are my own. )
Terumi Pong is a Seattle-based family travel writer and mom of twin teenage boys. She loves coffee and pastries, shopping local and looking for greener ways to live. She is also known as Scout’s mom (Scout is a 5ish pound little black yorkie-poo)