Here are our favorite free adventures to experience as a family

Local Libraries

We have a large library system in our community. Each of these libraries offer a plethora of children’s books to read and check out. They also offer great story times for children. Check out your local library system to see what children’s programs are available.

Our favorite spot is a collaborative venture of the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library and the Children’s Theater of Charlotte called ImaginOn: The Joe & Joan Martin Center. ImaginOn is located in uptown Charlotte, North Carolina. This 102,000-square-foot landmark learning is filled with books, interactive experiences, and traveling exhibits where children can play with life-size tinker toys and “launch” a rocket in to outer space. The theater is amazing and offers shows for a range of ages. If you have older children, there is also a great teen space which gives teens access to high-interest technology and resources.

Check out more at here.

We also love to take a walk and check out the Little Free Library in our neighborhood. These little libraries are a place for people to give a book and/or take a book. We love to see what books people have left for others and my kids get really excited to donate some of their books. These libraries are also really cute since they are customizable! Look for these little libraries in neighborhoods near you!

Bookstores

We love to visit bookstores to check out their featured displays to discover new books. We spend a great deal of time in bookstores perusing the shelves to find our next fun read. We often preview books at the bookstore so we know if it something we want to read only once or if we want to add it to our collection. We love to see the feature shelves to see what new or seasonal reads are available.

We love visiting locally-owned bookstores like Park Road Books, located in the Park Road Shopping Center in Charlotte, NC. This book store has lots of character and you can often meet the store’s dog, Yola. We often seek out independently-owned book stores when we travel too.

We also love to visit Barnes & Noble which offers a huge selection of books, games, and toys (and coffee)