A resource for families in Santa Cruz County
Welcome New Website!
We welcome your posts!
The new website is live! We are busy learning a new-to-us backend program and uploading information for families. We could use your help!

  • YOU can post on the CALENDAR: events, virtual meetings, classes, camp opening dates, etc. as far into the future as you wish.

  • If you do not find your organization in our DIRECTORY, YOU can add it.

  • Fancy yourself a good writer with a family angle? Passionate about an experience, idea, new insight you gained over the recent weeks? Our BLOG section welcomes YOUR STORIES -poignant, humorous, serious, how to ..... info@santacruzparent.com

If you appreciate our newsletter, please tell all friends about us! Send them this link to sign up: https://tinyurl.com/w9btgxd. They will thank you! We thank you!

We are hoping there will be a CAMP summer! You too?!

Have a creative backyard weekend with your family, Parmalee

Thank you Nature Explorers Camp - Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History for the image on our homepage.
How to Go From Watching Birds to Drawing Them

Sketching while outdoors or even at home will broaden your birding skill set and add a whole new dimension to the hobby.

These creeping summer days are an invitation to observe birds at a slower pace. They stay active later in the day and tend to circle back to their small nesting patches, delighting birders with frequent sightings. Instead of choosing the usual view through your binoculars or scope, however, perhaps it’s time to settle into a chair for some field sketching.

If you’ve never tried your hand at drawing a live bird before, it’s tough to know where to begin. continue>>>
Free Harry Potter Reading and Activities

Free Harry Potter Reading and activities are here!

Pottermore Publishing and Overdrive partnered to make ebook and audiobook versions of the first book in the Harry Potter series available at no cost in our digital collection for unlimited, simultaneous access. This is part of the #HarryPotterAtHome program running April 1-30 to bring magic to our readers of all ages during these uncertain times.
All available versions of the title* (including both the ebook and audiobook in multiple world languages) have been added to our collection as Simultaneous Use.
She likes good writing and fantasy/adventure books.
Any suggestions?
 Local Moms to the Rescue!

  • Has she read any of the I Survived series? Not fantasy but good adventure.
  • The Percy Jackson series is incredible. My cousins and I were obsessed with this series.
  • At 10 My daughter was obsessed with Percy Jackson and Harry Potter.
  • Dragonriders of Pern
  • Book series my 11 year has read recently: The Giver (B-), Hunger Games (A Horizon, (B)The Golden Compass (for him C-, but lots of people love this one), The Edge Chronicles (A). He is reading Life of Pi right now, but describes it as a “slog.” He also read book 1 of The Magicians (A)
  • Percy Jackson and Rick Riordan
  • Is she advanced enough for the Hobbit yet?
  • KEEPER OF THE LOST CITIES!! It’s a series of eight 700+page books. My 10 yr old LOVED them when she read the paperbacks and now the whole family is addicted to the audio books!
  • I LOVED everything Madeleine L’Engle at around that age. Start with A Wrinkle in Time.
  • Young Wizard series - Start with So You Want To Be A Wizard. Tiffany Aching books in the Discworld series. Start with the Wee Free Men.
  • The Fablehaven and the Dragonwatch series by Brandon Mull are both fantastic!
  • The Rangers Apprentice series is great. Anything by Rick Riordan is wonderful. The Narnia collection is amazing. I loved the Eragon series too.
  • Ender’s Game
  • The Enchanted Forest Chronicles: (boxed set)
  • My son has been devouring Keeper of the Lost City.
  • My 10 yo loved Frogkisser by Garth Nix, so we got the series Keys to the Kingdom by the same author. She’s on book one and was excited because it opens with everyone in quarantine from a strange new illness and the main character has severe asthma. Very au courant!
  • The Chronicles of Prydain
  • Land of Stories series, also The Wizard of Once series. Both hit the fantasy/adventure note.
  • The Unicorn Chronicles by Bruce Coville. They were my favorite.
  • I liked the Anne McCaffrey books a lot at that age, Dragonriders of Pern - don’t remember if it would travel well through time! My nephew liked Percy Jackson a lot.
  • I loved books by Tamora Pierce at her age!!
  • Wise Child
  • My 8yo and 10yo love The Sister Grimm series. There are 9 books I think, so plenty of reading time.
  • Lemony Snicket: A series of unfortunate events.
  • Chronicles of Narnia, Little House on the Prairie, Anne of Green Gables
Easter Services may look a little different this year but that isn't going to stop Twin Lakes Church from giving us an inspiring Easter message!
Gale Wysong of the Tutu School Scotts Valley offers "streaming classes" for the little ones. Register for a trial class and she will contact you!
Virtual Line Dancing for Beginners
Every Wednesday! 9:30 - 10:30 am
Join us on Zoom



Line dancing isn't just country western! Jazz, waltz and contemporary music are just some of the genres you will kick up your heels to in this ongoing class. No partner needed! Taught by Helen Waller.