Our little one is still too small but there is a new play area in Plymouth Meeting Mall that looks fun.

We put on the sunscreen & head to the pool! Rose Tree Woods Swim Club kept us cool! We all have friends there and enjoyed the cool water, slide, diving boards & games in the shade!

Library is a good place to be too; lot of books to read, computers for checking e-mail and facebook, reading summer program and lot of children activities.

Go jump in a creek. Water is cool, creek typically shaded, you can splash in the shallows, boogie board the "rapids" or walk up the creek "trail." Our faves include Ridley Creek State Park and Chester Creek at the Darlington Trail in Middletown Township. Endless hours of chasing tadpoles and trying to catch minnows.

Exton Mall has an indoor playground, Chuckie Cheese will serve dinner and entertain the whole family and play dates in air conditioned houses are the things that keep my kids happy and cool. But we do spend a lot of time outside so we have fun water bottles and squirt bottles with fans that we keep in arms reach.

The Please Touch Museum is fun for the little ones and bigger kids too. Second the Library vote!- we forget in the age of Kindles how much fun it is to choose a real book off a library shelf. Pools with lots of sunscreen and shade....nature -creeks, etc. are fun but we are having a HUGE number of the tiny Lyme ticks this year so PLEASE check your kids super well- as in comb thru their hair every night. I had 3 ticks yesterday after a 10 min walk on a path that was NOT all that wooded or "nature-y"...

Daisy Laundromat at Media Line Rd. & WC Pike is air conditioned and has flat screen TV. Stay cool, watch TV and get the week's laundry done all at once in less time. Drop off your shore laundry and pick it up ready to put in drawers or back on the beds before you head back down!

Bowling, Regal $1 movies, pottery place, Design Grove, Arnold's or BounceU, Philly museums, go to craft store and pick out a new craft, family puzzle, family board game tournament...

A lot (but not all) of these suggestions have to do with air conditioned houses and swimming pools. That addresses a minority of our population. What about the rest?

With no a/c, I find frequent short showers on dog days are a big help. I've also been known to sit under a lawn sprinkler.

Staying down the cellar

Basement fun, movies, sprinklers, creek, ice pops, shady walks, board games on the porth, car washing, lemonade stand, summer job, we're all things we did as kids to stay cool. The list of things my parents did not allow was short; being inside watching tv.

Water balloon fights!