Wednesday, June 16, 2010

15 Cheap Summer Activities to Do With Kids

by Janis Brett Elspas

Outside or Indoors, this list of free and inexpensive, easy-to-do activities will keep your kids busy all summer long, till school starts again in the fall.  Pictured at left is Mini Mommy Blogexpert, my daughter (now a teen) who started backyard gardening when she was just three years old.

Outdoor Activities
1. Have a backyard sailboat race.  Just fill a plastic kiddy pool, make homemade boats, and see which one is the fastest.
2. Have a nature scavenger hunt. Give kids a list of things found in nature and have them look in the yard for those items.
3. Have a seed-spitting contest. Who doesn’t love to eat a nice, cold watermelon and see how far you can spit the seeds?
4. Catch fireflies.  If you’re lucky enough to live in an area that has fireflies, make a firefly-catching jar by poking holes in the top of a pickle or mayonnaise jar. Just make sure you let them go.
5. Let your kids start a collection.  Just make sure it involves something cheap, like rocks they find. Or even better, use the digital camera to “collect” items they see but don’t want to hurt, like flowers.

Indoor Boredom Busters
6. Make paper airplanes.  Download templates from the Internet, use them as a starting point, and see just how far yours can fly.
7. Have a sleepover party.  Who needs overnight camp when you can have “sleepover camp” for your kids’ friends?
8. Play indoor volleyball.  Make sure it’s okay with Mom, and then use a beach ball to play, with the couch as the “net.”
9. Build a fort out of cardboard boxes.  Cardboard boxes are the best toys!  Decorate your fort with markers and glue, letting your imagination run wild.
10.Turn your kitchen into a restaurant.  Make the menus and let the kids be “waiters,” then they can take turns being the waiter and the customer.

What is your child's favorite summer fun activity. Please leave a comment below this post and share their ideas with other families.

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1 comment:

  1. There are a lot of ways to spend time with your kids. I really like the activities that you mentioned above.

    My daughter is the outgoing type. So, parks are ideal venues for a lot of summer activities for her. Se usually goes biking with relatives and friends during that time.

    I'll probably recommend the other activities to her. Thanks!

    ReplyDelete