As you all know, I’m an MVP Generation Go Ambassador-and I’ve been talking each week about ideas to keep your family healthy and active! So far we’ve discussed Meal Planning, Kids and Youth Sports and active role models. This week the MVP Generation Go topic of the week is discovering your community!
While I know talking about community may seem a bit of a departure-it really does fit in with both frugal living and an active lifestyle! Even in the smallest community, there are many free and low cost opportunities to get out there and DO something. And every time you are out there doing something with your kids, they are NOT sitting in front of the TV, computer or video game proclaiming how bored they are 🙂
Let’s look at just a few of the opportunities that most communities out there have for frugal summer fun~I’m sure you can think of even more!
1. The Library
Most communities have a library-and if your town is to small to have one I’m willing to bet there is one just a community or two over. Libraries have tons of great free or low cost activities. Story hour for little kids, book clubs for teens and adults. Craft projects. Performances. Computer classes. And that’s just what my itty bitty town library offers!
2. Parks and Recreation Department
Parks. Swimming areas. Sports teams and clinics. Hiking and biking trails. Playgrounds. Nature walks. Parks and Rec usually has all of that and more! Our local department offers a free summer camp that is paid for by a big fall craft festival.
3. Places of Faith
In my area all of the local churches run free Vacation Bible School (VBS for short). I could send my kids to what amounts to a free evening bible “camp” with crafts, activities and snacks every night from 6-8 for the entire month of July if I hopped from the Congregationalist to the Baptists to the Methodists 🙂 I know in some parts of the country VBS run in the morning or have a fee-but it’s usually fairly nominal (and if you are financially strapped you could ask about scholarships). Don’t worry if you don’t attend church much-most places look at it as an opportunity to let kids who don’t attend church learn all about God. Of course I know all about those because I’m Christian. I’m sure that many other faith groups run similar summer programs-check into yours!
4. Volunteering
When thinking about activities to do in your community, don’t forget volunteering. Having kids help others is a great way to build character and appreciation while getting out there and doing something! Maybe it’s Habitat for Humanity building a house in your area, or a food pantry that needs help. Reading to kids. Visiting nursing homes and hospitals. Working at a soup kitchen. Take a look around-read those fliers on the bulletin board at the library, community center or grocery store and see what’s up in your community.
There you have it, a few ways to get out and get active in your community! Now, here’s your chance to share more ideas AND be entered in to win a $50 Visa Giftcard courtesy of Kids Fun Plaza! 🙂
This giveaway starts today, July 26th and ends at midnight EST on Sunday July 31th. Winners will be announced next Monday.
To enter, we would like to know where their favorite place to go with your family in your community.
For an additional entry you can:
Tweet your ideas about how to get out and get active using the #GenerationGo & #Community in the tweet (one entry).
Don’t forget to head on over to the MVP Generation Go Facebook page andgive them a “like”! You’ll see all the great posts by the other Ambassadors-and to see their gift card giveaways as well!
*****This is a sponsored post*****
DISCLOSURE: I am an MVP Generation Go ambassador. MVP Has provided me with compensation for this post. My participation is voluntary and my opinion is always my own. The $50 Gift Card for this giveaway was provided by Kids Fun Plaza.
Tami says
Our favorite place to take a break from the heat has to be our local library. Both of my kids are taking part in the reading clubs. Both also participated in a play for the toddlers in our area, playing an “evil stepsister” and “the Prince” in Cinderella. 🙂 I also volunteer with craft time.
Sadly our favorite librarian is retiring and we just learned today that the library hours will be drastically cut starting in Sept.
What a wonderful giveaway! We could put the $50. to good use with school right around the corner!
Lanie says
We love to go to state parks. It’s very inexpensive, and it’s fun for a whole day. We get there early to go on the hiking or biking trails. Then we’ll eat a picnic lunch, and finish the day with swimming. They also have playgrounds that my little girls love!
Cherie says
My kids’ favorite place is probably the community pool. It is free and they (and I) love to meet friends there. A good place to go that wasn’t mentioned above is berry picking. It is fairly cheap and you get fresh, yummy, local berries! The zoo, museum, and movie theater are also nice, but not everyone has one close.
Amyrlin says
We scored this year with free day camp from our public school, that is right our public school !(I was shocked!) It is for a couple of weeks but what a bargain when I considered some options. Checking out amenities you may not realize at the school district office for your area may yield some freebie programs.
Mami2jcn says
We like to go to our community pool.
Heather says
We are all about our library. And even though my kiddos are little and not reading themselves yet (don’t tell the almost 3 year old that he isn’t reading when he looks at books, he’d be crushed) we were able to do the summer reading program. We’ve got a couple days to get down and turn in our final sheets, but so far they’ve each gotten a free sub, a free pizza, a free pass to a indoor play area, a free ticket to a local splash pad, 3 free tickets to a local symphony concert and a few other buy one, get one free tickets for a baseball game, a basketball game, etc. This doesn’t even include the yard sign, the stuffed dog, the free book and the chance at some huge prizes that will be drawn next week. I was SHOCKED at how much was offered and how frugal it is for our family. We love our library anyway and go there at least weekly, but this was all just some serious frosting on an already great cake!
Heather
Dawniemom says
My favorite place for us to go as a family is the park. The kids have a ball on the playgrounds, and it’s a perfect setting for me to take pictures of them 🙂
Nancy says
We like our community’s health and fitness center with indoor pool!
Deanna says
We have a couple of places we like to go. We have a great park near our home with a walking rack, a pond for fishing, and a playground. We also like the park pool for those hot days!
Karina House says
It’s frugal and fun to just go out to ride bikes. We don’t live in a neighborhood, but we ride bikes in our large parking (we’re attached to a church) so it’s great exercise. I love that it requires no planning ahead – I can just decide it’s a good time and out we go!
Kathleen says
Nothing beats the park down the road from our house. There is lots and lots of sand, no two year old can resist the call of the sand park and a dump truck. Our favorite is going to the park with a “picmic” lunch and our sand toys.
Kimberly says
We have two fav places to go. Our local zoo. They can walk all day, then play in the “river” and “climb” the mountain to slide down the spiral slide before heading to the petting goats area.
The other place is our state parks which are free. The will spend all day at the park area and going for walks and looking for fish. No fishing there, but my 4 year old is biding her time. 🙂
Thank you for this wonderful give away.
Aaron says
The summer provides so many great options that our city puts on – from concerts to fireworks – to carnivals! Good times!
Jessie C. says
We love our library and local parks. great places to spend summer time with my family
Jessie C. says
tweet.http://twitter.com/tcarolinep/status/96675129655951360
Amanda Savarese says
One of my favorite places to go with my family is Wintergreen Park in Canajoharie! It’s a beautiful place to have a picnic, walk around and explore— not to mention is absolutely beautiful!
cwaltz says
The go to place this year was Michaels. They had a passport to fun program which highlighted crafts and different portions of the world(6 a week or 2 per country with 3 countries a week). Most crafts were free. Even the 3 that asked you to buy a flower pot, foam crown or can hug were around a dollar per craft. Additionally we built upon the craft program by using the information in the summer pamphlet on the different places to craft some math lessons. We made bar graphs and pie charts to compare populations like China, India, or the Bahamas.
Regal cinemas also offers $1 movies that can be a fun inexpensive treat.
Home Depot and Lowes have Saturday sessions that are free and cover 3 out of 4 of the weekends.