Frugal Summer Fun for Kids Part II

Ah summer! There are so many fantastic things for kids can do in the summer.  As I talked about in in Frugal Summer Fun for Kids Part I the backyard can be a wonderful place full of inexpensive fun. . . .

Until it rains and you all are stuck inside for a week.

Or like my sister you live in the south where the weather is over 100 for days on end.

Sometimes you need some exciting activities that take you out of the house, but into the air conditioning!

Read a Book! Take kids of all ages to the library and check out some new books, videos or games.  See what kind of summer reading programs your state offers-just google “summer reading program (state)” and you’ll pull up plenty of information. The one here in NY is always themed for the whole state.  Most of these programs reward children & teens with a prize for books read.  Libraries aren’t the only source of reading programs. Barnes and Noble and Scholastic also have programs.

Watch a Movie.  Of course you can grab a DVD for free from your local library, rent a recent release from your local Redbox or subscribe to Netflix. . . but why not get out of the house, make it an event and enjoy some free air conditioning.  Most cities have a discount or dollar theatre that you could enjoy-but even better are the various FREE movies that are being offered to kids around the country.  Regal Cinemas and AMC Theatres both offer a free summer “movie camp” in select cities (see if they include yours!) and Cinemark offers a “10 Movies for $5″ deal.

Learn Something New. There are lots of national retail establishments that offer free classes for kids during the summer.  Bass Pro Shops are offering a full range of free seminars and classes  in their “Bass Pro Family Summer Camp“.  Apple is offering free apple computer classes this summer (wish I was young enough to take those!).  Micheal’s craft store has “The Knack”-a website designed for family craft fun that also lists their in-store free family events.  Check out your local library, community college or state park for free classes and activities that may be offered. Our library has craft classes for teens & tweens and basic computer classes for all ages. BCC (Broome Community College) offers a full slate of summer continuing education classes such as photography, herbs, gardening, photoshop & yoga. These classes aren’t free, but are reasonably priced and may be just the thing for a bored teen.

Hit the Lanes. Have you heard of the “Kids Bowl Free” program? This was a new one to me. . . You register on the site and kids can bowl 2 free games every day, all summer!  Adults can register and pay a one time fee for an all summer pass so they can play with the kids if they like.  I’m actually really disappointed that there are no bowling alleys near me offering this program.

Go to the Museum. There are many free and inexpensive museums out there.  I may live in a very small town, but within a 30 min drive we have a model train museum, an antique car museum, several art gallery/museums and a science museum.  Most of these have either nominal charges or are free to the public.  Target is sponsoring some free museum days nationally, as does Bank of America (must be a customer)-check and see if there are any in your area! Additionally in more metro areas museums may have free days, either monthly or annually. Do a google search for free museum and your town/city to see what pops up!

Next time (next week) I’ll share with you some fun indoor activities that you can do at home.  You can also read all about my fun outdoor ideas in Frugal Summer Fun for Kids Part I, or listen to all the fun summer ideas that Lynnae and I came up with on our Frugal Coast2Coast show about Summer Fun

Do you guys have any other great inexpensive fun ideas that will take you out of the house in the summer?

Birthday Fun and Games

This is it, the last installment of the Birthday Chronicles I’m sure some of you are sick of hearing about Princess’s party by now.

Seeing as this party was for 3-5 year olds, I didn’t feel the need for complex party games. I’ve been to parties that had very structured games for children this age, and it always felt like they were trying to force them to have fun. Even at a party for older kids, you probably only need one or two organized activities-otherwise you spend too much time trying to force them to move on to the next thing. So in the interest of letting kids be kids and just play-here is what we did.

#1 a decorating station for the party favor bags. Each child got a brown paper lunchbag and a pack of crayons (bought in a 4pk at the dollar store). There was one communal bag of foam sticker backed shapes and a couple of rolls of stickers (total cost $3 at, you guessed it, the dollar store) Each child got creative when they felt like it. Most of the kids really got into this one (and a few of the parents) It really kept them occupied for a while-they particuarly liked the foam stickers from the dollar store. The bag was used to keep the crayons in and to put their booty from the pinata. A couple of the kids weren’t interested in decorating, so I just wrote their name on the bag.

#2 Pinata. Hey, it’s a decoration! It’s a game! It’s a party favor! What more could you ask for? (quick tip-dh took his pocket knife and cut a long slit in one side to make it easier for the kids to break. We decided not to use a blindfold. Even so each kid got at least 2 turns to hit at it [3 whacks each] before someone finally broke it!)

#3 Making Macaroni Necklaces-I died $1.50 worth of pasta from the dollar store, cut legnths of yarn from my stash, tied a knot in one end and stabilized the other with tape. Tada-kiddo craft. Not all of them did it, but that was fine to.

#4 Balloons. Not helium, plain old regular balloons blown up (hey, all this hot air has to be good for something). They threw them, they batted them, one kid stomped on hers. . . . fun was had by all.

Other than that they got to use the indoor slide (since the party was held at the preschool), Princess opened presents, they ate cake and icecream, and they played that universal childhood game “run around chasing each other while screaming”. It was a blast!

Just Hit It

The Piñata that is! There is just something so festive about having a piñata at a birthday party-it looks fun! And the kids just love letting out some pent up aggression by beating the heck out of it

Making a piñata is actually very easy, if not particularly neat. You need:

Newspaper
Flour and water paste
Balloon
Paint/streamers

Blow your balloon up to the size you want for your piñata.

Cut newspaper into strips, approx 1” by 1 ½ or 2 feet.

Mix up flour and water paste in a large bowl. It should be thick and goopy, about like cake batter.

Cover your work surface with extra newspaper or a plastic tablecloth.

Set the balloon in a bowl to keep it steady (believe me, you don’t want a slippery slimy balloon rolling all over your table.

Dip each strip of newspaper into the paste. The strip needs to be completely covered with glue. Then I like to sort of squeegee it off with my fingers so the paper is wet and slimy but not dripping.

Smooth the paper onto the balloon. Repeat, changing directions and crisscrossing. Make sure you leave a small opening somewhere to pop the balloon through and pull the pieces out later.

When the balloon is completely covered with about 2 layers of paper, place it in an out of the way area to dry. Don’t make the layers too thick or noone will be able to break the piñata! You can either leave it to dry either balanced on the bowl, or hang it up by the knot of the balloon from the ceiling. If you use the bowl method you will probably have to flip it over part way through so the bottom can dry as well. (I put mine to dry at about 3pm, and it was dry by the next morning)

Pop the balloon and pull out the pieces.

Take a knife or some scissors and cut a flap out of the piñata to put the candy inside. You also need to make a small hole at the top and rig a string to hang the piñata from. I tied one end of my string (which was 3 strands of yarn braided) to a Popsicle stick, then put the stick inside the piñata and threaded the string out through the hole in the top. I then took 2 small pieces of duct tape and taped the Popsicle stick in place inside so it wouldn’t slip around.

Fill with your goodies. Once filled, tape the flap shut.

Now comes the fun part-decorating! Usually I would paint the entire surface a solid color, but of course I was out of paint (and I didn’t want to run into town or wait). I decided to make layers of fringed crepe streamers on mine. First I cut short strips of pink streamers and completely covered the bottom by crisscrossing them, then I started winding the fringed streamer over the piñata horizontally, overlapping as I went. Lastly I made a “dangle” of a picture of the powerpuff girls and hung it from the bottom.

It may not look totally professional, but it is cute, and Princess is thrilled with it. I quote “Mama, that is the most beauty piñata EVER”. You can easily adapt it to any theme by the way colors you paint it, and you can further customize it by decopaging images onto it or hanging “dangles”. Just try not to do anything that will make it even harder to break it open, especially if it is for young kids.

You can fill a piñata with whatever you want. I spent $7 at the dollar store and bought:

1 pkg of Smarties
1 pkg of strawberry candies
2 8pks of “candy watches and bracelets”
2 5pks of childrens toothbrushes with covers
1 8pk of plastic whistles

These items will be the kids “favors”.

Making the pinata itself didn’t cost me anything. Even the balloon was left over from something else. The streamers were part of what I planned to use for decorating anyway-so I count that cost under the cost of decorating, not of the pinata.