Summer, those glorious sunlit days where you sit in a glider on the porch drinking an ice cold glass of lemonade as the tinkling laughter of your children gently floats back to you while they chase butterflies across the perfectly manicured lawn.
Yeah. Right. Me neither.
We don’t even get OUT of school for another day, and the kids are already complaining they are bored. And bickering. Ohhh, the bickering is driving me nuts.
So I know as a mother myself the necessity of having a full slate of inexpensive (or better free) options for keeping the kiddos occupied.
Let’s start with the basics.
Why not ask your kids what they would like to do this summer? Their ideas might surprise you! List out all the ideas from the big to the small. “Have a water gun fight” is just as valid as “go to the science museum”. Amy over at Mom Advice puts her summer idea list on a piece of poster board-the kids decorate it and then it’s put up in the kitchen. Another great way to do it is to write all the ideas on slips of paper and place them in a summer fun jar. Kids complain of being bored? Pull out a slip & tell them to go!
Head to the backyard! I am a huge fan of unscheduled time for the kids. So of course my first line of defense when it comes to entertaining children is to send them outside where they can create some fun for themselves. Here are some ideas to get you started:
Water Fun-set them lose with a hose, buckets, squirtguns, wading pool, sprinkler, slip & slide (either store bought or homemade), even paintbrushes! There is lots of fun to be had with kids and water-let them go for it.
Variation to Water Fun-Get some work out of those kids! Dress them in their bathing suits, give them hoses, buckets and sponges and let them wash stuff. Wash the patio furniture. Wash the plastic riding toys. Wash their bikes. Wash each other. Washing the cat is probably a bad idea. . .
Bubbles-Kids love bubbles. Give small children some bubble solution and a wand and they are happy. Even bigger kids can get engaged in some interesting bubble making. . . There is a gentleman from our town who is (believe it or not) a renowned bubble performer. He does some amazing tricks (check out this video-The Dawn of Undiluted Joy. . . the really awesome tricks are about half way through). Even a disinterested pre teen might be tempted to try some! He has a book called Bubbleology-I’m sure there are others.
Tents-Have a camping tent you aren’t using? Set it up in the yard as a special playhouse for the kids. You could find an old sheet (I bought one at a yard sale) and let the kids build a fort with it using the patio furniture. Or you could sew some loops on one side of the sheet (sized to fit over your fence posts) and weights on the other side and you have a quick and easy homemade fence tent!
Fairy Houses-There is a lovely little book called “Fairy Houses” by Tracy Kane. It’s the story of a young girl who summers off the coast of Maine on an island where the locals make fairy houses. Get the story (or the DVD-but reading together is good frugal fun too!) out of the library and after reading it try building your own fairy houses.
Camp Out-This can be real or pretend, in your own backyard for an afternoon or overnight at your local state park! Kids of all ages (even those grump teenagers) love camping out. . .
Variation on Camping Out-Even if you don’t spend the night out, what about having a camping style evening? Burgers on the grill, a small fire in a firepit for roasting marshmallows. Cheesey camp songs and really terrible ghost stories. Turning off all the lights and looking up at the stars. . .
Old Fashioned Summer Fun-Have your kids ride their bikes. Rollerskate. Fly a kite. Play hopscotch. Jacks. Marbles.* Climb Trees. Play tag. Eat really awful unnaturally blue popsicles and get all sticky. You get the idea!
Tune in next week for Frugal Summer Fun for Kids Part II, Taking it inside.
And for more great summer fun ideas, listen to this weeks episode of Frugal Coast2Coast, which is all about summer fun (and has special call in guest Marla, aka The Flylady-yes, that Flylady-the book author!)
*Rules for classic games like Jacks, Marbles, Hopscotch etc can be easily found online.
Photos by Tomverhoeve, Hakan Dahlstroms, Whateverthing, Canton Public Library (MI) and Harshad Sharma
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Great ideas. 1 of the best ideas we do at our house for vacations & the summer is have each kid take a day & plan it. I never hear the words I am bored from either child on that day. I think it is because they are in charge. It never has to be anything big or expensive but they make the plans. Sometimes it is just what to make for breakfast 7 then a trip to the dog park with our dog for my son. My daughter loves to save her gift cards & make it a day of shopping. Or we take the camera out & shoot pics around town of them posing. They love to do this. (We also have the donated animal statues that get auctioned off so they love to take pics of these when they come out.)
I am also not above swapping days with another mom. She takes all of the kids for 2-3 1 day & then I take them 2-3 hours another day. Everybody is happy then.
Fun ideas.
No kids here, but I remember my own childhood summers, which were long thanks to the neigbor kids all leaving for summer camps in Canada! Some things we did:
– Go to the library; with air conditioning available and all the books you can read, it’s a haven for stuff to do. Looking back as an adult, I’m so glad to have been taught how to enjoy reading. So many of my peers just don’t, and I think that’s just too bad. Many libraries also have summer activities especially for kids–check website or ask at the info desk.
– City parks department. Local mommies have let me in on a little known secret. The city’s park department has a FANTASTIC summer program in my town. They just don’t advertise–you have to call and ask. Many include FREE LUNCHES.
– Local municipal pool. Don’t have a swimmin hole of your own? A summer membership (usually pretty inexpensive) to your city’s pool might be just the thing to keep the kids occupied. Some even offer free swimming lessons.
– Quiet time at home–we loved finding rocks and painting them. Some had to be washed first–anything from poster paints to markers to acrylics work great.
– Grow Your Own. What better way to occupy a little one than with simple garden activities–growing beans, nurturing a pumpkin plant or a big patio pot of cherry tomatoes? Hollyhocks are also fun to watch grow up tall, too.
– The Dinosaur Mud Pit. Next to my parents’ place there was this one spot that, after a hard rain, turned into a mud pit. We’d haul out my brother’s toy dinosaurs and make an awesome pre-historic scene–getting filthy in the process, of course. But what great opportunity to hose off?
There are lots of free summer festivals that are great for kids and adults alike. In my area (Baltimore, Maryland), we have Artscape in July (www.artscape.org). There’s a big art park that is devoted to families and has all kinds of free art activities for kids. There’s all kinds of things for kids to get their hands on and play with. They can test out all kinds of musical instruments at the instument petting zoo, create their own take-home art projects, and see lots of family-centric performances. There’s great things for adults too and if you have older kids, it’s an excellent way to expose them to the arts in all of their forms. You can see dance, theatre, opera, visual arts exhibitions, and musical performances as well as street theatre and the ever-popular art car parade.
Bring a picnic lunch to avoid the expensive festival food concessions and everything else (unless you are purchasing art) is free.
Awww, Jenn, this post made me smile. Sadly, my kids are pretty much passed most of these ideas, but many they enjoyed when they were younger.
A neighborhood lemonade stand is still one of my favorite activities…I wish I was young enough to still man one ;).
Oh I need this right now! My kids have been out of school for almost four weeks now! I here “I am bored!” all the time. I have to kick my son out the door so he will go play! I will use some of these ideas!
Marbles, wow! I haven’t thought of those in years. My son adores playing the old games his mama played when she was a kid. I’ll have to grab some at the store next time I’m out. I bet he’ll love it!
🙂