Summertime can be tough and expensive for parents, so finding kids’ activities that are cheap or free is a good way to keep your kids busy and yourself sane. Below are some suggestions for helping kids to stay busy and entertained.
- Visit your local library at least once a week. Get your child his own library card, and challenge him to read as many books as possible. Get other family members involved by having them pledge a dollar amount per book read. Libraries also offer summer reading programs and fun activities. It is fun and they get to increase their love for reading.
- Visit local parks and recreation departments which run day camps. These are often much cheaper than private summer camps. Local parks may even host cheap or free summer events that the whole family can enjoy!
- Plant a garden. This is a great skill-building activity. If you have room, let your kids plant fruit trees, vegetables or flowers. For smaller spaces or apartments, many of these can even be grown in containers! Let them get involved in choosing the plant and let them be responsible for weeding, watering and other maintenance.
- Create a summer memory board from pictures and things kids love to collect. Get a large cork board and let them add all those memories into it.
- Arrange a play date with cousins, neighbors and friends.
- Watch educational movies on Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, etc.
- Have a family cook-off. Bake cookies and other desserts, pizza or even homemade ice cream together at home. This gets kids interested in cooking and they’ll learn a lot about how foods come together into meals!
- Go for family walks after dinner.
- Search for free admission days to the local museum, art gallery or zoo.
- Challenge kids to come up with their own ideas for staying busy. Give them a chalkboard, dry erase board, or a sheet of paper to write down as many ideas as she can think of. Then she can pick from these ideas each day
