WHat are fun free things to do with your kids? I am in a lull of ideas during summer and money is tight.?

Question

I am a mother of 2 boys, 7 and 2, almost 3. We live in central NJ. Summer is not so busy and money is tight. Any ideas for free activities, crafts, your family favorites? Thanks!

Answer 1

Go to the park, play in the sprinklers/hose....

Go on a 'nature walk' through your neighborhood. Have the boys pick some nature (fallen leaves, flowers, stones, feathers- what ever they like and can carry themselves) then take it all home and have them glue it all to construction papaer- or a pieceof a cardboard box- something like that.

Make a big tent house in the living room, pop popcorn and pop in a movie- pretend you are at the movie theater.......

Also, many extra cirricular activities have a free trial (i.e. a free gym class to see if they like it- a free karate lesson, things like that) I would look into those and have the boys try a couple things. Its free, and you will expand their interests for when they have school activities or money's not so tight.

Another one of our family favorites is just taking walks together. Sometimes my son will ride his scooter or skate.

Answer 2

There are so many nice places to go hiking, have a picnic, or just walk around a park in NJ. I recommend looking up some nice places online. We drove through a few in the fall of last year and wish we could have stayed longer.

Answer 3

Do you have a yard? Pick a warm day and get some buckets or cups from home and have a water fight in the yard. Kids love that.

Answer 4

Check your local library, they have a reading program you can join for free and get prizes.  Then they also usually have free storytimes and ours has shows once a week with magician's etc.  Also you can get free DVD rentals too.  Some of the prizes from our library included coupons for free things like an ice cream or a buy one get one free coupon to an amusement park so that would be another outing.    

Maybe try joining a playgroup in your area, a group of other moms who have kids and they do activities like meeting at parks, or having each other over for playdates.

You can also try to see if there's a free kids movie program in your area.  We have about 5 Theaters in are area that do it.  Regal Theaters is one of them that are nationwide, not sure if you have one in your area, but you can do an online search.

If you have friends with kids maybe throw a get together potluck.  It could be a sundae making party or anything else.  Everyone could bring a topping and you just provide the ice cream while the kids all play and moms chat.  Maybe one of them will pick up the idea next time and have you over.  Other themes could be a book exchange or  a game day.

The parks and recreation in your city might have free events at the parks.

With your kids at the ages they are right now I know it's probably hard to keep them both entertained with the same thing, but you can have your 7 year old also play with your 2 year old games like hide and seek by hiding a stuffed toy and having him find it.  My boys used to love to do that and it would keep them busy for at least 30 minutes so I could do what I needed to do.  Even plastic eggs if you have any stored away.

Answer 5

Visit your local park.

Go to your library-it is air conditioned, they can participate in activities there (story time) and take home books to entertain them later.

Home Depot and Lowe's have free projects for children on Saturdays.  They even get an apron!

Some arts and crafts supply stores such as Michael's and A.C. Moore have similar free projects on Saturdays.

Go on a nature walk.  Spice it up and do it once during the day, then again at night and compare the differences.

Rent movies.  The library has them for free.

Visit your local animal shelter.  Ours lets families come in and play with the puppies so that they are well socialized when they find their new homes.

Get out old pictures or home movies and watch them.  My children are fascinated when we do this.

Let them have a yard sale to remove some of their unused clutter, and let them use the proceeds from it to purchase something-a hermit crab, perhaps?  They are inexpensive, relatively easy to care for and very interesting to watch (we have eight).  Another suggestion if you do not want a pet is a board game.  This will cost you nothing, and will get rid of some clutter.

Find free computer games for them to play-websites such as PBSKids.org, Nick.com and Disney.com have them.

What are they interested in?  Help them look it up.  It will teach them computer skills as well.  For instance, my eight year old son likes Monster Trucks so we recently looked up their tour schedule, profiles, etc.

Let them help you cook a meal or bake cookies.  

Have a picnic on the living room floor.

Let them create a fort in the dining room (sheet over the table) and camp out there for the night.

Here are some more ideas that are not free, but cost very little:

Purchase some seeds and let them plant and tend to them.  Pumpkins are a good idea this time of year!  

Purchase some bird seed.  Get a short, fat branch and roll it in peanut butter and then cover it in bird seed (the peanut butter will make it stick).  Hang it from a branch and they can watch the birds have a meal.

Purchase some non drip paint, and tape the paper to the underside of the coffee table.  Let them lay under the table and paint, Michaelangelo style.

I hope this helps, and I hope you and your boys have fun!

Answer 6

I have a 4 and 2 year old and vve have a little kid pool. I take them out svvimming in it and take them outside to play alot. Sometimes if theres not much to do vve'll pack some sandvvhiches and go dovvn to the park and eat lunch and then they play for alittle bit. If its raining or just too hot out i'll let them color or play vvith playdough inside.

Answer 7

Is there a free beach near where you live? We do that a LOT.

Pick up sticks and leaves and whatever outside and get some decoupage glue to make ``creations.``

Teach them how to bake cookies (if you have air conditioning) or make gelatin etc.

http://www.allfreecrafts.com/recycling-c...

This has a lot of ideas for crafts from things like pop bottles or outgrown denims you have around the house.