Inexpensive Summer Kids
Activities
By Kathy Wilson
Every parent, whether they work at home or outside the home,
needs inexpensive summer kids activities to keep the little ones busy. These
days, saving money when vacations and camps are not in the budget can be a
challenge. Here are some great summer kids activities to keep your munchkins
occupied, that are low cost or even free!
Plan a bike ride where the kids map out the route you are going to take, plan
and pack a picnic lunch and do maintenance on their bikes before the ride. Great
fun and teaches them responsibility and planning skills.
Create an obstacle course in the backyard. Use everyday items such as chairs,
lumber for balance beams, sprinklers to jump over, or chalk to draw courses on
pavement or sidewalks. Older kids can take turns designing new obstacle courses.
Invite the neighborhood kids!
Take a group of kids to a park or playground, and play water war! Provide
inexpensive paint buckets full of water for each team, and each child an
inexpensive squirt gun. Team members can only fill at their assigned water
bucket. This is great if you have a park with lots of trees or obstacles to hide
behind. Make sure you bring towels!
Have "Summer Christmas". Have the kids plan a modified holiday meal, and have
each one make a present for another member of the family. This can be done by
drawing names to keep things fair. The rule is that the present must be
completely hand made with things around the house. Have them share the presents
at the holiday meal. Better yet, have the holiday meal on a blanket outdoors!
Give the kids some cardboard and some markers and have them create their own
board game. Get them started by talking about common board games they are
already familiar with and help them come up with a theme and a final objective.
Once they perfect the game, they can make a more permanent version with paint
and plywood. Who knows, it might become a family tradition that lasts for years!
Pick up a bucket of sidewalk chalk and let the kids design a whole city on the
driveway. They can include everything from the town park to the gas station, and
draw streets to follow through the town.
Have a movie marathon for those days when its too hot to be outdoors. Let every
child pick a fav movie, set up the living room with plenty of pillows, and make
sure there are lots of snacks! Make a big deal about setting up an
"Intermission" table with pretzels and dip, popcorn etc…and make sure to call an
extra special intermission session for ice cream!
Inexpensive summer kids activities are not only easy on the budget, but inspire
kids to get away from the video games and make some memories. With a little
guidance from Mom or Dad, summer fun doesn't have to cost a fortune, and its
time we all remember what summer is for!
For free ideas for women learning to make money on the internet, visit Kathy at
http://www.women-on-the-net.com
. Also visit her at
www.TheBudgetDecorator.com.