How to Have Fun With Your Kids on a Budget

Steps

1. Show your kids a skyscraper, a train trestle, a breakwater, a barbed wire fence, a cyclone fence, an old fashioned picket fence, concrete and asphalt surfaces. Anything, whether is is manmade or of nature, can be entertaining.
2. Walk along a creek or trail path and point out the different kinds of trees and weeds. Dandelions are a delight for small kids. Get a book about plants at the library.
3. Take them to the airport and let them watch planes take off and land. Or find a pilot that will let them sit in the cockpit. Small airports are best for that.
4. Tell them to look for things with 2 numbers in the price while at the store on the veggie mission. That way you teach them about the value of things and avoid high priced goodies.
5. Take them to the zoo or a wild animal park - it's always a hit. Watch for discount days.
6. Go to a model train display during the holidays. Any animated holiday display is always fun to see.
7. Take a trip into a local plant nursery for a purchase of an inexpensive plant they can help plant and water. They can learn about helping things grow.
8. Rent a small paddleboat or sailboat on a local lake.
9. Have a backyard picnic, complete with a blanket and lots of great finger food like PB and J?s and homemade lemonade made with fresh lemons. The older kids can help squeeze the lemons or use a citrus juicer. It doesn?t have to come out of a can!
10. Pull toddlers up in their high chairs so they can watch you cook. Things like peeling potatoes and stirring things in a bowl can keep them interested (and out from underfoot) for at least 10 to 20 minutes. Let them bang wooden spoons on plastic bowls.
11. Point out the difference between and underpass and overpass, an off ramp and on ramp. Read the freeway and street signs out loud to children learning to read.
12. Take a trip to the local animal shelter and show them the animals that need homes. Talk about why it's important to spay/neuter our pets.
13. Check out a farm/ranch supply store.
14. Watch soap bubbles make beautiful rainbows and it's fun to blow the bubbles.
15. Play dress up.
16. Chalk drawing on the sidewalk is fun and they can make their own hopscotch grid.
17. Draw stick figures in the dirt with real sticks.
18. Fly a kite.
19. Feed the ducks or pigeons at a park or local lake.
20. Play moon shadow tag. (You step on their shadow and then they step on yours. Great anytime of year when there's a full moon.)
21. Show your child how to make a smooth rock ?skip? across the water.
22. Build a rope swing with a big knot at the end and hang it from a sturdy tree then show them how to swing, single and double.
23. Visit a local rancher. Make a half hour appointment with a local rancher and let your kids ask him questions about what ranching life is like. Or go to a harbor master.
24. Take a walk or a bike ride and have your youngsters race each other to a distant point and back to you ( like a tree within sight). Or race with them.
25. Show kids a local dam and reservoir and explain why it?s important to keep them clean. Do the same for creeks, rivers and the sea.
26. Teach your kids to leave nothing but their footprints when leaving a park or camp-site. Pick up bits of paper and trash in the immediate area even if it?s not yours.
27. Demonstrate to them how to walk softly, especially up and down stairs. Practice.
28. Go to a pumpkin patch for your pumpkin and to a tree farm for your holiday tree. Pick apples at an orchard.
29. Find a place to place to pick wild blackberries or a farm where you can pick your own fruit and vegetables.
30. Build a fort in the house when it's raining, using bed sheets or blankets spread over the couch and chairs or where ever it works.
31. Finger paint. (Hint: do this outside.) Chocolate pudding makes a fine finger paint!
32. Run through sprinklers.
33. Take a trip to the local library and pick out books to read aloud at home.
34. Play hide and seek in the house or in the neighborhood ? it?s always fun at night.
35. Give your children swimming lessons. You can?t think of a better sport to save your life. Get in the water with them.
36. Volunteer with your children to help clean up the neighborhood, beaches and creeks.
37. Wash the car together on a warm day.
38. Play ?Simon Says?. Or play board games.
39. Jump rope.
40. Go roller skating, roller blading, sledding on a local hill or ice skating.
41. Go to a local baseball or football game. Choose high schools and junior colleges with teams made up from kids in your neighborhood.
42. Make up a story together. Take turns telling what happens in each scene. For more fun, use stuffed animals as the characters.
43. Sing and dance together. Almost any age appropriate music can be danced to, and kids will love seeing you get silly with them.
44. Introduce small children to the feel of things, i.e. a brick, a soft leaf or flower, a metal pole, the texture of a wall, fabrics, wood, the smoothness of glass, the bristles of a brush. Find things that are smooth and soft, hard and rough, and let them feel the differences.
45. Tell them something about your childhood. Show them what you looked like at their age.
46. Teach them literally and figuratively how to ?smell the flowers?.
47. Find the Big Dipper and the Little Dipper in the night sky. Find the North Star and Saturn.
48. Share a banana split at an old fashioned ice cream parlor.
49. Watch a sunrise and watch the sun set. Teach them where east and west are located in relationship to the sun.

1. Give everyone a job
2. Younger kids can mix cold dishes, salads and batters.
3. Older kids can help you prepare new cooked recipes and peel and slice vegetables.
4. Do activities involving sweets (like baking cookies) are always hits.
5. Let your child pick out a new fresh fruit or vegetable at the grocery store once a week. Preferably, it will be something they've never tried and you've never prepared.
6. Challenge Game: the children can find some new recipe for food you (the parent) don?t know how to prepare.
7. Let the kids research recipes at home to find something interesting. This may be something they can help with making or that they can prepare.