With a lengthy summer with the kids off school fast approaching, fear not, we have some bargain ideas to keep them occupied and having fun. Hope they help!
During summer there’s no excuse not to get outside, enjoy the weather and do some fun making and getting messy with the little ones. Try building a large-scale camp, for them to use to read colour and play inside, alone or with friends. For this they can use your outdoor furniture, sheets and blankets all of which you already have, so is cheap and easy, entertaining them for hours. Other options are tie dying t-shirts, which is great fun, but best kept outdoors as, from experience, the children get covered in dye. If your kids are too young for those why not try some finger and foot print painting. It’s lots of fun and also helps them develop their motor skills.
Baking/Cooking
This kind of activity doesn’t have to mean excessive stress and money wasted on specific ingredients. You can buy really cheap baking packs with everything you need inside or even teach the children to make a dish from leftovers. These activities not only teach them the value of money but also, cooking skills as well as properties and uses of different foods. This knowledge and understanding of food groups will help to inform their daily choices and enable them to live more healthily. When you go food shopping take the kids with them to add to this knowledge and see how much they have remembered, they will enjoy being included in family meal decisions.
Cheap Days Out
Finding coupons or discounts for days out can really break up the few months the kids are around and gives you all something to look forward to. Keep your eye out on the Internet on any frugal living websites that has special online codes that can often save you up to 80% off those, usually pricey, family days out. Maybe use the baking and cooking activities to put together a few snacks for the road trip to save even more money. If the kids expect to be able to get treats from the gift shop then why not use the garage sale, discussed next, to allow them to raise their own funds?
Garage Sale
Make use of the time with the kids around to help you clear some precious space within your home and get rid of some unused toys, clothes and DVD’s. Some of the items that aren’t saleable may still be recyclable so don’t get trash happy and start throwing everything away, instead feel good by doing your bit for the planet. By getting the kids to rationalize what they do and don’t wear or play with they learn about greed and how they can let other children enjoy their things, and what a nice feeling that is. Once they have a pile of items to get rid of, conduct a garage sale, which the children can make signs for. They will feel such a sense of achievement from making ‘their own’ money whilst enjoying the weather and chatting to the neighbors and making tons of space in your house. Overall, a very productive exercise!