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Hi! I am looking for some activities for my 5 kids to enjoy with a very limited budget. The ages are 7,4,3 and 15 month old twins! I am not a creatived person so would love to hear some ideas. Summer is coming and I do not want them stuck inside or nothing to do outside. Thanks!!
Go swimming, go fishing (these would require another adult for safety with the toddlers, I'd think), paint pictures, paint large rocks (my kids love this), paint the windows (use tempera or acrylic paint; it will wash right off, but don't get acrylic paint on the windowsills!) go for a walk, go to the park, go bike/trike riding, visit a zoo (some have cheap or free days during the week?), draw with sidewalk chalk, have a picnic, color with sidewalk chalk, make a fort in the living room, go to the library (actually, many libraries have day passes to museums and zoos available to borrow), sit down somewhere and just order ice cream with water to drink, go fruit-picking (whatever is in season where you are), start a garden, fly kites, see if any of the area movie-theaters have free movies for kids and parents in the summer.....
I'm sure you'll get tons of good ideas... I look forward to reading them, because sometimes we get into a rut too!
Below is a website I would recommend for Pre-K and K activities. These are learning activities and I am not sure if they are exactly the kind of activities that you are looking for, but I think the website is worth a look. There are complete instructions and printables for most activities. Seeing these might also give you ideas of your own. Since these are aimed at Pre-K and K, they will be too simplistic for the 7 year old, but I would still take a look at them. Either you can think of a way to make them more challenging for the 7 year old or perhaps the 7 year old might like to help you direct these activities for the younger siblings?
Hi! I am looking for some activities for my 5 kids to enjoy with a very limited budget. The ages are 7,4,3 and 15 month old twins! I am not a creatived person so would love to hear some ideas. Summer is coming and I do not want them stuck inside or nothing to do outside. Thanks!!
good question. I am not that creative either so im eager to see the responses you get.
Look around for the different playgrounds in your area Pack a lunch.
Where we live, the Regal Crown theaters do free movies once a week in the summer.
Make your own bubble solution so you don't have to buy a ton of it, and let them go crazy with bubbles.
Do you have a yard where you could put in a slip and slide? How about sprinklers? Baby wading pool?
I like the garden idea. You can even just get each kid a big rubbermaid container to fill with potting mix and let them grow something. If you do this, be sure to drill holes for drainage.
Where we used to live, the local Y sold summer family passes to the pools. We would pack lunch and spend most of the day there. We had a year round family membership, but a summer pass, while a large initial outlay, would prevent your needing to spend money day after day for other activities. It is great how long a well-designed pool can keep kids busy.
Did I forget to mention that we lived about 30 miles from a lager city with zoos and museums? We live in a small town with not a lot to offer. So far I have not even found a city park here yet. They have a state park at the lake but they have no swimming in the lake! It is crazy in this one horse town!!!!
We live in about the same situation. Can you plan one trip per week to the city? One trip per week to the state park? and the rest of the days at home.
What I do with my kids that costs no money is the following.
Take them to a local playground/park
Blow Bubbles
Play with Chalk outside
Swim in the pool (if you have one) Or buy a tiny baby pool to have fun in
Collect nature objects and make a collage (acorns, leaves, pine cones etc)
Go to the local pet store to look at the animals
Play "Mommy says" just like simon says haha
Red light, Green light is always fun (even more so with 5 kids i bet)
Ride bikes or ride in our wagon
Do art projects with anything we can find (straws, grass, macaroni)
Play-doh
My kids love to "wash pennies" with soapy water and an old toothbrush, keeps them busy.
Play charades while using costumes.
Make puppets for a puppet show
Eat lunch outdoors on a blanket like a mini picnic
Look for bugs outside and see how many you can find
Do a treasure hunt. Hide small things outside or inside (like an easter egg hunt)
Give them a bunch of shovels and buckets and sit them in the sandbox.
Make cookies or any other baked good together.
Go to the local library, most even have story times and computers with kids games.
Take them outdoors for "listening adventures". Ask them to listen and identify all the sounds they can hear. Try to take them to places where there is wildlife, so they hear birds and frogs and insects, and not just urban sounds. Use the internet to try to learn to identify the birds and frogs they hear.
Here is a site where you can listen to individual bird songs:
If you have a big enough yard you could put in a sand box and get them some buckets and toys to play in the sandbox. If your yard isn't that big you could still make a small sandbox table on legs and find some good white sand to put in it. Or get a load of clean dirt and have it dumped in your backyard and let them have fun with their cars and trucks.
Another thing is finger painting which is something that can be done outdoors. Or do splatter painting. You could use toothbrushes and thinned down acrylic paint or watercolors. Or if you are really up to it they could do balloon painting. Thin down acrylic paint and put into water balloons and let them thow them at paper. I would put the paper on a large cardboard box in the middle of the yard. (be sure weight down the box so it doesn't move around.)
Make your own stained glass. Take some small broken pieces of crayons or crayon shavings and put them between two sheets of wax paper. I put some newspapers down first then a white sheet of typing paper then a piece of waxed paper then crayon pieces/shavings and then the other sheet of wax paper and then finally another sheet or two of typing paper and then use a hot iron to iron it and melt the crayons between the waxed paper. Then you can take their new stained glass creations and frame it between some construction paper.
Make collage placemats. Have them cut out pictures from old cards, magazines or whatever else you don't care if they cut up then clue them on either some construction paper or poster board, be sure to use glue sticks. They can do front and back. Then after they have finished get some clear contact paper and sandwhich their place mats inbetween leaving a 1/4- 1/2 inch of contact paper all around the edges. They could even make their own paintings and do the same thing with the contact paper.
Buy some inexpensive ceramic nick nacks and let them paint them.
Do some paper mache, just buy some balloons and tear up some newspapers and mix up some flour and water and let them go to town. Just be sure to do thinner layers and let them dry in between. Then they can decorate them.
Press flowers. Just have them find some pretty flowers, put them between some waxed paper and some paper towels and either put them between the pages of a heavy books or put them between some heavy books, then after they have been pressed and are dry put them in a scrap book or decorate cards and such with them.
Find some large boxes, like appliance boxes. If you have an appliance store in your town you could ask them to save them for you. Then let them build a fort with them or a puppet theater.
Last edited by wyoquilter; 03-23-2009 at 07:58 PM..
Reason: some serious typing errors
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