Thrifty Thursday: How to Entertain the Kids the Thrifty Way

I don't know if you have been thinking the same thing as me this summer but we have to figure out how to keep my son entertained for no money through the whole summer.  I was trying to stay out of the heat because we are getting record breaking heat in the Northern VA area (and weird rain storms) but we still went to the park, playground and pools.  But now we are trying to adjust to what we can do during the school year and I am trying to figure out what fun things we should do to entertain as the weather starts to get colder.

If you want a few ideas, here is a list that I think sound great.  Click on the title of each for more details!!

1.  Read:  We did the summer reading programs this summer and we are going to continue to get lots of books out of the library and read the books that we have at home!  The challenge is to bring out new books at home and get him as interested in those as the books at the library.  He really likes to "shop" for books at the library so I am hoping to break that habit a little and start also reading a little at home (for both of us).

2.  Do Alphabet and Number Fishing:  Spell words or just get letters and say the letter sounds is great for all ages to work on patience and eye hand coordination.

3.  Alphabet Soup Letter Game:  Letters and memory related to a book that you can read and provide lots of entertainment use bowl or pot from play kitchen or the real one to work on your kids (and maybe even your) memory.

4. Play Board Games: Practicing letters and numbers as well as memory is always a good thing to keep up with during the year.  We are often pulling out the same games over and over so I am going to try to work different games into the rotation.

5. Make Binoculars: Great to watch the leaves change through a nice pair of homemade binoculars.

 

6. Make homemade paints:  Great to use any paints but making them from stuff you already have on hand means that you have no money out of pocket.  This one uses sweetened condensed milk but there are tons of other recipes that I am going to be trying.

7. Make a book:  There are a few books that you can read to inspire making a book and others that are just good books that your child might want to copy. Here is another post a writing an adventure here.

8.  Baking with a little helper:  It helps with measuring and having more hands on experience when they get older.  My little one loves to help dump everything in and watch the mixer go!

9. Graphing Toys and More:  This was something that we have done multiple times this summer but we have really only done it with his cars because he is fascinated with counting them all.  I look forward to trying this with leaves and other things that we pick up in nature like leaves and rocks.

10.  Coloring Pages and Activity Sheets:  Always good to have a few things on hand to have the kids color with crayons, markers or stickers.  Our favorite are the ones with the bingo "dotters,"  if you haven't tried them, they are fun for young ones to learn accuracy and patience but also fun when they learn how to use them because they put color on the page quickly.  There are many that also have tracing activities like this one with letters and words at the top. 

There are also some that they have to slow down and follow the line.  It is easy to go through a big pile of these type of activities in our house.  Some are for cutting with scissors which are also fun to mix things up.

There is also another fun one where they trace the outside of an animal and it still lets them color in the picture.  My son had the most fun coloring in this one but has traced a bunch of different animals.  I just loved that he mixed crayons and markers in order to get the colors that he wanted.

11. Patterns:  Work on finding patterns in lots of different things.  He loves playing Mastermind but we are working on some other patterns activities on work sheets.  He really enjoys the activity sheets

12.  Activity Tubes:  Do you have extra paper towel and toilet rolls?  We do and I have done a bunch of crafts with them to try to get a little more use out of them.

We made a zebra with a pattern that we found on the internet.  The small pieces are a little hard to cut out but the square was something that the kids could cut out if they wanted.  I cut all the pieces and my son did the gluing and taping.  I had him pinch it while it dried which also helped with his fine motor skills and patience.  I was amazed how much better he was with that then he was even 6 months before.

I also made these tubes to take in the car for activities.  My little man broke the second CD player but he still needed to be entertained in the car.  They took a few minutes to make and then my son had a blast making them.  I am trying to think of some other tube and sticker combinations but these were lower case and upper case letters.

We also made shakers out of toilet paper tubes filled with beans and rice covered in tissue paper and tied with curling ribbon.  It was nice to have a fun musical instrument to play with after we were done crafting.

Remind yourself about all of the fun things that you want to do with your children as the weather starts to get a little colder out.  Make sure you do a little work ahead of time to have a few activities ready for a rainy day!  I can't wait for a little more time in the house so I know that I am going to be working on some more activities to have in the wings!!  I promise to share as soon as we do them and let you know how they work out!