The kids are out of school! Now we have to figure out what we’re going to do with them for the next couple of months! 🙂
We’re not sending our kids to any summer camps or day camps. Not only are fancy kids activities not in our budget, but I’m actually looking forward to spending time with my kids this summer.
When it comes down to it, that is really what the kids want most.
It’s really easy for me to get sucked in to my own to-do list (for home and for my blog) and let the kids just play with each other, but I’m making plans to prioritize spending time with my kids this summer.
While we have a whole artillery of fun frugal activities for our kids, there are a few things we are paying for this summer. Here are the three main activities we’ll be spending money on:
Swimming lessons
Our kids took swimming lessons once, but it’s been about five years. They were so young that they didn’t learn much and anything they did learn, they’ve long since forgotten.
Being comfortable and confident in the water isn’t just about having fun, it’s about being safe. Considering that choking and drowning are high on my mommy paranoia list, it’s surprising we’ve waited this long to really teach our kids to swim.
In addition to swimming lessons for the three older kids, we will likely get a pool pass so that they will have a chance to practice the skills they learn and make the most of their lessons. We’ve decided that this will be the year that our kids learn to swim.
Kids cooking classes
Just because I cook most things from scratch doesn’t mean I’ve taught my kids to do the same. After checking out the knife skills series from the Kids Cook Real Food e-course, I got to thinking about how I want to involve my kids more in the kitchen.
Teaching kids to cook not only gives them a frugal and healthy life skill, but they will really be able to help in the kitchen (and not just “help,” if you know what I mean). I’m also pretty certain that being more involved with what they’re eating will make them more willing and excited to try new foods.
I know I’m not patient enough to teach these skills when I’m rushing to get dinner on the table. That means I’m going to need to be intentional about teaching when it’s not the meal time rush.
After watching the free video series, I know the Kids Cook Real Food course will be a great fit for my three older kids (ages 4, 6, and 8). I’m excited for all the training for parents on how to teach and guide your kids in the kitchen in age-appropriate ways, too. This will be a great opportunity to spend time together.
If you haven’t yet taught your kids (age 2+) to use knives properly, the knife skills video series is a great opportunity to do so and get a taste of what the classes are like!
County Fair
The past couple of years, we have attended our county fair on the day that kids get in free. On kids day, the fair is full of free activities for kids like making homemade ice cream, funnel cake eating contests, and animal shows, so we haven’t even had time for any rides.
Our kids are old enough that they are getting interested in the rides now, too. We have never taken them to an amusement park before, so the fair is the only chance they get to do rides. As a kid, I loved rides, too!
The kids have been setting aside money from one of their money-making endeavors to buy an “unlimited rides” bracelet at the fair. We have been impressed at their dedication to their goal. They have saved a good portion of money, but we plan on chipping in to help them out.
Even though we’re only paying for three main activities this summer, we will be filling our days with lots of other fun and productive activities that are free. Here are some of the summer activities we’ll be doing for free!
Library programs
Every library I know of has a summer reading program. Each year the theme is different and the program varies, but the main objective is to make reading fun so the kids keep reading throughout the summer.
Along with the summer reading incentives, libraries often have special activities, events, and story times through the summer months. Whether it’s a wild animal show, a magic show, or a puppet show, the activities are a hit with my kids every time.
Attending all the free activities at the library gives us a good excuse to get out of the house, meet up with friends, and check out new books!
Craft class
My kids love learning new crafts. When my mom was visiting (around the time our youngest was born), she started teaching my kids how to knit. I don’t even know how to knit! They caught on quickly and are eager to learn other skills.
One of the bonuses with the 2016 Ultimate Homemaking Bundle was a free Craftsy class. I grabbed a beginning crochet class with the plan to watch it along with my kids. I know they’ll love learning it themselves, but having me learn alongside them will be even better!
If you want to find other free places to learn things (for kids or adults), check out these tips I share for learning new skills for free.
County Fair
I know I mentioned that we will be paying for rides at the fair this year, but one of the best parts of the fair is something that we don’t have to pay for at all, so I wanted to be sure to point it out under what we’re not paying for too.
After attending our first fair, we realized that you can enter just about anything into the fair. Everything from painted pictures and rock collections, to cookies and homegrown zucchini. At the kids level, entries are free at our county fair.
For the past couple of years, my kids have entered their handiwork in various categories in the fair. Not only is it fun to have a reason to create something, it is really fun for the kids to see their work on display. The icing on the cake is that they receive ribbons too! The first year we participated, one of our boys even got a best-of-show ribbon!
Camping
If you’ve been around here very long, you know that my family loves camping. My husband and I each grew up loving outdoor adventure, so it’s been natural to make it a family affair. The kids love it. They would seriously sleep outside every night if we would let them.
If you’re wondering why I include camping in the “free” category, it’s because for us it really is. It can be for you too! You can learn our secret to never paying for a campground and also how to save money on camping (which you’ll see can be pretty much free).
Games
I don’t know about you, but I can only play Candyland or Chutes and Ladders so many times before I go nuts. The good news for me is now that my kids can read and know their numbers, our game possibilities have greatly increased.
We’ve tried to take opportunities lately to play more grown-up games with them like Rummikub, Battleship, Scrabble, and Chess. Since my husband and I both enjoy games, it’s fun for us to get them involved. Still it takes time to plan and be intentional about playing with them. I’m excited to introduce lots of new games to them from our family game collection.
Well that covers our current plan for the summer. We’ll be spending some money on a few activities that make sense for our family and our priorities, but we’ll be doing lots of free things too. In fact, this is just a sample of the things we do for free. Check out some of our other favorite free family activities.
How about you?
- What activities are you paying for this summer?
- What are you doing for free?
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This is a great balance. We are the same, we will do a few paid things but will mostly fill our days with free stuff. I’m excited for the parks, splash pads, playdates and picnics. When I think back to my own childhood, these are the summer days I remember – just being outside! Have a great summer with your kids.
We are paying for swimming lessons too. Our neighborhood has a great community pool that is paid for with our HOA fees. We tried lessons at the YMCA but our two older children have issues that make them more distractable and the large noisy classes in a pool that also had a water slide made it too hard to focus. We are paying up the wazoo for Aquatots classes twice a week for both of them, and it’s $300/month. Our 5 year old has a history of running off and with several ponds nearby, we wanted to decrease her risk of drowning if she escapes and ends up at a pond. They only have 4 kids in each class with one to two instructors. Hopefully we won’t have to do this for too long, but we are going to do it until they are reasonably proficient. We also bought amusement park passes and plan on going every two weeks.
When my kids were young we’d enjoy most, if not all, of the ideas already listed, but we’d also take advantage of the local dollar cinema. We didn’t go to movies very often so this was a real treat for them. It does seem, though, that the last couple of times we took advantage of this the day cares did as well. For the most part those kiddos weren’t unruly, but they did tend to fill up the theater. (We really loved the free city concerts. In fact, my husband and I still make this a regular summer activity for ourselves).
I know your kids enjoys frequent camping trips but maybe they’d enjoy a camp out in the backyard as a change of pace some nights too – perhaps as a one-on-one with mom and/or dad.
Home Depot and Lowe’s offer free kids clinics once per month where the kids can build things like birdhouses.You just go to the store website and sign up there. You must register to attend as they has a limited number of craft supplies. It’s neat because the kids get a special apron, certificate, and an iron on patch to keep. They of course get a nice craft project to keep all for free. I know you live in the boonies, Stephanie, but I thought it was worth a mention in case it would work for someone else.
I am also interested in teaching my kids to cook. Our first lesson this week is going to be scrambled eggs and toast. I thought that would be simple enough. We have also planted some zucchini and tomato seeds together and they are growing nicely. I plan to let my kids play in the sprinkler some that we are using for our tiny garden so we can get double duty from the water. We are also signing up for the library’s summer reading program. I am a little late to get them signed up because I am dreading paying a $30, yes, that was $30, library fine. I’m not even going to try to defend why that happened. So for me the summer reading program isn’t actually free this time. I also wanted to mention that lots of community’s have splash pads for the kids to play in. We do that a lot in the summer. We simply pack a picnic lunch, bottles of water, towels, and sunscreen and we are set. I just love these. My kids can play for hours and I don’t have to worry about them drowning. My community also has movie nights where they play a movie on a jumbo screen and we can just take a blanket or bag chairs and bring homemade popcorn. There are lots of free concerts to attend around too. Don’t forget local creeks and streams that they kids can wade in or ride in tubes down, with an adult of course. Just have to be creative!
Those are some great free ideas Jennifer! We do lots of swimming in creeks, lakes, and rivers around here!
You definitely don’t need to defend your library fine. You’ll see on May’s budget report which I’ll post on Wednesday that I paid $31 in library fines this month too. Most was from a book that was destroyed by one of my children. 🙁
Yes! We’ve never gone to Lowe’s but we’ve done the Home Depot projects a lot. The kids love them! Whenever we’re going to be in town on the 1st Saturday of the month, we make it a point to fit it in!
Stephanie, have you heard of Creativebug? They have a great series of beginner-level craft classes, and the subscription is monthly – $4.99 I think. You can sign up and get a month free. They have all kinds of classes – sewing, painting, pattern design, even cake decorating, and they are really well produced.
We are doing swimming lessons this year too, but I will not be getting a pool pass because I haven’t summoned up the nerve to take four children to the pool by myself. 🙂
I totally know what you mean about taking the kids to the pool alone. Last year (when I had a newborn), there was no way I would have done it! This year, it feels manageable. I guess we’ll see! I’ll be taking the kids by myself most of the time. And no, I hadn’t heard of Creativebug!
One great thing about Australian summers is that Christmas falls in the middle of it, so you can give Christmas presents that double as fun summer activities – craft projects, new toys for the yard, games, etc. We’re going into winter now; we’ve got winter break coming up in about a month. One thing that we learned last summer summer – we can get into the zoo for free! Kids are free on weekends and during school holidays; and adults are free with a carer’s companion card (my son’s deaf, so we’ve got one of those). Melbourne has 3 zoos, 2 of which are easy for us to get to, so I’m thinking we might have to take a couple of trips to the zoo. We might also check out the science museum, since we can go there for free, too. And there are still tons of craft projects left over from Christmas for us to do.
Re: teaching kids to cook – Our two kids each have one night which is assigned to them. They’re in charge of everything – planning the meal, reminding us what we need to pick up at the store, cooking, etc. So far we’re still helping them a lot with the cooking (especially the 7 year old) but they love having a night where they’re in charge, and at least we know that is one night where they will actually eat dinner instead of complaining that they don’t like it.
Christmas in the summertime! I can’t even imagine! 🙂 And hooray for getting into the zoo for free! In the midwest, we lived within driving distance of several free big city zoos and loved it! Our kids would love it even more now, but we’re 2,000 miles away!
My kids love being in charge of a meal. It’s usually an interesting assortment of things rolled up in a tortilla (mine are 8 and under). 🙂 They enjoy it though!
Our children do swimming lessons once each year and this time we decided to save them for the summer time. One of our boys will also be doing piano lessons during the summer. Paying for 2 months of lessons instead of 10 is a great way we’ve found for our children to try the piano out and see if they are interested in it without breaking the bank. We also recently took some money gifted to us from my mother to buy zoo memberships that are good for a year.
One thing that we are planning to spend some money on this summer is a backyard pool. Nothing huge or fancy but big enough for the kids (and this pregnant mama!) to cool off in and enjoy time at home together.
A pool sounds like a nice treat, especially when you’re pregnant in the summer! I’ve taught my kids piano off and on, but I’m making a concerted effort this summer!
We are paying for swimming lessons this summer. We paid for an aquarium membership last weekend, after 2 visits we will recover the cost so we decided to get it. We plan to get zoo membership too. Our school year that starts the first Monday after the 4th of July will be the year of animals.
One thing we won’t have to pay for is pool membership. We selected an apartment community that has a pool because, as I remember from my youth visiting my grandparents, these Oklahoma summere can be hot & humid. A pool makes it more comfortable.
That’s great that you have a pool in your complex! The year of the animals sounds awesome! 🙂