Things To Do With Your Kids
Filed under Inexpensive Activities
Children look forward to being kept busy at all times of the year. So, what to do when the kids are shouting “I’m so bored!”…Try these ideas out:
Explore Around the Town
Not too many people realize that many museums will offer free or reduced admission nights, usually in the evening hours. Check your local newspaper or call your local museum and see if and when these events happen. The local YMCA, public library or Barnes & Nobles may hold story times, arts & crafts and game play. When that day winds down and it’s time to eat, many chain restaurants offer “kids eat free” nights.
Reading Club
Oceanside, California has a thriving community of several children of the same age. Have the kids check out the same book from the library, read it during the week and then meet up at one of the parent’s houses to discuss what the book meant. It will give the kids great comprehensive skills and give them a chance to see how different people can perceive literature in different ways. You can also create a similar kind of club with movies and have children watch an education or classic children’s movie to discuss afterwards over some goodies. You may even want to provide a list of questions for the kids to think about. It may even be educational for the parents to see their children’s perspectives on movies.
Summer Journal and Scrapbooking
At the beginning of the summer, provide your child with an inexpensive 35mm camera and a roll of film, including a journal. This way the child can document all their adventures in a journal each night. If your child is too young to write, you can have them detail their day to you while you write in their journal exactly how they are saying it.
When you go on a day trips, remind the kids to take their cameras to capture the day in their own eyes. You may want to limit the amount of rolls they use so not a full roll of film is used on one day. Once the film is developed (or printed for digital cameras), the children can paste their photos into their journal and write journal entries next to each picture. It’s something nice to look back on when they get much older.
