10 Ways to Entertain Kids Without Spending a Dime
Nowadays it seems like if you want to have fun, you have to spend money. Long gone are the five cent candy stores! With summer here, it’s time to start thinking about what activities you want to do with the kids to keep them busy. Here are 10 ways to entertain your kids without spending a dime:
1. Arts and Crafts
Round up paper scraps, plastic bottles, shoestrings, anything you can find that can be useful for arts and crafts. Then turn on some fun music and have fun with the kids making different things with the supplies you found.
2. Picnic in the Park
If it’s a nice day outside, take the kids to a local park and have a picnic! Picnics are a great way to get the kids out of the house and having fun. Bring a ball or Frisbee for after they are done eating and let them run around!
3. Beach
If you live near a free beach, take advantage of it! The beach is a fun, free activity for the kids. Get them ready after breakfast, pack lunches to bring and enjoy the sun and ocean!
4. Play Outside
Your backyard is a huge, free playground. Utilize it! Let the kids go out and play tag, swing on the swing set (if you have any), draw with chalk, and enjoy nature!
5. Go for a Bike Ride
Throw on those helmets and get riding! Bike rides are a fun, free and they are offer exercise. Make it a family thing and have everyone go for a nice ride after dinner.
6. Visit your Local Library
The library is a great place to take the kids. Most library memberships are free, so it doesn’t cost a penny for this fun activity! Next rainy day, take the kids and let them pick out a few books. You can read them there, or you can bring them home and cozy up on the couch.
7. Watch a Movie
Instead of spending money taking the kids to a new movie, grab a bunch of blankets and pillows and watch one of their favorites at home!
8. Volunteer
What better way to spend your time than to volunteer. Not only is it a free activity, but it’s a great lesson for the kids to learn. Helping others can be fun!
9. Write to Pen Pals
Do you have a good friend who lives a couple hours away and has kids? Ask her if she wants to have you kids be pen pals. You kids will love writing letters to their new friend, and receiving them!
10. Geo-Catching
If you own a smartphone or a GPS, geo-catching is a great FREE activity! Geo-catching is a nationwide scavenger hunt where people all over the country hide and find items. Don’t forget to bring the camera in case you find any buried treasures!
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Written by Stephanie Parker from Sleepingbaby.com, inventors of the Zipadee-Zip
The motto for Sleeping Baby, makers of the Zipadee-Zip, is: "Inspiring Dreams One Night at A time," and that, in a nutshell, is how it all started…with one little dream that has since become the Parker family's reality. When Brett and Stephanie Parker's daughter, Charlotte, was born, the feeling that welled up inside of them was indescribable; they never realized until first looking into those baby blues of hers that they were even capable of that kind of love.
When it was time to transition baby from swaddling, the Parkers tried every sleep sack on the market and every swaddle weaning trick they could find for nearly two weeks and nothing worked to get baby Charlotte to fall and stay asleep.
Stephanie became determined to restore sleep and sanity to their household and set out to find a solution that would soothe Charlotte's startle reflex and provide her the cozy womb-like environment she loved so much but still give her the freedom to roll over and wiggle around in her crib safely. Out of sheer desperation and exhaustion, the Zipadee-Zip was born. The first Zipadee-Zip(R) Stephanie put together on her little sewing machine worked like magic!
To date tens of thousands of Zipadee-Zips have been sold and all from word-of-mouth marketing. It is so rewarding for the Parkers to see other parents and babies getting the sleep they both need and deserve!
For more information, visit sleepingbaby.com.
Interested in writing a guest blog for Sleeping Baby? Send your topic idea to pr@sleepingbaby.com.
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