QUICK TIPS: Inexpensive family outings

[Melanie]

The kids are out of school! :D Yay!!! Oh, wait. The kids are out of school. Oh, NO! :eek: What on earth do you do for the next 3 months to keep the kiddos happy and active without breaking the bank, especially with this season's gas prices? What are your best suggestions for easy, inexpensive family outings during the summer months?

[justjen]

The park is great for weeknights. All of the kids enjoy going to the park.

Our musuem here in town is free on Sundays.

We bought season tickets to the TN aquarium in Chattanooga and we can go back again sometime this summer.

[Shari]

Trips to the park
picnics
beach day - pack a lunch and some beach toys and a soccer ball
nature hikes


A friend of mine does Geocaching with her family. Relatively inexpensive and they often do a full day of adventure packing a lunch too. You need a GPS system (ranges from $150 and up) and to join the geocaching website. Then spend a day, part of a day or include it into your driving time on a GPS treasure hunt.

[Doodlebugs-Mom]

We live near 2 beautiful state park and have so many free things to do there. From nature adventures, kite flying, bike trails and paved paths, the lake, fishing, camping and picnics.

We also have some great parks that we hit at times when they are less busy.

There are also fun things we do right at home, like the backyard camping adventure, race day 9we set up the yard to ave races with DD (DS is a bit small yet), Little pool in the years for hot summer days, we g for walks around the neighborhood and turn them into scavenger hunts for different things to find with our eyes. Our community does weekly movies in the park people bring chairs or blankets and snack and kick back and watch a movie projected on the back of a large building on Saturday evening and other cmmunity events that are free.

[islandmom]

Pack a picnic and have it in your back your own backyard. We also love just taking the kite out and flying it. Plant a wild flower garden. Go for a nature walk, and bring a bag a long so the kids can collect treasures.

[missing]

We spend a lot of time as a family in the local conservation areas doing nature/trail walks.

Also, we take the kids and the dog to the local dog park.

[Tami C]

We hunt for playgrounds. Every elementary school has a playground, some are better than others. A picnic lunch and sunscreen, and off we go. We've decided we're going to have to have fun in our own yard this summer too, so we're planning to set up another tent in the backyard and spend nights out there once in a while. And our town has concerts in the park that we love. Lawn chairs and snacks, and the concerts are free and awesome. They have always had one a week, but the paper says this year there will be 2 per week, which is fantastic! The kids can run around and play, dh and I can tap our feet and sing along. What better way to spend an evening?

[Viketory]

Hanging out at the local beach, around here they're free. Playgrounds and picnics, fishing off the dock, community ed classes.

Like Shari mentioned there's Geocaching if you have a GPS but there is a low-tech alternative called Letterboxing (http://www.letterboxing.org/) which is a hiking treasure hunt.

A Farmers Market can be a fun destination once in a while. I like cooking with my son and I think it's fun to find recipes they can participate in, prepping produce with a Farmers Market run can be fun. We also like going to a pick your own orchard or farm, there's a lot of activities there.

[Anna Banana]

Library - most also have a summer reading program

[1Dawn]

sprinkler
sidewalk chalk
bubbles fun to use stuff you find around the house like a cooking spoon with holes etc.
gardening
find out about local history and check out the sights
scrapbooking
sometimes the schools have inexpensive summer camps not a family activity per se
shopping no seriously. When it gets really hot out we go to the local mall and just look around. We don't buy much but we get to be inside where it is cool and we look. Sometimes it is fun to see what sort of screaming deal you can find.