Finding Low Cost Family Activities

Finding Christmas Activities

This time of year, many places where you live probably offer special holiday activities that are perfect for making family memories! We are lucky enough to live near the Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium. Every year, just after Thanksgiving, they start their Zoolights exhibit. The zoo is open after hours and much of it is decorated in beautiful lights. And at certain times, you can see Santa dive with the sharks. :) We go to this event every year. If you look, I am sure you can find a neat place to start a new holiday tradition.

By lalala...

No-Cost and Low-Cost Family Activities

No matter how we save money, every family needs fun things to do. Here are some suggestions on no cost/low cost things to do. In these times of rising fuel costs, you need to think about saving on your gasoline costs also. So I have tried to pick things that hopeful won't cost you a bunch of gasoline to get there. Why not explore alternative methods of transportation? Can you walk to do some of these things? Is there a local bus route that will get you there? Why not car pool with another family. With gasoline projections at $3.00 a gallon this summer, many of us will be looking for other things to do other than take the normal vacation.

Plan a family reunion picnic with people you consider family, if only by connection with your heart. Have everyone bring a covered dish and an outdoor game and make an afternoon of it. Cover the tables or a piece of plywood that can be leaned against a tree and have everyone sign it or draw a picture or tell a story. I promise it will become a family heirloom. Take lots of pictures and email them to everyone that was there.

Visit the attractions that are right there in your hometown, the places that the tourists visit. Most of the time, you can find coupons, either in your local paper or in some phone books, that will give you big discounts to take your family out for the day. Our zoo here offers half price admission on Father's Day and Mother's Day as long as the parents are accompanied by their child.

Have a picnic in the park, one that you have never been to. Take along the Frisbee and the dog or your baseball gear and have a ball game. Invite your kids' friends or just kids in the park to play with you and your children. Go to the next town if you have never been to their parks.

Look in your local paper for free admission to museums or exhibits. Some towns even have free concerts. Many cities have ethnic celebrations and street fairs for Founder's Day or Cinco De Mayo. Have fun and learn about a new culture.

Go fly a kite for the day. Instructions for building simple kites can be found on the internet and most dollar stores carry kites in the spring. Take along your supplies and build them right there on the picnic table at the park. You and your kids will have a blast.

One evening, move your TV and VCR out to the porch and have an outdoor movie party. Let the kiddos get out their sleeping bags and stock up on popcorn and movie snacks. You can relive your old drive-in memories and make some good old fashioned milk shakes and fountain treats.

Set up your tents in the backyard for a camp out. Barbeque some dogs and have fun telling ghost stories and urban legends. Best thing is you will always know where the bathroom is. Don't have camping gear, borrow some, but be sure to return it in clean condition.

Check out your local Park and Recreation Department and take a class with the kids. Most cities have park and recs that have classes in everything from exercise to crafts. One time, my girls and I took a class in hair braiding and it was only $5.00. It is important that we are examples to our children when it comes to learning. Check out the swimming pool admission while you are at it. Most local community swimming pools have very reasonable rates for swimming. Don't know how to swim? Most Park and Rec departments have swimming lessons very inexpensively.

Now this one is going to sound kind of funny, but the Home Depot offers classes for adults and kids during the summer and most of them are free. What better way for the whole family to learn to paint a room or wallpaper or lay a tile floor? Don't laugh, people every day pay huge sums of money for this to be done for them; when they could learn for free how to do it themselves. This will teach your kids to save money too.

Hope this gives all of you some great ideas for this summer.

By Debra Frick

Keeping Track of Low-Cost Family Activities

I have a 2 year old son and a VERY limited budget, but I hated that a lack of money could be a barrier to us going out and having fun! Weekends would roll around, and I would be out of ideas as to what we could do that was free or cost very little. What I finally did was gather information about places to go and things to do that are free or low-cost in our area. I then typed up a master list of all the information about the places or activities that I would need.

For example, in the next city over from us, there's a free zoo. I put "Racine Zoo" on my list, then the phone number, address, hours they're open, cost (in this case, free), etc. I also listed things like a "kids eat free" night at a local restaurant. I did the same for quite a few different places we like to visit, and also a few that we haven't been to yet.

Now, if we're looking for something to do and I'm out of ideas, I can just look at my "master list" of fun places, and we can be off on a thrifty family adventure in no time! (The bonus is that I don't have to waste time calling to see how late places are open, etc.--important when you have an impatient toddler!).

By Lisa from WI

Fun and Frugal Family Holiday Activities

This holiday it won't take money to create great family memories. There are so many family activities that can be done for less. So, forget about the expensive Martha Stewart decorations and the Rockettes on Broadway. Instead, pull together some real family memories.

Christmas Cards

A box of Christmas cards isn't an extremely expensive purchase, but it's not a family memory. Create a family moment by creating your own cards. Pose the family for a photo together in front of the tree, by the Thanksgiving turkey, or together on the couch. Then, take it to your local photo developer to have holiday cards printed for as little as $0.39 each. It's a nicer memory than the preprinted picture of a penguin in snow.

Another option could be to make your own cards. They won't have the professional flare of the other cards, but they will have heart and a special touch that captures the essence of the holiday. Sit the kids at the table and assign a few cards to each. Then, with a pack of cardstock, some envelopes, and some markers, you'll have holiday cards that are worth saving. Make sure each child signs his or her own card.

Sing Along

You see them on television, but have you ever taken part in a community caroling group? If not, give it a try this season. Check with your local church group or community organization to see if there is already a caroling group. If not, form your own. Ask your neighbors to organize a sing-along. It can be in the afternoon or by a candlelit evening. Someone could donate some garage or patio space, some hot chocolate, and a place to relax before and after the singing. Take charge and hand out lyrics ahead of time so people can become familiar with them before bringing them to the caroling. Also consider a charity for any donations that are collected or organize the caroling for the specific purpose of charity.

Meals

The actual holiday meal is a bit hectic. Instead, schedule a few pre-holiday meals that will make for memorable family moments. Heading out for some holiday shopping? Make a family sit down meal before you go out. Don't forget to involve the kids in the planning and preparing. The more elbows that bump in the kitchen the more fun you'll have. Forget about the mess, forget about the formality, forget about the rules. Just sit down and enjoy the conversations and time spent together.

Decorate

It's another Norman Rockwell painting that you can recreate: involve the entire family when decorating for the holidays. Give each member a task and allow him/her to do it in a special way. For instance, don't dictate the style of the outdoor lights before assigning the task to the men of the family; allow your teenage son to outline the house in his own style.

While towns set up an annual tree lighting ceremony, you might not. Why not try it? Dedicate one night to tree lighting and make sure the entire family is around. If you have teens who balk about it, let each one invite a friend. Play some music or put on a movie that everyone's already seen and start decorating. Allow each person to put on the decorations that he or she likes best, and set out some fun snacks. Don't try to make it the scene that you see on television; your kids aren't all going to like Mitch Miller holiday songs or James Stewart running through town. Make it a fun evening for everyone, and put on some music or movies that everyone enjoys.

The most important part of the holidays is the time spent together. One family's special moments doesn't have to look like another's moments. Make the time special and personal; make it fun.

By Kelly Ann Butterbaugh

Be a Tourist in Your Own Town

I live in Kenosha, WI, a great area, almost right in between Milwaukee, WI (30 minutes away) and Chicago, IL (about an hour away). When I was a teenager, I remember complaining about there not being anything to do in town. But now that I'm older and a mom myself, I realize just what a wealth of things there are to do here in our area!

This past summer, there were so many free or low-cost activities going on that it was impossible NOT to find something to do. We have a great, almost brand-new, public museum that offers free family activities, a brand-new dinosaur museum, art galleries, and a trolley that runs by the lakefront (we are pretty much situated right on Lake Michigan). In addition to that, we had at least two free outdoor concert series going on every week, a civil war era reenactment camp, more church festivals than I can tell you about, many outdoor farmer's markets with crafters, etc., and special festivals and events such as Woofstock, which benefitted the local humane society, and special outdoor "movies under the stars".

Our lakefront is great too, with walking paths, playground areas, small animal-shaped statues that shoot out water for the kids to run through, and a few nice little coffee shops where I can get a treat of a coffee for myself and a cookie for my son for under $3. I could go on and on, but my main point in all of this is, look around your own town for free or low-cost things that your family can do. I was very surprised to find that, once I started looking around, there were literally dozens of things to do! The best part being, most were free or almost free! It's kind of neat to be "a tourist" in your own city, and makes you feel connected to your community.

By Lisa from Kenosha, WI