Summer is Almost Over! 14 Ways to Keep Kids Busy, Stay Sane and Save Money
Summer is almost over and children across the world are driving their parents crazy already because they are ‘bored’. You have already taken the summer vacation and parents have either run out of ideas or run out of money and have resorted to letting their children watch TV or play video games most of the day. If that is the case, this article is perfect for you. Listed below are several activities to keep children of all ages busy without Mommy and Daddy going to the poor house.
1. Educational activities: to help children retain much of what they learned during the previous school year, they must exercise their brain with math, spelling and reading activities daily. Now, this will be met with much resistance, so I recommend doing this right after breakfast before they have a chance to turn on the TV.
Math: purchase an age appropriate workbook from Walmart or Target and have them complete 3 pages.
Spelling: grab a dictionary and have your child find three new words that they must use in a sentence and write out each word at least 5 times.
Reading: have children read for at least 15 minutes and write a summary.
2. Go to the library: libraries are great resources for free activities, plays, story telling, and of course, books
3. Puzzles: purchase several jigsaw puzzles and crossword puzzle books from the dollar store. Have your child spend some time each day putting them together or have a race when doing to crossword puzzles to see who the find all the words first.. Tip: have them pick out the puzzles
4. Educational computer games: try www.funbrain.com or do a search on Google for free online educational games
5. Visit the zoo: check to see if there are free/discounted days over the summer
6. Swimming: what kid does not like splashing in the water; visit your local park district and spend a day playing in the water
7. Slip and Slide: Every parent remembers having fun on this water toy. This outside activity can provide hours of fun for about $20
8. Bowling: AMF bowling is letting children bowl for free all summer. Go to kidsbowlfree.com for more information
9. Movie Day: Certain AMC theaters are showing movies every Wednesday for only $1. Visit www.amctheaters.com/smc for more information or call your local movie theater and see if they are offering something similar.
10. Lemonade stand: this old classic is a great way to teach children the importance of hard work and money
11. Nature walk: Take a stroll through your nearest Forest Preserve. Tip: do this before naptime; the little ones will take a nice long nap afterwards
12. Circle or story time: play duck duck goose, or have the older children read books to the younger ones. Tip: have the younger children choose the books to read
13. Go to the museum: Bank of America offers free admission into several museums if you have a debit or credit card with them. Visit www.museums.bankofamerica.com/ for more information.
14. Buy tons of coloring books and Play-doo: another old and messy classic that younger children will enjoy
Now that you have ample ideas on how to keep your children busy this summer, create a schedule. Schools and daycares are so effective because they are structured and children like structure. The schedule does not have to be minute by minute, always allow for flexibility. Sample schedules are listed below.
Movie Day
8am – 9am: breakfast
9am – 9:30am: clean up, get dressed and load up the car
9:30am – 12pm: movie time
12pm – 1pm: lunch time and clean up
1pm – 3:00pm: naptime or TV time (take a much needed break)
3pm – 3:30pm: snack time
3:30pm – 4:00pm – school work **
4:00pm – 4:30pm – puzzle, play-doo or coloring time**
4:30 – 6:00 – outside (free) play, but no TV or video games (use this time to prepare dinner)
6pm – clean up and get ready for dinner
Rainy Day
8am – 9am: breakfast
9am – 9:30am: school work**
9:30am – 11:30: visit the library
11:30 – 12pm: free play (prepare lunch)
12pm – 1pm: lunch time and clean up
1pm – 3:00pm: naptime or TV time (take a much needed break)
3pm – 3:30pm: snack time
3:30pm – 4:00pm – circle time or game time**
4:00pm – 4:30pm – puzzle, play-doo or coloring time**
4:30 – 6:00 – outside (free) play, but no TV or video games (use this time to prepare dinner)
6pm – clean up and get ready for dinner
Hot Summer Day
8am – 9am: breakfast
9am – 9:30am: school work**
9:30am – 12pm: water play (prepare lunch)
12pm – 1pm: lunch time and clean up
1pm – 3:00pm: naptime or TV time (take a much needed break)
3pm – 3:30pm: snack time
3:30pm – 4:00pm – circle time or game time**
4:00pm – 4:30pm – puzzle, play-doo or coloring time**
4:30 – 6:00 – outside (free) play, but no TV or video games (use this time to prepare dinner)
6pm – clean up and get ready for dinner
**Parent interaction is required
I hope this list of activities will help keep your children, save you money, and make this an enjoyable, stress-free summer!!
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My Emergency Fund to the Rescue!!
We have been hearing a lot about emergency funds in recent months because of the state of our economy; saving money has become the new black. I think it is great that people are finally getting serious about building and emergency fund and I honestly don’t understand how people can go through life without it. It is suggested that people now have an emergency fund that’s equivalent to 6-8 months of your income. I am a total realist and understand that this is not possible in every situation and honestly it is not expected to happen overnight, but at least have a couple thousand saved up. You are probably thinking that you aren’t in the position to put money towards an emergency fund. For some, that may be true, but what about using your tax refund? Most people I know cannot wait until January 31st so they can do their taxes and get a refund. Well, instead of spending that money on clothes, a TV, or some other material items, put some of it towards your emergency fund. You can also use those extra paychecks that some receive if on a 26 weeks pay cycle and open up a Bank of America card and sign up for their Keep the Change program. Whatever you have to do, DO IT!! so you can have piece of mind and not totally freak out when problems start knocking at your door.
Our problem this month was our 2001 Nissan Altima. It is started to shake when we went over 55 mph and it was puttering. The car has over 166K miles on it and we have no intentions on buying another car, so our only alternative is to get it fixed. My husband was a little upset, but I, the cheap, frugal, penny-pinching queen, was fine. Why? Because I know we have an emergency fund and I figured the repairs would not cost more than $1,000. I was almost right; the repairs needed to FIX the car only cost $1,000, but I was able to talk them down to $900 (yeah me!!) However, of course, they found everything else under the sun that needs to be fixed which would have cost an additional $700. We did not get those repairs done yet, mainly because they are not life threatening and because I just was not mentally to prepared to pay more than $1,000 even though we have the money.
But I started thinking, what if we did not have our emergency fun, our credit cards were maxed out or cancelled because credit card issuers are closing unused cards, we only had the one car that’s not working, and can no longer get to work. Result: we take out a payday loan, (the worst thing ever invented) get fired because we could not get to work, some other problems comes up which prevents us from paying back to loan, and they take our car. I know this is an extreme situation, but it is a “very” real situation.
Thank God our emergency fund rescued us from this situation, but there are many people who are not as fortunate.