Cheap Ways to Entertain Kids

With the end of school fast approaching, parents will soon be in a state of panic on how to entertain their kids. It is so easy to just take the kids to the movies, but prices for movies can lead to expense and once you start to include drinks, popcorn and candy, not to mention the gas to get to and from the movies, the expense grows even higher. With the economy the way it is now, we all need simple ways to stretch that dollar.

Here are some cheap ways you can entertain the kids:

Create Your Own Cupcake

Bake the cupcakes according to directions and then fill bowls with different colors of icing. Fill small plastic bowls with m&m's, gummy worms, sprinkles, candy corn, licorice strings and set all of this on the table. Let your kids ice their cupcakes & decorate as they wish.

Musical Chairs

Arrange 5 child size plastic chairs in a circle. Each guest stands in a circle around the chairs and start a music cd playing and stop it all of a sudden. The kids grab an empty seat & the ones that are left standing are out of the game. Remove one chair and start the cd playing again. Continue stopping cd, restarting and removing chairs until one chair remains.

Bowling

Buy a small plastic ball to use for the bowling ball, and use empty 16 ounce water bottles or soda bottles for the bowling pins.

Salt Dough Letters & Numbers

Let each child make salt dough letters of the alphabet and make numbers too. Each child can then decorate their letters & numbers and then take them home to have fun with. After the letters and numbers have baked & cooled and once the kids have decorated them then they can glue small magnets on the back of each letter and number to place on the refrigerator at home. Here is what you will need to create this fun & easy craft.

Salt Dough Recipe

10 oz water

10 oz salt

½ pint lukewarm water

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

Water-based paints

Glitter (your choice of colors)

Paintbrushes

Elmer's Glue

Small Round Magnets

Non-stick baking sheet

Rolling Pin

Pastry cutters in the shape of letters & numbers

Mixing Bowl

Wooden Spoon

Place the salt into the mixing bowl and then add the water and mix thoroughly until the salt is dissolved completely. Add the flour and the oil and stir until the dough becomes stiff. Knead the dough with your hands until the dough becomes firm and then form the dough into a ball. Dust a kitchen counter with a little flour and then place the ball of dough on to this. Using the rolling pin, roll the dough out to the thickness of ½ inch. Place the letter & number cutters on top of the dough & push down each cutter firmly. Place each letter & number onto the non-stick baking sheet. Bake in the oven at 210 degrees for one hour. Once the letters and numbers become hard turn the oven off but do not remove them from the oven until they are cooled off completely. This will keep the salt from cracking the dough. Once the letters & numbers have cooled off, let the kids paint and decorate their own numbers and letters.

Back To The Past
Tell your kids about games you played as a child. Then you can spend hours playing "Mother May I", "Duck, Duck, Goose, "Simon Says" and "Pin The Tail On The Donkey".

Cardboard Castle

Drive around town and ask a local grocery store if they have any big empty boxes you can have and once you get the boxes home your kids can decorate them to look like a castle.

Fashion Show

Get your digital camera out and let your kids dress up in clothes that belong to you and your husband and have a fashion show. Grab the digital camera and take photos of them walking down the cat walk and striking a pose.

Build A Fort

Gather up old blankets or sheets and toss them over a table and let the fun begin. Give each kid a flashlight to have with them in the fort too.

Camping

Toss a tent in the backyard complete with a fake campfire using rocks and pieces of wood found in your yard.

Picnic In The Park

Pack a picnic basket and head down to the local park and enjoy a day filled with merry go rounds and swings. Take a loaf of stale bread to feed to the ducks while you are at the park.