Keep Your Children Busy: On a Budget

Being budget conscious is extremely important, particularly in larger families trying to keep up with today's two-income society. During the school year, activities abound in the form of sporting events, drama presentations, musical concerts, graduations, open houses, reading nights and so on. What about during vacations and summer break?

The activity doesn't have to come to a halt. Instead, try these ideas to keep your kids busy, engaged and learning in an unconventional way:

1: The local library: This might be an obvious idea to some, but not to others. There's a calendar of events consisting of reading times and other events at just about every local library. Some families struggle with out of school reading habits with their children, so this will encourage them to read more often and appreciate listening to a good storyteller.

2: Community calendar: In this high-tech age of computers and Internet, there are more towns than not creating an on line presence. One these websites are community calendars of events which often include festivals, book fairs, craft fairs, concerts, art shows, flea markets and other social and community building activities.

3: School break activities: Schools are joining in with this high-tech age and creating web presences, as well. Look up your school (if there's no website available, get in touch with your school administrator with questions) and check out what's happening over the summer. Some schools host craft fairs, bake sales, workshops and other events meant to keep students engaged throughout the year.

4: Parks and playgrounds: Another obvious idea, but often overlooked, are trips to the park or the playground. Plan on doing this at least once per week (weather permitting), but make it a big deal. Plan a picnic and bring items for an activity (a sport, a scavenger hunt, sandbox games, etc.).

5: Letter-boxing: This is an interesting project that Wikipedia.com defines as follows: (the link is in the resource box)

"Letter-boxing is an outdoor hobby that combines elements of orienteering, art and problem-solving. Letterboxers hide small, weatherproof boxes in publicly-accessible places (like parks) and distribute clues to finding the box in printed catalogs, on one of several web sites (see below), or by word of mouth. Individual letterboxes usually contain a logbook and a rubber stamp. They may also contain an ink pad, but since the ink pad sometimes makes a mess of the interior of the letterbox, most do not. Finders make an imprint of the letterbox's stamp on their personal logbook, and leave an impression of their personal stamp on the letterbox's logbook - as proof of having found the box. Many letterboxers keep careful track of their "find count"."

6: Geocaching: Another very interesting family project that Wikipedia.com defines as: (this link is also in the resource box)

"Geocaching is an outdoor treasure-hunting game in which the participants use a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver or other navigational techniques to hide and seek containers (called "geocaches" or "caches") anywhere in the world. A typical cache is a small waterproof container containing a logbook and "treasure", usually toys or trinkets of little monetary value."

7: Bird sanctuaries and other outdoor nature retreats: pack weather friendly clothes, snacks, water, band-aids, sunblock, lip balm, camera, a cell phone, baggies and sketching tools into a backpack for each member of the family. Head out to these sanctuaries and go on a nature hike. Take pictures, sketch and collect throughout the adventure. When you return, what you've gathered will make another great family project!

Putting it all together:

There are a lot of calendar creation software available on line for free and to purchase. Rather than using a standard "write-on" calendar, consider using this software so you can organized the weekly and daily events, changing them easily as the weather changes or other things come up. Remember, be flexible and plan ahead.