On a Budget: Entertaining the 4-Year-Old

The economy's bad and winter is long. This isn't a great combination when you have an ancy 4-year-old. There are only so many card games to play, only so many dinosaur books to read, and only so many crafts to make before you have to get out of the house. When you are entertaining your child and you're on a budget, you have to get creative. Think...free. Anything that's free is certainly nice. And what can be more inexpensive than sledding?

One of our new favorite forms of entertainment this year is sledding at our local park, Kesling Park located in La Porte, Indiana. It is very close to our home and has a hill. Not just any hill, a nice big hill. Big enough that after about an hour of sledding down the hill and running back up it, my daughter is tired out! And, what more can a mother ask for?

The park is usually empty when we go during the weekday, but on the weekends it resembles a Rescue 911 episode waiting to happen. You have teenagers mixed with toddlers, sleds mixed with snowboards, and kids coming and going in all directions. My daughter learned fast to watch out on her way back up the hill and stay out of the path of oncoming sleds, especially the sleds sliding out of control with the screaming kid clinging on for dear life.

When entertaining your child on a budget just remember two things. First, free is good. And second, don't be afraid. Bundle up and sled down those hills with the rest of the economically challenged!