Some Great Family Things to Do that Are Cheap or Free

My family loves to go, go, go. We do not generally sit around and do nothing. Actually, we never just sit around. My husband works six days a week so on Sundays, his only day off, we love to enjoy some fun family time with the kids. Since we are a big family living off of pretty much just one paycheck, we need to find fun things to do that do not cost a lot. Free works best for us!!

Movie theaters are something that my kids have no idea exist. My oldest child has been to many movies before her three little brothers came along. My second child has been to one movie and the other two have no idea that you can go see a movie on a big screen. For the six of us to go to the movies, it would cost around eighty dollars when all was said and done. The cost of movie tickets now are so much more than just years prior. Then the cost of popcorn, soda and other refreshments can make you foreclose on your house. So for our family, movies are out. Amusement parks are pretty much out too. The cost of an amusement park is usually around thirty dollars a person, or more, depending on where you go. Nope, can't afford to pay for six people to spend a day at an amusement park.

So for my family, free events and activities work well for us. Even cheaper days are good for us. One thing that we love to do is to take the kids to the local small airport where they skydive and just sit and watch everyone fall from the sky. We will occasionally pick up a pizza at a local pizza place and a bottle of soda and sit at the airport at the picnic tables and just eat dinner and watch the free entertainment. The kids get to watch the small planes take off and land just a few feet in front of them as well as the skydivers. They love to watch the skydivers load into the plane, take off, jump out, land and do it all again. Once, they got lucky enough to see the helicopter take off too. What excitement they all felt. And the whole evening cost me only twenty dollars for the food.

Another thing that we like to do it to visit local parks. There are a few parks in the area we live in so we pick one and go have some fun for free. The kids love it. It provides a chance for us to spend quality time together and to give the kids some exercise. If we go to a park with tennis courts, we bring the rackets and balls and play some tennis. They also like to play basketball so we make sure to bring as many different balls to the park as well.

We sometimes take the kids on a hike. Where we live, there is a hiking area with waterfalls. Admission is free if you live in the town. The hike itself takes about two hours and goes right by a few waterfalls. There is also a small museum there as well as a few other events to enjoy like mini golf, fishing and a great playground area.

Something that we do when we have a little bit of money is go to Chuck E. Cheese's. We use a coupon and get a pizza and plenty of tokens as well as drinks for all of us for under thirty dollars. That keeps us busy for a good two hours. The kids just love the pizza there and the games are all twenty five cents each so tokens last a little longer than an arcade.

Another thing that my kids just love to do is to feed the ducks and geese. We go to the pond where all the ducks and geese hang out and just feed them bread. This is another free event for us. Maybe it sounds boring to you but the kids just love to do this. We usually do this in conjunction with a park visit and sometimes we will do this after we hit the recycling center. For some reason, they find recycling to be exciting. Each child gets a different thing to recycle. One child gets cardboard, one gets plastic, one gets paper and the other gets aluminum and glass. They get to put their recyclables in the bins and as they do this, they are learning about the environment as well as responsibility. It is a win win for all of us then.

Just playing with your kids and spending quality time with them is usually good enough for them. We belong to Netflix and Gamefly so that we can have some cheaper entertainment in our home as well. We spend a lot of time outside when the weather is nice just riding bikes, digging in the yard and taking long walks as a family. You do not need to spend a fortune in order to have fun with your family. There are many different events you can do for free or almost free in every area of the United States. Just look and you shall find something great to do that your kids will appreciate and you will enjoy.