6 Affordable Summer Activities

Here at Fort Knox, we have one week of school left. One week! I don’t think I’ve been this excited about summer break since I was a kid. I’m usually the parent who dreads summer break—the long weeks of having all the kids at home, no schedule, no daily routine, no extracurricular activities, the inevitable boredom, the hot temperatures. It is now time to plan some summer activities.

But this year has been so busy, with so many things going on besides school and homework and projects and teacher conferences, that I am more than ready for a break. I’m looking forward to the lazy days of sleeping in, late breakfasts melding into lunch, a calendar that has more white space than appointments, practices, games, concerts, rehearsals, and meetings.

I say all this knowing full well that by second week of summer break, this lovely fantasy is going to start wearing thin. Instead of waking up to a bright, sunny morning and hearing the birds outside my window, I’ll be awoken by the sounds of my boys arguing over who gets the last bowl of Apple Jacks.

Instead of spending a relaxing day at the pool, we’ll be there for approximately 10 minutes, long enough for me to stake out a couple chairs, spread out all the towels, apply another coat of sunscreen, and settle down with my book, when one of the kids will decide that the water is too cold or they really didn’t feel like going to the pool and want to go home RIGHT NOW.

And then the “I’m booooorrreddddd!” will start.

We’ve all been at that point of the summer when it stops being fun and we’re bored too. We start looking at the calendar, counting down the days until school starts again, until there is a routine in our lives. (Having six kids, those days come sooner rather than later for me.)

So what do you do when the “I’m bored!” starts to get the better of you? Luckily, I have some tricks up my sleeve that are easy, fun, and cheap. Some great activities to do with your kids or that your kids can do on their own to hopefully make this summer a little less boring and a lot more fun.

1. Summer Reading Clubs

There is nothing like free fun and libraries offer that in abundance during the summer months with their summer reading clubs. Most libraries, on top of offering the normal summer reading challenge where kids read a certain number of books or pages or minutes to earn prizes, also have great weekly programs to go along with their summer reading. A majority of libraries offer summer reading clubs for teens and even adults as well.

We are lucky here at Fort Knox to have one of the best military libraries in the world but you can also check out libraries in your surrounding towns.  Barnes & Noble also offers a summer reading club for kids entering grades 1-6. You can print out this form or head to your local Barnes & Noble to pick up a copy. Your child then reads eight books and fills out the info on the sheet and they can turn it in at any Barnes & Noble store to pick one of the free books listed on the back for their age group!

Chuck E. Cheese also has a summer reading program. Kids can fill out this sheet with the number of minutes (or books or pages) read per day for two weeks, then they can turn in the completed sheet at your local Chuck E. Cheese for 10 free game tokens. The great thing about this program is that you get to set the goals for your child according to their reading level and eagerness (or reluctance) as a reader.

Books-A-Million also offers a summer reading program for older children (more middle school/teen reading level). Your kids have to read four books from a designated list and fill out a reading journal, both of which can be found here. When their journal is complete, they can turn it in at a local Books-A-Million store and get a free cool Percy Jackson tote bag!

2. DIY chalk paint  

This was one of my kids’ (ALL of my kids including my teenage daughters) favorite activities last summer and it’s super cheap and easy. Mix equal parts water and cornstarch (e.g., one cup of water to one cup of cornstarch), add food coloring and mix. That’s it!

This stuff is super cool to use on sidewalks and driveways with paint brushes and fingers and toes and anything else that kids can find to paint with. You can also fill balloons with it and smash them on the sidewalks or driveways to create neat patterns.

But by far the coolest thing to do with chalk paint is to fill spray bottles (you can usually find mini ones at the dollar store) and have a paint war! Each person gets a spray bottle (or two) and goes to town spraying the other players. It’s great fun and easily washes off in the shower and laundry with no staining.

3. Waterbombs

Every kid loves water balloon fights on hot, muggy days during the summer but the balloons can get expensive, they’re a pain to fill, and you have to pick up all those tiny pieces of rubber out of the grass when the kids are finished. But using some inexpensive supplies from the dollar store, you can make waterbombs which are so much easier, cheaper, and way more fun.

All you need are some sponges (NOT the ones with the scratchy side for scrubbing dishes), a package of hair ties, and a few empty, clean buckets. Cut the sponges into strips then use the hair ties to tie together four or five of the sponge strips to make a spiky sponge ball. These can be dunked into buckets of cold water and used in waterbomb fights over and over again.

There’s no balloons to fill, no down time where the kids are waiting on you to fill the balloons, no trips to the store to buy more balloons, and best of all, no tiny balloon pieces to pick up at the end of the day!

4. Scavenger Hunts

Scavenger hunts are amazing!  They’re always free, can last as long as you or your children want, can be as simple or as intricate as you want to make them, and you can do them literally everywhere. Scavenger hunts can be tailored to any age group or even a whole range of age groups playing together.

Smaller kids can get simple clues (“find a leaf,” “find something blue”) and older kids can get more complicated clues (“find a leaf from a red maple tree,” “find five different things that are blue,” or even clues that are given as riddles). You can do them in your front yard, at the park, at the beach, at the pool, inside your house on a rainy day (find a paperclip, find a yellow LEGO), at the library (find a book about dogs, find a movie with a boy and a girl on the cover), at the grocery store (find a box with a bear on it, find a box with Spanish words on it), in the car on a long trip (find a blue truck, find a car with a license plate that has a flower on it), and anywhere else you can think of!

5. Cheap movies  

There are so many movie theater chains that offer very cheap movies during the summer! The movies usually range in the $1 to $2 a person range, are held in the mornings before most of the regular patrons show up, and are filled with kids and other parents so you don’t have to worry about bringing your crying infant, wiggly toddler, or loud elementary-aged kid.

Most of the movies are second or third run films so your kids have most likely seen them before but it’s a chance to get out of the house, go to a dark, air conditioned theater, and have your children entertained for an hour and a half for fairly cheap. I always use the time to catch up on my many missed naps.

Some of the theaters participating include: Regal Cinemas, Cinemark, Marquee Cinemas, and REI Cinemas. These are by no means all the theater chains offering free or cheap kids’ movies during the summer. Many local theaters have similar programs. A quick google search should help you find theaters close to you with great deals.

6. Free bowling and roller skating

My kids LOVE bowling but by the time we pay for the games and the shoes and the drinks and the pizza and the inevitable gumball machines, we’re looking at a pretty hefty price tag for all six of them.

Luckily, there’s a wonderful summer program called Kids Bowl Free that is available in all fifty states and Canada at participating bowling alleys. The bowling alleys that participate in the program can be found here along with more information about the days of the week and times each center allows free bowling.

There is a similar program for free roller skating. You can find more information and locations participating in the program here.

Keeping our kids entertained during summer break can be a chore and can run up some hefty price tags. Hopefully, you’ll find something in this list that can relieve those summer doldrums for a little while, can be fun for everybody, and is cheap and easy to pull off!

What do you do to ward off summertime boredom for the kiddos? Share your ideas with us!