Summer Savings!
Are they bored yet? Are they whiney and annoying little snots yet? If you’re a stay at home mom, you know EXACTLY what I mean! Kids look forward to summer break all year, but it only takes a week or two for them to miss the variety and schedule of school!
So, how to keep them entertained but not kill your budget? Here are some of my favorite budget friendly ideas!
- Season passes To anywhere. We have them to the zoo (we ask for them as birthday presents in lieu of more toys they don’t need) and to Kings Island, our local amusement park. We get the Kings Island passes at Christmas, when they’ll hold payment till April, and upgrade you automatically to the Gold Pass with free parking, special parking lots, special ride priviledges and more. The zoo pass includes parking and all of the rides (carousel, train, tram) in the zoo. The Cincinnati Zoo is rated one of the top 5 zoos in the country–and we love it! We take a trip once a week to Kings Island, and try to get to the zoo at least twice a month. Kings Island has rides and a water park–so the kids get bounced and spun to their hearts delight, then we go cool down with a swim before heading home. Do I need to tell you those are the quietest, calmest kids for a couple of days? Some other season pass ideas (check your local area for equivalents): Coney Island, Children’s Museum, Johnny’s Otterville, Newport Aquarium, local pool. (I am a huge fan of the Florence Aquatic Center!) Louisville area residents, I know Holiday World and Six Flags have their own bargains!
- Field Trip Fridays Every Friday we get out of the house and do something somewhat educational and FREE! Last Friday I had a meeting at the Enquirer building downtown, so I took the kids with me. We went up the elevators to the 19th floor, which is an adventure for any young kid. Our meeting room turned out to be lined with mock-ups for the next couple of days’ papers, and my kids had a ball watching the reporters gathering news. From there we took a brief walk around downtown so they could see the workers and the tall buildings, then down to the Ohio River to look (never touch. Yuck!) Some other Field Trip Friday’s we’ve taken: A trip downtown and back on the ‘city bus.’ AKA, the bus; a trip to a local firehouse to give the firemen some ice cream and homemade thank you cards–and a tour of the fire trucks, of course! There’s the trip to the grocery store to have them watch the employees and ask questions (and mom can slip in a little shopping, hehe!) Or a trip to the airport viewing area to watch the planes take off and land. There’s a million and one ideas–think about what your kids enjoy and indulge a little!
- Free Movies! The list is long and varied, but many theatres in the Cincinnati area and nationally are offering free movies for kids during the summer. Heck, if you want, you can go two to three times a week!
- Free Bowling! Local bowling alleys around the nation are offering free bowling for kids. Colerain Bowl is the only one in the Cincinnati area, but you can check here for others around the nation or for your vacation destination! (Thanks to Melissa at SavingCentral for this tip!)
- Local Parks Check with your local parks for free events all summer long. Anderson has a free water play area, while Boone County has free Madcap puppets. Many parks, including Boone County, have free movies on certain nights. I remember Erlanger used to have free summer concerts. Louisville has a great waterfront with water play areas, and Shakespeare in Central Park used to be free. Its worth a check! Local parks are a treasure trove in the summer!
But what to do while at home for some cheap summer fun? Here are some of my cheap favorites!
Get out the sprinkler and the blow up pool. Our yard had only one tiny flat area, not big enough for a standard pool. But we did get this 10 foot long blow up pool for the yard. Its 22″ deep. Long enough and deep enough for mom to sit in with the kids and cool off and relax! We’ve had a ton of fun out in the sun with this pool! The sprinkler brings lots of fun too. The large blow up pool costs $35 at various stores. Try Walmart., Amazon and Kmart for this particular pool.- Make ice cream or snow cones! Try recipes for campers’ ice cream or use your blender to crush ice for inexpensive snow cones from home. (use kool aid made with small amounts of water to make your own flavorings) Or get a home ice cream maker or ice shaver for under $40 at many stores and let the kids pick the flavors! (Find Pampered Chef Ice Shavers on ebay for under $20–and they’re SUPER simple to use!) The creativity and fun of making your own will keep them entertained a lot longer than a trip to the local ice cream store will!
- Keep summer crafts on hand. I love Oriental Trading and their Hands On Fun division. I spent $50 a few years back and filled a rubbermaid container full of summer crafts. We have make your own pinwheels, make your own puzzles, leaf image kits, design your own kaleidescopes, suncatchers and much more! We order them by the dozen so they last a LONG time!
- Make a plan. One of the biggest issues is the lack of a schedule like they had at school. You don’t need to have every fifteen minutes planned out, but if they know generally what to expect, then they will do much better. Plan out when its time to get up, when its time to eat, when its time to play outside, when to go read, when to watch tv, etc. We have music time scheduled in–half an hour to bang their little hearts out on their musical instruments to their favorite music. Crafts is in there, as is clean up time. We even have a quiet time scheduled–a time to leave mommy be and play quietly in your room during the hottest part of the day.
Got other ideas? Share yours in the comments below!
I have subscribed to your feed for a few months now and I must say I am disappointed at your posts today. First, your rant about the drive thru lady. Where is written that drive thru’s are for placing one fast order? I thought drive thru’s were for people who didn’t want to get out of their car? And if you’re purporting “think about others”, well, Little Miss Know It All, you don’t know it all. Where was anyone thinking about this driver? Perhaps she had 4 sick kids in her car. Maybe she had a bum leg and couldn’t walk. Noone but her knows why she chose to use the drive thru instead of walking inside. And now this post asking are your kids whiney little snots yet? I am a stay at home mom (have been for the last seven years) and the day I think my daughter is a whiney, annoying little snot, is probably the day I should get a job and go back to work. Your deals are good, and there is no question you have helped many people with their finances, myself included. But you’ve really missed the boat today.
I’m sorry I disappointed you. Sometimes I use this blog as a place to vent. If you saw the Mt Dew Mouth bit, and others, you’d be familiar with that. The site actually began as a place for me to just air opinions–hence the LMKIA name. Its a joke that I poke at myself. I never set out to be some sort of expert on coupons or have the following that I do. It was a total shock for me–this site was simply a vent site for politics which morphed into more. People who know me know that–and I say it in all of the classes–I don’t really know it all. And yes, I’ve stated publicly on MomsLikeMe that my own kids have become annoying little snots. Its my own fault and I’ve taken steps to correct that–they somehow were thinking the world revolved around them. So when I joke about that, I say it from personal experience. I don’t say it to my kids, but I have let them know I think they are spoiled and ungrateful for the blessings in their lives, and will now have to earn things they once felt entitled to. My work in Guatemala reminds me just how blessed–and spoiled–my kids are. And sometimes it turns my stomach to think of how I’ve let them get that way. I have a vivid memory of returning from a trip to Guatemala where I saw kids who lived without clean water, regular meals and living in shacks with animal excrement on the ground, and I was angry that I couldn’t do more to help them. And the first night I’m home my son is having a panic attack because his computer monitor won’t go to full screen on a movie he’s watching at night. I’m sick to my stomach at the time with what i’d seen in Guatemala, and then spending an hour trying to calm a very spoiled OCD child who thinks that movies at night in full screen mode are something to have a meltdown over. I know the OCD and Anxiety caused the attack, but I’m the one who let him get used to having DVD’s at night. So yes, I may be joking calling my kids annoying little snots (its part of my dark sarcastic humor you rarely see here) but I have a real basis for it. I needed to make real changes to prevent it happening again–and I try to share my own hard learned lessons here for others who may be in the same spot. Not just coupons–but those things that I know many of us struggle with and feel alone in.
You know, with the driver, it wasn’t so much the four orders or any of that that set me off. (though most have a policy against that.) I rolled my eyes and moved on. It was the driving through a DO NOT ENTER area, cutting off other cars and then her honking her horn at them that had me upset. Showed a total lack of respect for anyone else but herself on top of the other things. If she’d simply followed the arrows and signs she could have been in line for the light much faster. But she chose to push her way in and block incoming traffic on a fairly busy road. THAT’S what set me off, and those around us.
I’m back to the deals today–and advertising for a Relay for Life Cancer event.
I know I can’t please everyone all the time, so I hope that in the future you’ll see more things that help you personally. And I appreciate you letting me know when you disagree with me–I tell friends and people online, that when I fail or don’t follow through, I appreciate those who are honest enough to let me know. And I mean that sincerely. My life is an open book, for the most part. Any time any of you have questions or I can help, don’t hesitate to ask!!
Here’s a few more summer ideas:
Check out your local library. Wether it’s just to rent a DVD for a rainy day, keep up on summer reading, or going to storytime. Your library has great events for kids during the summer!
Also, new to me this year: Kidsfirst Gym Rainbow Room in Mason has freeplay from 10-12 on Tuesday and Thursday all summer long. Located at 7900 Kemper Rd. The Rainbow Room has 2 trampolines, ride on toys, plastic houses, and several large wooden “swingsets/slides” for the kids to wear themselves out on!
Parky’s Ark at Winton Woods. Animals squirting water…enough said! $2/child or 3 kids/$5
Hueston Woods in Oxford…a bit of a drive, but worth it for their FREE beach! My kids love swimming and searching for shells there!
Elaine’s last blog post..Pool Fun
The Cincinnati Museum Center has free admission from 4 pm to 8 pm on the following Fridays. July 24; August 21; September 11; October 23. You can get into the History Museum, the Natural History Museum and the Childrens Museum. You have to pay for parking – $5 but after 4:30 p.m. it drops to $3. We had a great time in June and plan on going back most of the above dates.