Free Family Fun.

Spring is in full swing in my neck of the woods and with this weather comes the desire to be outdoors and to make some memories. I have been compiling a list of free things that anyone can do (not specific to my living in my area) with their family to make some memories while not breaking the bank. Here are my top 10 free family fun ideas.

1. Take a picnic outside in the yard or to your local park. It can be a spur of the moment lunch of “pb and j” or dinner with dad of fried chicken and potato salad that you and the kids made that afternoon. Just do it!!
2. Go for a walk. Down the road, in the park, or even at your school track. Take the kids’ bikes and let them ride while you get some walking time in.
3. Give you kids a camera and let them take pictures of as many types of flowers as they can find. Follow them around and enjoy the beauty of nature through the eyes of a child again. Literally take time to “stop and smell the flowers”
4. Find a sidewalk, patio or other hard surface and give each family member a brush, roller, or sponge. Let them all “paint” with water. As the sun shines the “painting” dries up and disappears. And then you can start all over again.
5. Host a drive-in movie for your family and friends. Take you computer or television outside and watch a movie under the stars!! In these days of wireless high speed internet you aren’t limited to watching movies just in your living room any more!
6. Let your children help cut up meat and veggies and put them onto kabobs. Fire up the grill and enjoy eating your entire meal from a stick!
7. Enjoy s’mores!! You can find ways to make them in the oven, on the grill, or make them the traditional way over an open fire.
8. Read an adventure story as a family and then head outside to “act” it out. Some of our family favorites are The Boxcar Children, Little House on the Prarie, and The Children of Noisy Village. Sometime we also will act out the period we are studying in History. We might be Indians and Pinoneers, or Redcoats and settlers. We will set up a “house or camp” as we imagine what it would be like and then we each pick a roll and let our imaginations soar!
9. Make a scavenger hunt for your children. Maybe it could be clues around the house to find the ingredients for dinner, or clues about an upcoming outing, or even clues leading to money that they can use to “buy” dinner at the restraunt that you have set up in the dinning room. This is great for a rainy day or a day that it is too hot to be outside.
10. Host a “Toy Swap”. If by the middle of summer you find your children bored with nothing to do invite some friends to bring a tote of their toys to your house and send them home with a toteful of yours! Make sure to write your name on the toys and to set guidelines to handle broken or lost toys that make everyone comfortable. This is a great way to get “new” toys for your children to play with without shelling out a dime.