Inexpensive activites to do with your kids???
By tklich
@tklich (391)
United States
December 11, 2008 4:19pm CST
Is there such a thing? I want to hear all your ideas and what you like to do with your kids to spend time with them and have fun. What kind of activities do you do with your kids? Do you take them out places? Please give me ideas!!
I have a four year old son, and my husband has a 12 year old daughter. Sometimes it's a little hard to take them both somewhere where they can both have fun. There is quite an age difference, so they are interested in different things. Last weekend I took my son to the mall. We had lunch just the two of us in the food court, then he played in this little, tiny play area for about 2 hours! He had a blast, and the only money I spend was around $10 for lunch. My son loves loves LOVES to play outside, but when it gets to be so cold out, we stay in most of the time. In the evening during the week he's been addicted to video games, but I'd like to start doing other things with him and my family on the weekends. We don't have a lot of extra money to go out different places though.
Please give me all your ideas! Thanks!!
1 person likes this
4 responses
@deebomb (15304)
• United States
11 Dec 08
Something my kids used to like to do was read and then put on a play about what they read. Your family could do that. you could write a play with the 12 year old that can include the 4 year old too. Baking cookies can be another thing that they could do together. My kids loved to make cookies together. They liked eating them beat
@tklich (391)
• United States
12 Dec 08
Thank you for the response. Those are two great ideas, I will have to try out the play idea! I did make cookies a couple weeks ago and my four year old was dying to help me out, and he had a blast doing it. And luckily my stepdaughter and son get together along great, she's great with him and is actually pretty mature for her age. And of course he adores her...he's never had any other sibling before, so he loves spending time with her and playing with her if she's not busy with homework. Thanks for the advice!
1 person likes this
@eclecticeducation (112)
• United States
11 Dec 08
We do family movie night a lot! We choose movies that are suitable for both of our children (ages 6 and 12) and sometimes we have popcorn with it. It makes for a really nice evening for us all cuddled up on the couch together. I also love taking my children out sometimes to a restaurant like you did. My husband plays video games with the children so they get to play the games they enjoy, but they still get "daddy time".
@tklich (391)
• United States
12 Dec 08
Thank you for the response. Having a movie night is a great idea. That's something that everyone loves to do and can all enjoy. Even my husband and I like watching the animated movies! LOL. I also like spending some time with just my son. We used to live alone together so we did get a lot of alone time, but he was a couple years younger then. Now that he's a little older it's completely different, if that makes any sense. My son and stepdaughter love to play video games, as well as my husband and I, so that's a great activity we can all do as well. Thank you so much for your input! :)
@messageme (2821)
• United States
12 Dec 08
The only cheap place I can think of is the park. FREE!! But like you said with the cold whether its kind of hard to go out and do that. I would like to see what others say though. With six kids, even going out to eat is very expensive. Even if I were to take them one at a time.
@KimJoRoll (127)
• United States
12 Dec 08
We have family movie night. We also have a family game night. Also, my little girl is starting to read so she'll read short little books to her brother.We also love to play dress up! They can do that for hours on end! Even in just our "grown up" clothes. I do imagine though it would be hard with such an age difference. My kids love to go to the play place too! Or we go to McDonald's and play in the play area there. I'm sorry that I don't have a lot of great ideas but these are things we like to do!
