Wild and Cheap Summer Adventures for Boys on a Budget

Summer is not always expensive to have fun with boys. You migh have some cheap ways to have summer fun with boys. Every summer we participate in the summer reading program at the library.  I did it as a child and make sure that my children have the same opportunity.  Finding cheap ideas for summer can be challenging, but for boys it is more challenging.  Mine are not that interested in crafts. That eliminates alot of activities. It will take them all of 2 minutes to finish a craft that should take at least 15-20 minutes. That is why the library is always top of my list for activities. It gives them crafts…if they want, reading, play, and exploration.

Library Summer Programs

When we are at the library for one of our summer adventures they play in the play area, puzzles, look at books ,work on the computer and talk to other kids. Quietly. Most of the time. If the noise level gets loud then we start picking out books and making our way to the checkout.

To change things up a bit and try something new I will go online and see what classes they have for different age groups have some fun summer adventures.

With four kids money gets a little tighter with each one especially if you have to pay for admissions. So my first tip is to choose an activity for one of your children (if you have more than one child) and look up a special class.  For us this works and I think it helps the kids to see that their brothers’ have interests separate from theirs.

Special Park Program Days

My other children go along but before we ge there I tell them that it is (fill in the blank’s) special day.  See that goes two ways…it saves money and allows that child to feel extra important. It is just another way for me to have one on one time. For me, this is an intentional part of parenting. Every child needs one on one time. Even if it is only 15 min.

At the activity I will bring the kindle for my other children to play or watch while I help the class participant.   Our parks and recreation holds classes monthly at different locations.

So once a month I take my preschooler to the jungle tales class.  He gets to hear a story, make a craft, look at snakes and learn about them.  At the end of each session all of the kids get to feed the goldfish in the the pond.

In May we went to the Mayflowers class and he learned about different plants, heard a story, looked at the snakes in the conservatory, created a craft (I bombed horribly and had to fix when we arrived home), and fed the fish.

All of that in one hour, and for a good price.  It was a pretty fun day for all of us.

Creek Stomping and Other Summer Adventures

Then we visited a park and explored for a bit for a lot of our summer adventures. I learned a long time ago to not hold out my hand when someone says “mom look what I found”. That is just looking for a worm or a bug in the hand. The park is enclosed by an iron gate and has a few fountains, trees and lots of beautiful flower beds.  It is a great chance for us to practice looking but not touching.  Sometimes the flowers are so beautiful that there is a temptation to pick them…but I quickly remind them to fight the temptation. I was able to wrangle them up and get a picture of all 3 (my oldest was working) under a tree.

Then when I turned around my 6 and 4 year old are rolling down the hill.  Why is this a problem? The hill was muddy.  At that point I gathered them up…the muddy mess that they were and off we went.

Going to the library, taking nature classes, running around in a park, snatching leaves off of a tree, and rolling down a hill are all fun activities that cost little or no money.  In a time when we can’t let our children run freely like we used to do….create an environment of freedom in a safe place.

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