My kids aren’t old enough to be in school, but you can bet that I need to keep them entertained this summer anyway. We need things that we can do as a family…so they should keep me interested as well. Oh, and did I mention free? I don’t have extra money to be spending on keeping my kids moving. Here are some ideas for your family:

Letterboxing: Keep a journal of your adventures following directions and locating Letterboxes around the country….and right here at home! Visit Letterboxing.org to read all of the ins and outs and where to start looking for Letter Boxes in your area. You can find the ones at home and then every time you visit a new place, look up the letterboxes in that area and add them to your journal. Its a real life treasure hunt for the whole family!

Scavenger Hunt: We made a big scavenger hunt for our kids this summer. A poster board with names of different items we expect to see throughout the summer. It is our kids’ jobs to snap a picture of these things when they see them (our kids love to take pictures) then we put the picture on the poster board to “cross off” the item found. It also serves to photo journal our summer.

City Park Challenge: We printed off a map of the Lawrence City Parks and enlarged it. We highlighted all of the parks and it is our goal to visit them all! Every time we go to one we put a star on the map. My kids are excited to see all of the different play equipment around town.

Book Clubs: There are lots of different summer reading programs from the Public Library, Barnes and Noble, Borders and Half-Price Books. The last three will give your kids a chance to earn FREE books by reading books! Reading challenges were always a big part of my summer growing up and I hope that my kids will find it as much fun.

With a little creativity your kids can have a fun summer and learn a little something without making a dent in your budget!