Frugal Family Activity Ideas

[Joanne]

Originally Posted by amandajane

My son is out fishing with a friend at the moment so I have a couple of hours to myself)

I was actually coming back to suggest fishing as a frugal activity. LOL

Originally Posted by amandajane

Joanne, I can't imagine coping with homeschooling, although I love the concept.

I can't imagine coping with school.

[amandajane]

He's not back yet, hopefully he's caught a few fish on his first excursion. I'll take a photo of his haul when he gets home :0)

[Miss Rosie]

Try your library.

Ours is great. Besides books, it has magazines, DVDs, books on CD, books on tape, music CDs, sheet music, art books, all kinds of stuff, and their catalog is online. They also do things like Mario Kart and DDR tournaments, although my custody schedule is such that we've never been able to go.

Last week, I borrowed an 8-episode DVD of Bleak House on an impulse. My 12-year-old son is loving it.

[Michelle Dawn]

Originally Posted by farley2k

Check out Lost Cities, Ticket to Ride, Settlers of Catan or the awards section of the site I found all these links.

My friend has Settlers of Catan and it is SO ADDICTIVE. If I ever buy another new board game (they are ridiculously overpriced) it will be this game!

[amandajane]

Thanks Rosie and Dawn :0) That game sounds interesting, I'll have to check it out. Our local library has kids toys as well, I'd forgotten about that.

[stormy]

Our library has game days and a chess club.

Bowling is cheap on Sunday mornings and some afternoons.

Shoot hoops, kick a soccer ball around, watch a high school sports game, ...

[amandajane]

Thanks Stormy.

Bowling works out expensive here generally because my son gets frustrated because he can't play properly and it's $8 per game. I think they have family evenings though, maybe it would be worth having a go on those so he could watch other people bowling and learn. I'm as bad as it as my son is, lol.

He is a chess addict though, we play it quite a lot :0)

[jdp]

Not for every kid but when we are burnt out of the usual frugal fun, my 5yo boy with a vivid imagination really loves to sit down, record himself telling some fantastic tale then have me type it up on the computer breaking it up like a story book and printing to put together for him to then illustrate. This sometimes stretches out for days and is especially handy when the weather is ugly and we don't want to leave the house, have played every game in the house, reorganized and sorted everything in the house and gotten tired of balled-sock-in-th-laundry-bin basketball.

Now that his preschool is teaching letter recognition/writing he's very keen on just trying to learn the keyboard. He thinks my fingers just fly and it doesn't matter what key they hit and he used to mimic that. Now he 'gets' that there's a point and a pattern. lol

[amandajane]

Thanks! That's a great idea, my son loves to read and write. He's tried typing up his stories himself but it takes a long time. He can record on his mobile phone (I can't believe Nan brought that for him for Christmas!)

I touch type too, he thinks it's hillarious, lol

Cheers!

[kav122]

I LOVE that idea JDP!