Summer Fun For Families

In every city and town and all across the country, families will want to have fun this summer but many want to save money too. I have put together fun ideas for you to choose from, and the children wont even know you saved hundreds of dollars this summer!

First of all there are lots of camps and sports camps that you will want to check out. Many of these camps can be quite expensive so be choosy. Go for a week day camp rather than a two week camp away from home. Join up with the boy or girl scouts its like 20.00 to join plus uniform shirt & book. They have all kinds of great learning programs and camping trips. The Cub and Boy Scouts meet once a week and plan weekend camping trips. Many of these trips you can choose to bring family or not. The boys learn survival skills plus all kinds of great information for survival during the club camp-outs. Many of these camp -outs are in Boy Scout locations that are really cool! (We have been to several). The cost is free for families many times, and its like 10 dollars for your boy or girl to go. Its a really good value. You can get all summer long fun for under 100.00.

Check out your local farms! You can go shopping for fresh produce and the kids can have fun there picking produce too. Years ago we used to go pick blueberries and save money on the cost per pound. I brought my girl friends and we went in the river swimming afterwards . Now-days many of the farms have animals the kids can pet or other fun informational workshops. We always go to Sweet Things by Arlene's farm, they let the kids ride her horses. and they have loads of blueberries. Shady Oaks is nice for ice cream and I pick out some fresh produce too.

Frisbee Golf! Many parks are featuring latest fun, Frisbee golf completely free, you just need the gas to get there. Get some Frisbee's and get online and check out some parks.

Bucket of balls at the golf coarse is only about 4-5.00 you can spend a couple of hours there in a beautiful setting. Near our town we have three golf courses each one has a free putting green, sometimes I take my son and we go to all three :)

Glow in the dark golf is fun too.

Dinner picnics at the lake are really nice, we used to go to the lake around 4pm after work and the kids would swim and we would eat dinner out there around 6pm. sometimes I would already have potato salad made, so we would just roast hot dogs on the fire. Other times I would bring cold cuts, crackers and fruits or pita pockets with turkey etc. It is nice to BBQ and picnic at the lake rather than cook in a hot kitchen. The summer evenings on the pacific coast are long sometimes it doesn't get dark till about 9-10pm.

CAMP-OUT Your local lakes and streams are a nice place to relax and unwind. Have a BBQ picnic or possibly stay overnight. Camping is much more affordable than staying overnight in a hotel, most have showers now too. Just be aware of your campfire and young children if they are 1-3 you should make sure they don't get too close and have an adult by them while roasting goodies.

Below I will add more links to BBQ and recipes along with links to boy scouts and other fun places!

Water Balloon tag is probably the most popular water game known, you can buy a whole bag of fun for about 1-2 bucks!

Sponge Bob Tag, get some big Yellow sponges from the dollar store, it doesn't hurt to get splattered with a wet sponge, the kids love this one and they play for hours!

Car Wash, make it fun, give them lots of water and buckets & soap Dawn works great on cars too ;) pay the children at least a dollar or two, its still cheaper than a real car wash, (don't expect it to be a perfect wash though)

Hide and seek water guns when you find them you try to squirt them before they get to base.

Water tag is a really fun game to play get out your squirt guns.

Have the children make homemade ice cream in a bag.

Musical chairs, turn on and off the sprinkler and bring out a boom box. The Music goes off and everyone sits down in the grass and gets sprinkled.

Its raining! Get out some Umbrellas and let children take turns turning on the sprinkler and the have fun with their umbrellas to shelter them if they want to. Umbrellas make a nice shade too for children.