low cost fun activities

**Sara Noel** · 07-21-2009, 04:37 PM

I always see a lot of activities that are best suited for younger kids. What do you do with older kids? Pre-teens and teens? It seems they often prefer to buddy up with their friends even for family activities.

**MaryCarney** · 07-21-2009, 08:32 PM

A virtual scavenger hunt is lots of fun. All the kids need are a digital camera or a cell phone which takes pictures. Divide them into groups and give them a list of things to photograph and the first group back with all the items wins.
For example - a carton of oatmeal, fire hydrant, toddler on a swing, a fish etc, etc. This is a pretty popular party game with our local kids.

**peanut** · 07-22-2009, 02:34 PM

We used to take our older kids on hikes, bike rides, to the park with a frisbee...anything physical to get them moving. They love BBQs with their friends. So we'd invite another family for BBQs often. Sometimes we'd meet up with people at the beach...or go ourselves.

We had a YMCA membership for awhile for the girls and we'd go play racquetball with them...or basketball. A Y membership costs money, but you get a lot of bang for your buck there.

**rasilla** · 07-23-2009, 08:41 PM

Sara Noel:

I'm not a mom to tweens, but I remember those years and the neighborhood tweens hang out at our house during the summer. Most of the ideas mentioned earlier can easily be adapted for older kids. When we were teens we loved:
* board games (especially when we gambled over them with our chores or real money)
* artsy craft stuff (as long as mom didn't micromanage),
* Sardines-in-a-can,
* choreographing (sp chk) and making dance videos
* going camping (even in our yard)
* building forts, once when I was 17 my brothers and I built a fort in our yard - out of moving boxes - it was massive (and the talk of the town)
* exploding stuff - like making potato guns, watching marshmallows burst in a fire, experimenting with the rate of combustion with a variety of items... Can you tell we had a burn pit and were responsible for burning our trash?

Hope those got you thinking.

Good luck keeping your tweens active!

**joyofsix** · 07-24-2009, 07:10 AM

My kids enjoy having their friends over. We seem to be the place to be even though nothing much happens. It doesn't cost me anything and keeps them busy so I don't mind. They play games, hang out on the trampoline or walk to the school yard to mess around. I usually serve popcorn and kool-aid and no one complains. If they are here longer I make homemade pizza or homemade milkshakes (spam! It is better fried than typedspam! It is better fried than typedspam! It is better fried than typedspam! It is better fried than typedspam! It is better fried than typedspam! It is better fried than typedspam! It is better fried than typedspam! It is better fried than typedspam! It is better fried than typed housewife ones with no milk).
If it's just our family my kids like games/cards, reading, messing around in the yard. They often take themselves off to do things like running,fishing or woods walking, hanging out at the ball park in summer. My teens are 17, 15 and 13.

**peanut** · 07-24-2009, 06:49 PM

You know, the other thing our teens liked to do was stargazing or watching eclipses...and going to the park when there was free entertainment in the bandshell...and attend street fairs... They even liked the Farmer's Market! Mostly because Mom and Dad caved and bought them a goodie usually.

Not free, but a once in awhile treat, was a night at the IMAX. We discovered you can buy a museum family pass that is good all across Canada in various museums...and in some museums in the States. It included entrance into Science Centers. We made good use of our pass one year!

**CandoLady** · 07-27-2009, 12:53 PM

I always want to consider nice cheap activities for my kids, and recently I found out that the Ad council did a study which stated that kids spend 50% less time outdoors than they did 20 years ago.

This has me having our kids spending less time at the movies and watching TV and more time discovering wildlife and using their imaginations.

The Forest Service is starting a new campaign entitled "Where the Other You Lives" which is addressing these numbers as well. They have a new set of Ads and a website
(http ://youcastcorp.com/discovertheforestlink), which hope to get parents and children outdoors to discover what it is to be eco-friendly and to experience nature.