frugal child entertainment for 2-6 year olds

[jodihernandez]

OK so I started watching two children ontop of my 1 and We dont have tons of toys LOL. I am big on use your imagination but that is a bit harder with these two as there parents have them use to stimulation ALL the time. They will learn how to use there imagination and do outside most of the time but man in the mornings is hard because it is too cool for them to go out. And I am 8 months pregant so when it gets cool in the fall I will have a new born baby and will need some ideas then and will have no time to find them so here I start LOL.

what I have already is.......
Play-Doh (home made those couple dollas add up fast when they let it dry out ASAP lol)
Down loading color pages from internet for coloring
Books galore- I am a big reader and push that on children as well. Too many parent s dont and it hurts them in the end.
Tonka trucks and emergency cars my son is 6 and big in to that stuff.
News paper ends and paint for them to do art. -The ends are free and paint is less than 2 dollars for 8oz and lasts a long time. I stock up on that so no need to buy for a long time. I use ice cube trays to seperate colors and control paint amounts aloted.
Chalk (who doesnt have that LOL)
Some Legos but they are expensive so till more free ones come my way that is it. I remeber when they were cheap what happened?

Now for your Ideas I will post my ideas later I need to pee AGAIN

jodi

[Momto5RN]

hit the $ section at craft store- my kids loved the notched popsicle sticks for building things.

ask for things on freecycle if you have the room .

scavenger hunt -

make up a play or a show .

make their own book or newspaper .

science experiments using household ingredients .

get them involved in any baking you do and let them take a little but home to show off to mom

are they twins or just two 6 yos - do they get along OK ?

a zillion crafts out there you can probably do from stuff around the house you might normally toss out if you google.

to run off energy outside-obstacle courses thing they can do without exactly competing against each other ( that can lead to fighting or pouting ) water ballon tosses etc

[McD]

Our library has a ton of free programs during the week for kids. They also allow puppets to be checked out for no cost. Do you have those options available at your library?

Do you have masking tape? You could make a hopscotch thing out of masking tape on the floor and let them hop around burn some energy. Could also turn on the radio and let them boogie woogie.

Wesley loves to do 'exercises'. Have them do toe touches, jumping jacks, 'push-ups', etc. Not only will they be active and about, but you will be laughing at how silly they look.

[jodihernandez]

the 6year old is mine the 2 and 4 are the ones I baby sit. So far no one offering help on free cycle. I WOULD bake with the kids BUT their moms send them with junk food galore everyday and I dont want to add to it. Their diet is pritty bad.Mom thinks with a multi vitamin a day it makes all the potato chips and cookies for meals OK. She says it is easier to give them that because they fight her over the healthy stuff. I offer them healthy stuff here. And refuse to give them the junk unless they run out of the healthy stuff first.

Jodi

[Saule]

Darn it, the things I remember might be ok for your child, but I think the others are too young. Coloring books? I used to pick up tons at the dollar store for the church preschool.

I suspect wooden blocks are probably awfully expensive these days.

We used to like to build forts out of big boxes - paint the outsides, then play inside them.

Make sock puppets from worn out tube socks or really cheap ones - make a theatre from a big box and have them make up plays.

Do you have a cheap recorder and give them a task of making up a song or story to record and then listen to?

Oops, thunder banging overhead, the cat is startled, need to calm her down!

[nuisance26]

~How about playing store? You can use your own pantry items for that. Color your own money and use stickers for prices.
My sister and I used to love to pay pet store too. We'd put all our stuffed animals out and then pretend to browse the store interacting with the pets. We'd choose one and name it. You could even write out a owner's certificate and make leashes or cages together depending on what animal they picked out.
Dress up is huge at those ages! Pull some stuff from your wardrobe(hats, jackets and anything shiny or sparkly)and put it in a laundry basket. Have a fashion show if you want or encourage roll play. Take pictures if you have a digital camera. My kids love to see weird pictures of themselves!
Ask for toys, dress up stuff and craft supplies on Freecycle!
Playing restaurant is also fun. Print a lunch menu and get a bow tie for the waiter and an apron for the chef, set a pretty table together and take turns ordering lunch.
And try to remember that at their ages it should be less about entertaining them than teaching them to entertain themselves. So try to purposely not interact with them all day. They'll get used to it and eventually love it!
It will probably help if you structure the day as if it were a preschool. That way when the baby comes you and the kids will be on auto-pilot. Preschools have circle time, reading time, snack time, playtime, etc.~

[jodihernandez]

I cant do the structured pre school because I watch them at different hours some days it is 6:00am-3pm others it is 3-7pm makes it hard to follow a patern and it is not mon-fri it is broken up in the week. I do have them play on their own as much as possible. The problem is they need some stuff to kick start their imagination

Some ideas I have are saving the empty kitchen boxes and what not and make them a play kitchen

make them some blocks with scrap wood (buying them is too expensive now adays)

Bean bag toss

and some sort of pay house area either very big box or maby something else depends on what I can get for free or close to it.

I also would like to make a little sand box or something but we have to many stray cats for that LOL.


Jodi

[frugalwarrior2]

I didn't read all the posts but-
We used to save all the bags from mcdonalds and get play food.
We would "order food" over the bar and eat pbj and such from the restaurant. We had junk toys and crowns. They loved it.

[lwlynch]

gosh you are asking about stuff i actually do know about...lol
i have never had alot of money or stuff and all is just imagination.
>barbies> a couple of dolls> then out of boxes, i made drive in mcds, school house, doctors office, and even a mall. used magazine pics to decorate. furniture were left over small boxes from kitchen food, tapes and covered with contact plastic. for blankets i used wash rags and made clothes from sock and stuff.
>cars> you can also take a table and put down paper and duct tape all around the edges, then i made a track and then they played on that.
>dinosaurs> did the same paper thing and made a landscape (just by coloring and sketching>they played for hours
>zoo> had a few animals laying around >you can get a pack at the $store and again make a play mat. with an opened up box, covered in paper and duct tape, sketched out the zoo and you can either color and keep flat or you can glue homemade fencing (used popsicle sticks)
>farm > the same as above
>trains> same as above
all my playsets I kept them separate in boxes so they could get out a box and play and put back.
>potatoe head>bought one set and then found parts at the good will and created a box full of them
>blocks, you can tape close all kinds of food boxs and paint them or cover them with contact plastic
oh gosh.. i need to stop...lol
hope i helped