Entertainment on a budget

There are 2 phrases I can expect regularly from my 9 year old son: "I'm hungry", and "I'm bored". The first I've had to control, because the boy can eat his weight in junk food if I let him. I've been looking for healthier alternatives that he actually likes, and I'm working on spacing his snacks so he isn't set to "constant chew". So far it's been working well.

The other phrase is tougher. E likes to be entertained all the time. He's not the type that likes to play by himself. He wants lots of interaction and new things to do. This can be challenging, especially when working on a budget.

I looked into some of the recreation in our area, and all I can say is, "EXPENSIVE!!" I thought Central Florida was expensive because of all the theme parks, but it's much worse here. At least Disney World offers Florida resident discounts, and parks large enough to keep you busy the entire day. I checked out the Miami Seaquarium, and it costs close to $40 per person for a park that is not only pretty far from my house but all the attractions can be seen in less than 6 hours. Too much $ for my blood. There's other attractions but again, far from home and too expensive to make the trip worthwhile. So, I've had to look around for alternatives. And I've found that if you look hard enough, there are treasures waiting to be discovered.

We have a park across the street from our house that we go to regularly. It's got 2 soccer fields, plus a kiddie park with swings and such. We can run around the park for exercise, play at the kiddie area or fly E's kite. While there the other day, a neighbor mentioned that our local Cobb movie theater was having Free Kid's Summer Movies on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. They're old movies, some have even been on TV already, but just to be able to get out of the house for awhile and catch a movie is fun, especially for my son. So this morning we went bright and early and watched "Barnyard", a fun Nickelodeon movie with lots of laughs and family values woven in. Daddy gave E money to buy soda and candy, but next time I'll bring a snack from home if he wants it. One box of candy and a medium soda shouldn't cost $8.25. Still, we had a nice time, and afterwards we went to our favorite pizza place, Little Caesars, for $5.00 large pepperoni pizza. Not many good deals like that anymore!

Another thing I found was library activities. Yes, the library has books, and even reading time for the little ones. But my local library has Arts and Crafts Thursdays, which we plan to take advantage of this week. While we're there we can check out some reading material (making the trip fun AND educational). A friend of mine told me some of the libraries have all kinds of events, so I'll have to check regularly at the different branches to see what's being offered. Again, the best part of this is the price: FREEEEE!!

One of my best friends has a pool in her community, and she's invited us to come over for swims. Her son and mine are best buddies, so that makes the offer even sweeter. They can have fun together, and she and I can have girl time. I can do that!

Next week my son will be attending vacation Bible camp (E likes it to be called camp instead of school. Wonder why? ;-) ). The theme for this year is Boomerang Express. It'll be all about Australia. So the thought occurred to me yesterday (came from Above, of course) that we could use this for our homeschool project. So starting today, we're gonna read all we can about Australia, the country/continent, the people, animals, food, etc. I think this will be so interesting, plus it'll give E an advantage next week because he'll have studied much of what will be learned in VBS. I'm really excited about this. I'm probably gonna learn as much as E is about this beautiful land down under.

I'm learning a very important lesson here: the best things in life ARE free. My son isn't upset that we're going to places that cost little to no money. He's just thrilled that we're doing stuff together, "mom and son time" as he calls it. So many parents work extra hours to save for that special vacation. I'm realizing that to kids, a really expensive week traveling somewhere isn't nearly as fun as spending time daily with family. We need to think like children think, then get our priorities straight. Our children won't remember the amount of hours we spent at our jobs. They will remember the amount of time we dedicated to them.