Family Activities

I stumbled onto Fort Worth Child Magazine and their website quite by accident. Then, I signed up for their email alerts. Now, I often get notified when cool things are in town. It usually tells where, when, what, and how much. I've been amazed at how many things are free. I decided to sign up for Dallas Child online, too, and there are cool things going on there as well. Good luck!!! B.

I'm on board with different things to do during the week/weekend. Your children are old enough where you can ask them about the things they like. You don't have to do something every day of the week, but something they will look forward to doing. For example,

Monday-Library day(each child could get a library card and check out new books, videos
Tuesday-Craft/Art night
Wednesday-Cooking together night..my daughter loves making homemade pizza
Thursday-Game night
Friday-Movie night w/popcorn..each child can choose free movie from the library or Redbox $1
Saturday-Pancake day
Sunday-Church or relax day...read a book, talk

Hope this helps!

We do all of the above without spending extra money. For craft night I get supplies from Michael's, Target's Dollar Spot or the Dollar Tree.

Keep it simple.....name a few nights of the week, like:
Friday night is popcorn and M&M night
Sunday is cupcake day
Tuesday is Game night

Whatever is with the flow of your family....I am trying to do more of these things too. I make it too complicated thinking it has to be out of the house or cost money, but really what kid would not love every Sunday being spaghetti and cupcake day??? Get ideas from the kids too. I tend to 'save' cupcakes for 'special' days, but God gives us each day as a gift, so get out the china (if you have any...I don't, but would if I did) and eat something 'special' just because.

Something I like to do each year is purchase memberships to the zoo and musuem, I typically do it as a gift or with our tax refund. It's a high "up front" price, but once you do it you can go anytime through the year until the month your membership expires. We didn't go to the (FW) Zoo for years until I went ahead and did the membership thing last year and we have gone sooo many times, it has more than paid for itself!

Also In the past in the spring Central Market has done free concerts on the patio, that is a lot of fun & a nice way to get out of the house for a little while.

When my daughter was younger, it was worth it to us to buy the season passes to places like the zoo, Dallas Arboretum, Science Place....

Now that she is older, we buy season passes to Six Flags.

The upfront price can be scary but in the long run it is worth it. Right now you can get a Six Flags pass for about $80 including taxes. They have "deals" online a lot.

For family time at home, we have a wii that enjoy playing with each other. We like the sports package and mario kart.

Keep in mind that hte library has a lot of things to offer for FREE. Check out Dallas Child magazine and the Guide that comes in the Dallas Morning News on Fridays. We also love the spring festivals like Wildflower, Cottonwood, etc.

you've already had some great suggestions..i'll just add that you can rent movies FREE from the library

Mine are a lot younger than yours but we have Family Movie Night every Friday and mine look forward to it all week long. At Blockbuster now you can rent movies for 99 cents or $1.99 for 1 day and we make popcorn and all lay in the living room floor to watch our movie together. When mine get a little older we have thought about alternating movie week and game night (Scrabble,Monopoly etc) week. Another thought is to pick up some cheap scrapbooking supplies at Michaels or even at the Dollar store and one night a week you all sit down and each kid works on a page in their own scrapbook.

Have a night every week that your family does something spontaneous.

Get some 3X5 cards and have each child and yourself write an activity that they would like to do with the family that costs $2.00 or less TOTAL. Cheap is good; FREE is better!

Each month sit down with fresh cards and let them each write one. Then draw one each week.

Examples of activities:

* Game night.
* Picnic in the yard.
* Movie night. (does your town have the Red Box DVD's? $1 rentals)
* Take a walk together with a list of items to spot.

I hope this helps.

Blessings,

P. <><

We have a Geocaching Event coming up on Sat, March 7th that is $25 for a family of 4...will be a fun "outing" event for you guys - here's a link to out site - www.AdventureDayCamps.com

We also have a Family Campout scheduled for March 14th & 15th that will be a blast. You and your kids would have a ball. Activities, smores around the campfire, being at the lake...all you need is your tent and personal items. Call me if you have questions - ###-###-####.

Spring Break Camp is March 16th-20th...can attend a day or all week...tons of fun for your kids...your 15 year old could volunteer to help out and still have a blast...

the City of Dallas web site has a lists of its parkS, one month we picked a new park to visit each weekend and we saw so much of the city we would never have seen.

Pack sandwiches and snacks (keep it simple) and go to White Rock lake. The kids love the walk and it's beautiful. If you're in the Frisco area go to Arbor Hills nature preserve. Both are free and have play areas too (for the younger kids).

I have this same struggle, and I am always trying to entertain my kids somewhere new, but really, all they need is my undivided attention. The problem is, that is hard to give them when I am at home, so I chose the easier route, which is to go somewhere. Your children are definitely old enough for some great traditions to start. Maybe you set aside a night of the week for cooking a meal together. Esp if you can do a themed meal, and cook different things from different countries. I imagine your struggle is keeping that 15 year old interested, so needing his skills would be great. Can you work on a home improvement type activity together?? Once my SIL gave all of her kids real canvas that she had gotten on clearance, and they all painted a picture and then they hung it over their couches. They are so proud of those things!! Or, maybe you could try planting a garden together. Tap into their creativity, and you would be amazed at how happy they are just to be at home with you. I am not quite at the practicing what I preach thing..we are still struggling with schedules and 4 kids under 8, with one on the way! But I know that it can be done, and will make them far happier than an outing every week. Good for you for trying so hard to balance it all! I dont know how you single moms do it, but I am always in awe!! ~A.~

There's a publication in my area (Flower Mound/Lewisville) called Family eGuide that lists a lot of free and cheap activities for families of all ages. I know that's not close to you, but it might give you ideas of places to check in the Arlington area. You can find them at FamilyeGuide.com.

I'm so glad you asked this; there are some great suggestions. We also love our zoo passes and going to Central Market for the free concerts. Another free option that my kids love is going to The Oasis at Joe Pool lake to feed the fish and ducks. We each take our own bag of dog/cat food instead of buying the food there. When we're finished feeding them, we walk on the docks. The kids love it, and so do I. My kids are almost 5, 11, and a 15 year old foreign exchange student, so they are close to the ages of yours. I'm also planting a garden, and they are helping me get it ready. I'm letting them each pick something to plant so that they can take care of it and watch it grow. We live on a small farm, so that makes it easier, but if you live in the city, you could still plant a few plants or an herb garden if you like being outside. We planted pumpkins last year and they went wild! I swear they grew every day. The kids had a ball checking to see how much they grew each evening.