Welcome Some Ideas on Fun Activites to Do with Kiddo This Summer

Where to begin! Do you get the email from Frugal In Forth Worth? They send a couple emails a week full of cheap or free things to do..... free museums, planetariums, cheap movies, concerts in the park, etc.
This is last weeks list
■FREE Ballet Concerto’s Summer Dance Concert Series
■FREE Outdoor Evening Concert Series at Levitt Pavilion
■FREE Movie Under the Stars (Dolphin Tale) in Keller
■FREE Friday Night Fireworks over Grapevine Lake
■FREE Nash Farm, Family Fun & Dairy Day Event
■FREE Star Gazing Party ~ Fort Worth Science & History Museum/Noble Planetarium
■FREE Hummingbird Garden Seminar at River Legacy Living Science Center in Arlington
■FREE Lowe’s Woodworking Workshop for Kids
■FREE Landscape Seminar at Calloway’s Nursery
■FREE Outdoor Family Event at Bass Pro Shops
■FREE Cowtown Opry Performance
■FREE Williams Sonoma Cooking Techniques Class

MYDFWMOMMY is a great resource also.
Groupon has great fun things to offer on a regular basis. We got a membership to the Air and Space Museum for $12!
There are splash parks.
There are Vacation Bible Schools all over.
The community center and TCC has classes for youth. Dance, crafts, sports. All sorts of fun stuff.
The movie theatres are showing kid movies for $1.50 in the mornings.

We have some great things around DFW.

I know it's unbearably hot, but the zoo is half priced on Wednesdays. We hit it up early and go in between the indoor and outdoor exhibits. It's usually not too bad of a trip. The animals do get a little lazy in the heat though.

The FW musuem of science is geared towards kids. They have the planetarium and imax theater if you are into that. They change out the exhibits rather frequently, so it's always changing. Right now they have Grossology going on. It's all about the gross stuff your body does. We have a membership. It's been money well spent for us. If you go and check it out and decide you want a membership, they will credit the entrance fee you paid toward your membership if you do it on the same day.

The aquarium in Fair Park is supposed to be great. You get to feed sting rays and check out sharks. We haven't been yet, but we plan on checking it out this week. The Dallas World Aquarium is also fantastic, but in my opinion, it is way over priced.

THe parks around here are terrific. We go early in the day. You still have to check the temp of the slides, even in the morning.

NRH2O and Hawaiian Falls are fun water parks. I prefer NRH20...it's just more convenient. CHeck online, both places have some good deals.

If you don't want a full blown water park Keller Pointe has a great indoor/outdoor pool with slide and a small lazy river. It's usually less crowded here than the water parks.

Urban Air in Southlake is lots of fun! It's an indoor trampoline park. We went before noon and it was great. The staff told me it does get a little more hectic and crowded after noon.

There are lots of bounce house places too - in NRH there's Leapin' Lizards, Keller had Let's Jump, and Southlake has Jump Zone.

THere is laser tag in N Richland Hills too. It's called Laser Quest.

Polar Ice at Grapevine Mills Mall has public skate times. Ice Skating would be fun with these 100 + degree temps!

They also have Legoland and the Sea L. Aquarium. I have been to Legoland and if she even has a passing interest in Legos it wil be a fun day. I have heard very mixed reviews of the aquarium at the mall.

You can tour the Bureau of Engraving and Printing in Fort Worth. It's a free tour, but the rules on what you can bring in are really strict. They show you how money is printed.

If you haven't been already, the stockyards are fun for an afternoon. TIme it around the cattledrive and spend the $5 to do the maze.

Don't forget things like picnics at the botanical gardens and trips to the library. Simple, but memorable.

Have a great summer!

Wow, the previous answers are amazing!

My boys are 8 and 14, and we've had so much fun visiting museums this summer. We went to the Grossology/Risk exhibit last week, but we have also enjoyed the more "adult" museums. The Amon Carter museum is free, and we loved it! Our favorite museum is the Modern Art museum. We haven't ventured to Dallas yet, but we will. We just like Ft. Worth better.

We also love the Barnes and Noble in downtown Ft. Worth. It's two-story, and so much fun to browse! We go downtown, eat lunch, have ice-cream or visit the Chocolate Factory store, and visit Barnes and Noble. It's a great day!

As others mentioned, the Stockyards is so much fun!

We also have passes to Hawaiian Falls, but NRH20 is closer to you. We love NRH20. That's where we went before HF opened.

Burger's Lake is a blast! We go there a couple of times each summer.

We also like to go out to the Oasis on Joe Pool Lake to feed the fish and eat lunch. I think there is a place like that on Grapevine Lake that would be closer to you (Sneaky Pete's, maybe?).

I take my boys to the U-Pick veggie farms and berry farms if you have any of those where you are.

For creative things at home:
-a mini carnival in the backyard (easy to do: bean bag toss, "fishing" using
a make-shift pole w/a clothespin attached at bottom for a mini prize to
attach, ring toss around 2-liter bottles of soda)
-making jewelry
-painting plater of paris (found at craft stores)
-painting a small canvas
-make a mini indoor herb garden (cilantro, basil & chives for example)
-puzzles
-paint rocks to use as paperweights
-make stationary by rubbing crayons over leaves under 8x10 paper
-get little wooden letters that spell out her name for your daughter to paint
over there
-stamp cheap notecards

I don't know about where you live but I loved sailing as a kid and definitely intend to teach my kids when they're older