by Hope
This past weekend we took a spur of the moment trip to a Sustainable Living Fair at a university about an hour from us. It was free and open to the public and had some cool things for kids to do per the website. I had no idea what to expect but with my eye on the prize of land and home, I thought that they might have some really cool stuff. Got the kids up and headed out after seeing it on Facebook that same morning. (I love all the stuff I find on Facebook!)
Anyways, it wasn’t quite as big as I had hoped but we did see some cool stuff and I got more fodder for my plan making. But that led the kids to saying…”Mom, we should do more stuff like this on days we have free.” Now lets be honest, during the school year, “free time” is few and far between. We have Sea Cadet drill once a month, gymnastics meets once a month, FTC Robotics competitions once a month and who knows what else on that odd free weekend we might have.
But after having such a good time together AND getting their feedback, I have decided to plan for some of these fun, free, cool things this summer. Putting them on the calendar as I ferry them out so we have some fun things to do if we are free! I’ve found a local website that lists all the activities for our area…all within an hour of us. I can’t wait to find festivals we can attend, sites we can see, artists off free viewings/shows.
Last summer we traveled ALOT and the kids went to ALOT of camps. This summer we are doing none of that. No, I take that back, the kids will go for one week each to a local camp which my dad helps pay for as their Christmas present. So having these fun things in sight will help take the monotony out of it, not to mention our apartment complex has a pool which we will make good use of, yeah!
Our local website is HamptonRoads.com and they have an event calendar. Have you checked out what you can do for fun and free this summer?
Hope is a creative, solutions-focused business manager helping clients grow their business and work more efficiently by leveraging expertise in project management, digital marketing, & tech solutions. She’s recently become an empty nester as her 5 foster/adoptive kids have spread their wings. She lives with her 5 dogs in a small town in NE Georgia and prefers the mountains to the beaches any day. She struggles with the travel bug and is doing her best to help each of her kids as their finish schooling and become independent (but it’s hard!) She has run her own consulting company for almost twenty years! Hope began sharing her journey with the BAD community in the Spring of 2015 and feels like she has finally in a place to really focus on making wise financial decisions.
That fair sounds interesting and I think its great you are involving the kids so much. Have you ever tried Geocaching? You can do it literally anywhere and it’s free. If you have a smart phone you can download the app [may cost $10 – can’t remember]. You can get an annual premium membership for $30 but you don’t have to pay to do it. The amount of $ it costs is minimal. There are literally hundreds of thousands of caches everywhere. There are in rural and suburban settings.
We love geocaching!
Another thing I always forget about is libraries sometimes have free or discount passes available for local museums. You usually have to reserve in advance and they are only good for that day.
Oh yeah, also,at least in my state you can go to other county libraries too. Sign up for a card as long as you are a resident in the state. Then you can get passes for places you are visiting too!