Home Summer Camp Ideas

[lovehoney]

I've done this in the past but could use new suggestions.

I'm having summer camp at my home for my 3 DS's and my 4 Nieces that live around the corner. Ages are 19 months to 13. The 2 oldest are the "camp counselors".

I bought tshirts from jiffy shirts to decorate. Here is what I have planned so far:
a free boat ride in the area
a science presentation at the library
making confetti eggs for our school carnival in the fall

We go to the neighborhood pool every day. We can leave the baby with my SIL if we need to. The next youngest is 7.

I need more free and cheap ideas.

TIA

 

[scrapquitler]

I've done this in the past but could use new suggestions.

I'm having summer camp at my home for my 3 DS's and my 4 Nieces that live around the corner. Ages are 19 months to 13. The 2 oldest are the "camp counselors".

I bought tshirts from jiffy shirts to decorate. Here is what I have planned so far:
a free boat ride in the area
a science presentation at the library
making confetti eggs for our school carnival in the fall

We go to the neighborhood pool every day. We can leave the baby with my SIL if we need to. The next youngest is 7.

I need more free and cheap ideas.

TIA

Get some gimp or embroidery floss and have them learn to make friendship bracelets. The oldest ones will love it and even the 7 year old can do it. Embroidery floss costs about 35 cents for a skein and you can get bags of it even cheaper than that if you go for no-name brand at Michaels or Joann Fabrics. Here's a webpage with some projects: http://www.how-to-make-jewelry.com/how-to-make-friendship-bracelets.html


Got to your local library and borrow a girl scout handbook (choose which one based on their ages) and have them try some of the badge activities.

Let them borrow a video recorder and make their own music videos or movies (my kids and DH made an elaborate stop motion movie with our Fisher Price Little People one summer, and they had a blast doing it).

 

[Tiggerish]

Sidewalk chalk - a good sized box is a dollar at Walgreens and lots of other places. Have contests, such as best animal, best abstract, best flower, etc. Also have them take turning laying down and being traced then filling in themselves.

 

[indimom]

I have a licensed home day care and always look for inexpensive options to fill our long summer days.

Check around your community. Mine have free kids movies at the theatre every Wednesday. Our library has a reading program with awards and prizes and special programs (an animal show, water show, etc.).
Picnics at the park. Camping in the backyard. Pajama Day. A day devoted to water games.

This was our big hit last year, the kids are begging to do it again:

My husband picked up some refridgerator boxes from a local appliance store and the kids built a boat, complete with mast and sails (brooms and bedsheets), cannons (oatmeal containers), etc. They designed the entire thing themselves, I helped with cutting holes, etc. And they painted it out in the yard in their swimsuits.

They made spyglasses from paper towel rolls and eye patches from felt and stretchy cord. The oldest ones built a treasure chest out of a shoe box and hid it, then created a map for the little ones to follow and find their buried treasure. They had a blast. They played with that boat for weeks before it finally fell apart and was trashed.

Sometimes the cheapest and simplest things are the best. Have a great summer!

 

[Mom2Ben02]

What great ideas so far!!

We are doing a "park crawl". I am researching all the best parks in the area, and we are going to spend a day driving to all the good ones.

 

[woodkins]

Make home made play doh, bubbles, flubber etc. You can do "finger painting" with chocolate pudding on their bodies (the little ones love this).

Create a scavenger hunt or "easter egg" hunt.

Make kites and then fly them.

 

[zoemurr]

give each kid a can of shaving cream and let them spray each other and finger paint with it on a plastic table

Have an "old fashioned" day where you play vintage games (marbles, jacks, hopscotch)

plant flowers

visit an elderly home

find a local area that needs some clean up

I would probably pick a few themes and have a snack/craft revolve around that each day

Have fun!

 

[beansmom]

AMF is offering free bowling for kids this summer.

http://freebowling.amf.com/

picnics at the playground are one of my favorites...do the local bookstores still have story hours? What about a trip to a local farm? Farmer's market? Local pool, of course.

I love the free/cheap movies thing, too.

what about making terrariums? and teaching the older ones to can something simple, like pickles? homemade bath scrubs? find edible flowers, bake cupcakes and make sugared flowers for the top. spa days?

 

[lovehoney]

Wow, these are great ideas. I knew I could count on the budget board!

 

[HeatherC]

One year my kids did a neighborhood carnival. They spent WEEKS planning this thing. They made "booths" out of large boxes and decorated them. They made games like bean bag tosses and sewed all the bean bags, coin tosses and painted all different size canisters to toss them into, made prizes and certificates, first place ribbons, decorated their bikes to start it off with a parade, made special foods like popcorn balls, made and froze brownies, etc..
Designed and made invitations. They made up dance routines and wrote speeches.

It was hilarious and very cute and they had a blast!

 

[Dizneydaz]

Also Brunswick is offering 1 free game per student, per day, ages 18 and under (13-18 year olds set up their own accounts) during the summer, every day. Added benefit to joining their club is you can bowl on the weekends for only $1.49/game with the emailed coupons.

AMF's free bowling (2 games/per day)starts on May 30th. 16 and younger.

I finally found DD11 a pair of bowling shoes (on craigslist) so now we don't have the pay the $4.59 for shoe rental.

I just checked a couple of the movies in our area and Phoenix Big Cinemas is offering free movies on T & W at 10 a.m. (choice of G or PG) and Regal (Edwards, and UA) are offering movies on the same day at the same times for $1/each. They also are offering G & PG choices.

Regal's movies don't start until 6/21 but Phoenix starts on June 7th (our schools get out on 6/2)

AMC no longer offers free movies but their first run movies are only $6 before noon. We'll be taking advantage of that this Sat. or Sunday to see Pirates!

 

[StephMK]

For shaving cream, you can also add food coloring drops to it & press a piece of paper on it. It makes a really cool pic when it dries. Coffee filters are fun to decorate. Use markers then add water from a spray bottle & watch the colors mix and blend. You could dry the papers & use them to make collages or make window art with them.

I like the idea of picking a theme for each week. The year my oldest watched her sibs, I set up a daily schedule for them. We had weeks that included - olympics/sports, travel, spy, and welcome week. They created a camp name using the first letters of their names & decorated shirts. There were activities outside & inside to keep them busy.

FBI/mystery week- there is a great website for kids & gives them activities to learn about the agency. You could do a scavenger hunt for them or a mystery to solve. They had mystery books to read that week as part of their day. They had to go on a nature walk and find certain objects.

Sports - learn a new sport every day, practice skills & have an obstacle course or olympics type day at the end of the week. Have them decorate medals and make finish line chains as crafts during the week.

Travel - pick countries & study one each day. Learn some words in that language, food, crafts & games.

Love the ideas you have gotten already in this thread & hope to keep my kids busy with some of these ideas this summer! I also want to sightsee with them around our city and surrounding areas. Since we didn't grow up here, there are still many places we haven't seen around here.