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The post How To Entertain Your Kids While Saving Money At The Same Time appeared first on Penny Pinchin' Mom.
Trying to be a frugal parent is hard enough at the best of times, let alone when you’ve got kids to entertain. They need almost constant stimulation, which means you’re always looking for ways to keep them happy, while also maybe wearing them out a tiny bit! Unfortunately, a lot of these entertainment options end up being expensive. You can’t afford to pay for play area passes or to take them to amusement parks all the time. Even simpler things, like watching TV shows or movies, cost money.
So, how can you entertain your kids while saving money at the same time? Is this an impossible task, or are there a few ideas you can rely upon? Thankfully, it’s the latter! See the tips and tricks below for frugal kids’ entertainment ideas:
Image via Unsplash
Focus On Creative Activities
The beauty of creative activities is that pretty much anything can be a creative activity! Also, most of these things can be done at home, which means you’ll entertain the kids while having time to do other household chores. Your goal should be to harness your child’s creativity and let it thrive through some fun activities that take a while for them to do. It’s a smart tip because a lot of these activities will keep them engaged for ages, and time will pass before you know it.
Some ideas you may like to try involve:
- DIY arts & crafts tasks
- Scavenger hunts around the house
- Pretend play time
It’s good to have a mixture of tasks that your child can do alone or with you. Contrary to what some people think, parents actually want to spend time with their children. Entertaining them isn’t an excuse to let them run around and look after themselves. You still want that special time with them, which is why setting up creative games like scavenger hunts or playing pretend will strike the perfect balance. Your kids are entertained for free, and you get to create some fun memories together.
Find Free Games For Them To Play
Despite saying how good it is to spend time with your kids, you also need them to entertain themselves at times. Yes, that sounds contradictory, but life is so busy when you’re a parent. You want to be with your kids at all times, but you simply cannot. Your schedule demands that you cook or clean, or work from home. In these cases, you need to set aside some alone time, which means your kids have to be entertained for an extended period without your help.
How can you do this without spending a lot of money? It’s simple: look for free games for them to play while you’re busy. Don’t feel bad about letting your child play computer games; it’s genuinely beneficial for their development. They learn how to use a computer, and you can also pick educational games that teach them important skills. Boot up mahjong, chess, sudoku, or other puzzle games like these for your child to play while you’re busy. You feel safe knowing they’re not playing something dangerous, and it helps them develop problem-solving skills and other skills that’ll help them when they go to school.
The key to using games for entertainment is moderation. Don’t let your kids play games for hours a day; save it for the moments when you physically can’t be there to play with them. It should only be part of the wider entertainment options you provide for your kids – oh, and make sure you find legit free games. If you start paying for games, you’ll end up splashing so much cash, and it’s not worth it.
Make Use Of Free Streaming Services
Again, for moments when you can’t give your child 100% of your attention, streaming becomes a popular entertainment option. Some parents worry that this seems lazy, but it’s not! It’s like we said earlier, your life is stupidly busy, and you need to carve out these moments of respite. As we also talked about with gaming, you should approach this entertainment option with moderation in mind. Don’t plonk your child in front of the TV for three hours while you do all of your chores; that’s what being an irresponsible parent looks like.
The other thing that bothers parents about watching TV or movies is how expensive it is. You could pay $10 a month for multiple streaming platforms to give your kids enough content to watch. It adds up to nearly $100 a month when you do the math, which is an absurd amount of money to spend on entertaining your kids.
Rather than paying for all of this, look for free streaming services that provide kids’ entertainment without the costs. YouTube is the obvious one to think about in this scenario. It’s home to so much kid-friendly content, though you’re right to be worried about everything else on the platform. It can be a dangerous place for kids, which is why you should only let them use the YouTube Kids platform. It’s been carefully curated only to show kid-friendly videos, and best of all, it’s 100% free forever.
Get Them To Help With “Fun” Chores
It’ll blow your mind when you realize you can involve your kids in your chores, but make the whole experience fun for them. As parents, we need to stop thinking that chores and childcare have to be two separate things. If you make activities fun for your kids, they’ll be itching to do them with you all the time.
Here’s an example: give them a shopping list when you go to the store and set them the mission of finding certain things for you. It lets them feel like they’re on a fun little treasure hunt, but they’re really just doing the grocery shopping with you. Involve your children when you wash the car so they can enjoy all the soap and bubbles – you could even get some snow foam and let them spray it on the car.
The point is that your “boring” chores can be made more fun for kids. Involve them however you can for free entertainment and a helping hand.
As this list demonstrates, there are ample ways to entertain your kids without spending money. Life doesn’t have to be a massive list of expenses; think outside the box and use ideas that occupy your children without draining your bank account.
The post How To Entertain Your Kids While Saving Money At The Same Time appeared first on Penny Pinchin' Mom.
