You don’t have to spend a fortune or spend hours scouring Pinterest to make great summer memories with your kids. Some of our favorite things to do are cheap and simple. Here are some of our favorite affordable summer activities for kids, no special crafting skills necessary:

Free

1. Our library system has a great summer program. They partner with the county parks and arrange a geo-caching type of treasure hunt. Kids get a book full of maps and clues go around to local parks trying to find the stamp that the library has hidden in each park. They do a stamp rubbing in their book. Once they have collected a certain amount of stamps, they can cash in for a prize. Our library also has a whole calendar of events that they sponsor throughout the summer. Yours probably does too! 

2. Geocaching is basically like treasuring hunting. People hide little trinkets and you try to find them and/or leave things for other people to find. There are some great Geocaching sites all around the country.  

3. You could always just go to the local park. That’s free too.

4. The hose. (Hook it up to a sprinkler if you are fancy. When my kids were toddlers I would just take them into the back yard in diapers and hose them off. They loved it.) 

5 & 6. See if there are any airshows or truck touches in your area. These were a big hit when Nick was little and they are usually free.

7. Frisbee is always fun.

8. Or if you are lucky enough to live near the water like our families, fishing and crabbing are great memory makers.

9. There is also a completely FREE summer camp in our area called Tennis For Kids. This is the first year one of my kids is old enough to participate. It’s for kids ages 7-16 and they meet three times a week. They have more than 20 locations in central PA. Nick is loving it.

$1 -$5

10 & 11.The dollar store has great summer activities! Our favorites are bubbles and sidewalk chalk.

12. Regal Cinemas offers a fabulous summer movies program. Dates vary by location, but the movies start at 10am and each ticket only costs $1. Kids under 2 are usually free. We like doing this on rainy days. I can get myself and all of my kids into a movie for $4 and change.

13. Sometimes we go to McDonald’s or Chick-Fil-A and get ice cream from the value menu and the kids get to play on the playground there for a while.  

14. Berry picking is one of our favorite activities. This year the strawberries at our favorite spot are $2.20 per pound. You could pick a couple of pounds for under $5. We like to do blueberries too.

15. The kids also love helping to make (and eat!) frozen desserts. My grandmother’s chocolate snowball recipe is our favorite. 

What else do you like to do for less than $5 in the summer?

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