1. Draw / Make a map to an imaginary place - use roads, mountains, parks, highways, direction symbols (N, E, S, W).
   
   
2. Get a map and have your child find a location and find the best way to travel there.
   
   
3. Paper bag puppets / sock puppets - use markers for the face.
   
   
4. Posters - make a poster of the things you like. Cut out pictures from magazines. Let them use the tape.
   
   
5. Make an "I Spy" poster - cut out pictures from magazines or use items from around the house. Let them use tape to stick pictures onto the paper.
   
   
6. Make a menu for the week.
   
   
7. Make cities and skyscrapers with tape and paper towel and toilet paper tubes and old boxes. (cover in tin foil, or color markers for windows and doors).
   
   
8. Make a city or landscape using all the McDonald toys and toys you have on hand (train tracks, car tracks, people, animals, jungles, farms)
   
   
9. Measuring Cups - let them experiment with water in various sizes of jars and bottles. How much does a cup look like; how much does one ¼ look like; how many 1/3s are in a cup etc.
   
   
10. Noodles and beans - use the noodles and beans in your pantry to glue and make pictures.
    
    
11. Experiment with vinegar, oil and dish soap.
    
    
12. Camera - give them a disposable camera, create a summer photo journal, enter pictures in various local contests.
    
    
13. Photographs - give your child all your unorganized pictures or doubles/extras and have them sort them by their age - put in shoe boxes, their own album or let them create a scrap book.
    
    
14. Video Camera - Set on a tripod and let it run. Have your children act, sing dance, tell stories until the tape runs out or battery needs recharging. Or, have them describe memories they have from trips or the last school year. Watch the show later.
    
    
15. Tape Recorder - Tape outside sounds, make their own sounds.
    
    
16. Music - have your children listen to various types of music and have them identify in writing or just discuss various instruments, describe styles and feelings they have when listening to the music.
    
    
17. Marshmallows & Toothpicks - build structures, people, things.
    
    
18. Shoe box - have them decorate use for collections or putting in their favorite or secret stuff.
    
    
19. Coin Jar - have you child go through the coin jar and pull out all the various states quarters. Organize the change by dates. Collect the state quarters.
    
    
20. Pen Pal - have your child write a letter to a friend, cousin, grandparents, etc.
    
    
21. Journal - have your child start a journal for what they did on every day during the summer.
    
    
22. Think Ahead Holidays - use various cereals with holes to make garlands. Cut out pictures from old greeting cards to make gift tags, markers or ornaments. Punch a hole in the picture and tie on some yarn for an ornament.
    
    
23. Puzzles - draw/color a picture or cut out of a magazine and then cut it up to make your own puzzle.
    
    
24. Write a book.
    
    
25. Dictate a made up story into a recorder.
    
    
26. Dot to dot - create your own alpha or numerical.
    
    
27. Create your own board game.
    
    
28. Sand Box - fill a large plastic container with sand. Fill a second large plastic container with wet sand. Make sure to cover it at night.
    
    
29. Chalk - make hop scotch - make a message for arriving parent or guest - use chalk in the rain. See how it looks different.
    
    
30. Create a toss game with buckets and balls.
    
    
31. Plant and tend to their own garden.
    
    
32. Learn to tie knots - see great websites or buy a how to book.
    
    
33. Learn to identify trees.
    
    
34. Rocks - use markers to draw faces or animals on the rocks. Or learn to categorize by type.
    
    
35. Solitaire - teach your child to play solitaire. Great for children who like numbers and organizing and categorizing.
    
    
36. Lemonade stand.
    
    
37. Create a carnival.
    
    
38. Make a volcano with baking soda and vinegar.
    
    
39. Play dough - have them mix up and make the no cook version.
    
    
40. Check libraries for events.
    
    
41. Paper Mache - rip up the newspaper, glue and water and make a mask or anything!
    
    
42. Look up and study the Greek alphabet and make your own secret code.
    
    
43. Periodic Table of Elements - Learn the elements behind the abbreviations.
    
    
44. Cardboard boxes - create a puppet theater. Cut a square in the center. Use existing toys for the show. Color / marker designs on the side.

SMALL COST ACTIVITIES FOR SUMMER

1. Wood Insect Puzzles from Walgreen's ($1) - These are cool!
   
   
2. Scholastic.com - Mad Science Kits - Every month receive a kit that 4th - 6th graders can do ON THEIR OWN! Each kit comes with a story book to read incorporating the science experiment, an experiment log with directions and really cook science tools.
   
   
3. Buy quilting fabric ruminants - cut up and make a mosaic picture using various types of colors of fabric (for instance, a vase may incorporate many shades of yellow and the flowers can be various colors of fabric with various prints. Use plain glue on a poster board or fabric glue if done on fabric back.
   
   
4. Learn to sew - buy fabric rumnants.
   
   
5. Paint by number kits - (keep these on hand for rainy days)
   
   
6. Puzzles, Puzzles - buy at garage sales!
   
   
7. Put up a small pup tent in the backyard - little cost - lots of fun!
   
   
8. Perplexers - a book of puzzling mind games (Barnes & Noble or Toy World). This keeps those inquisitive minds busy for hours!
   
   
9. Workbooks - by Talented and Gifted Press - for ages pre-school through 6th grade. These are really good books for trips or everyday. Filled with fun learning activities to excite the brain. Call MCGT 112 for purchase.
   
   
10. Bird House - buy wood projects; build and paint.
    
    
11. Buy electrical items (toasters, cpu, mixers, etc.) at garage sales, CUT THE ELECTRICAL CORD, and give to your child along with screwdrivers to unassemble.
    
    
12. Sudoko for Kids. If you haven't done it - you are missing a good current craze!
    
    
13. Stamp collection - inexpensive to start.
    
    
14. Terrarium - buy dirt, plants and a container.

A trip to your local craft store will give you lots of ideas for inexpensive craft or science projects.

Put these ideas on an index card in a file box and have your child pick a card the next time you hear them say, "I want something to do".