Entertaining your toddler or preschooler on a budget

I do I do! LOL! The most frugal entertainment we use is the library, they have story time every week and during the summer they have FREE activities to do with younger kids and it is so fun! Vacation Bible school is another, it lasts a whole week and they get to do so many crafts!
 

Edited by team-edward - 5/18/12 at 5:36am

I love ideas I find on pinterest. Games and crafts galore. Creative ideas that I could never come up with on my own!!

I loved just getting out the pots and pans from my kitchen and letting them use these to play with.  They loved it and felt so grown up using "mommy's" kitchen things.

Backyard, parks & walks on nice days. Rainy days call for trips to the library and arts & crafts from ideas I did on various kid websites. Dollar Tree is a great place to buy supplies!

My absolute favorite frugal keep the kids busy activity is water park day! We have a covered wood deck porch with rails and an overhang - I baby gate the stairs and than put the plastic baby pool up there and hang one of those long kids sprinklers that have water squirting out on 20 different places from the hooks for my hanging baskets on the roof. Than I put just a little water in the pool and put tons of buckets, balls, water balloons, and other random toys.I fill several squirt guns up and make a bubble station, then I put on some music, swimsuits and sunscreen and release them to the "Water Park" they play for hours while I put my beach chair out in the sun and relax and just watch them have all the fun in the world. Than when I get too hot I go and sit in the pool and allow them to pour buckets of water on me and pretend that I don't want them too and try to run away (which makes it that much more fun for them!)

 

I have a trunk that has old hats, scarves, boa's (from the $$tree), old shoes, that the kids can play dress up with. I also have some old plastic cups and a teapot, in there so they can have their own tea party.

My girls would love the Mega Blocks!

 

I bought a small pool at Target on clearance, and balls to fill it on clearance too.  Was under $10 and DD had a blast playing in it all summer.

 

 

gingerrae81: That is adorable!  Looks like they are having a blast!

I got togetHer with some other moms in the community and we had a busy bag exchange. Each mom made 12 bags with the same activity, under $1 each and we all swapped and came home with 12 different activities to do with our child. It turned out great and the activities are so fun and educational.