10 Free Fun Things to do This Summer

I want to share a great list of things I have come up with for FREE fun things to do this summer!

1. Go to the park. I know sounds like it would be the easiest free thing to do.  But don't just go to the park and play on the playground. Go on nature walks, play I spy, play tag in an open field at the park.  Be creative and make the most of your day at the park.
2. Have a picnic. Not just any kind of picnic, choose a theme for a picnic. You can have it at the park yes but what about in your front yard or your back yard. You could have a color theme picnic where everything you have is one color. The food, the sheet you sit on, the clothes you wear all one color. You could have a teddy bear picnic. Where everyone that comes brings a teddy bear to share the picnic with.  For older kids you could do a type of food theme, everything you eat has to have a banana in it.  That would open it up to older kids to look on line for different foods they can serve at the park that has a banana in it.  Use what ever you can think of to get the kids more involved.  So jazz up your picnic give it a theme.
3. Go to the beach (if you don't have a beach what about a lake) I bet you can see where this is going, right?  Don't just go to swim in the water, but have a castle building contest, play hangman in the sand, or what about unscramble the word in the sand. Trace out your body in the sand and fill it in w/ shells and seaweed as the hair.  There is all kinds of fun things to do at the beach use your imagination. 
4.  Plan a scavenger hunt.  There are all kinds of site on line that will help you with this but it is really easy.  You can make it as easy as give the first clue that leads to the next clue that leads to the next clue and so on till you get to the prize. Another scavenger hunt could be a list of 10 items you have to find.  When you get all 10 items you get a prize. The best summer prize is POPSICLES!!! You can even make your own out of juice and ice trays.
5. VBS hop! I once knew a family that would check out all the different Vacation Bible Schools going on in the area and they would check out the dates and choose 2 to 4 for their children to attend during the summer.  Some times they would attend the same theme VBS but at a different church for reinforcement of what they are being taught.  Most VBS's in our area are free so this make for a great idea.
6. Don't let those school skills fade away, when it is to hot too be outside, spend some time playing Free online word play games and some math games.  
7. Since we are talking about inside fun, what about a Wii tournament. Choose a sport and have a summer long tournament.  Play a little each day or even once a week.  
8. Set up a table in your house and start a 500 or 1000 maybe even 2000 piece puzzle.  Have this set up for the kids to work on and off all summer.  This can give a family hours of fun. 
9. Movie, Movies and more Movies!  Go to the Library and check out movies for FREE!!  during the heat of the day watch a movie.  Watch a classic, a black and white, an old western. Show your kids what you liked about older movies.  
10. Library! Oh I can't forget the library.  The library has all kinds of programs set up for the summer that are usually indoors (cooler specially in Florida) Last year my kids got to play drums and see some cool animals that the library had lined up.  All for FREE!!! 

So you can do all kinds of things for FREE this summer. Just keep an open mind and imagination on how to make your experience different then you normally would.  Do you have any ideas that I left out? Please leave them in the comments.