My dd's love coloring and they just used sidewalk chalk for the first time and loved it. I need to get more.
My girls also love glueing foamies shapes onto cardstock.

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Austin
Mom to 3 beautiful girls

These are some great ideas!

I got a $1.00 sprinkler can at Walmart and DD just loves to water anything and everything in the yard.

We have a sprinkler system that DH use to have run in the mornings. Now I have him set it to run in the afternoons. DD loves to run and play in one section and then howls with laughter when those sprinklers go away and new ones pop up in a different part of the yard.

Dress up -- she loves Daddy's shoes and belts.

Beauty shop. She does my hair with as many hairbows and ties that my head can hold up. LOL

Mine aren't purchased items, actually they are free.

Yesterday ds had a friend over and they were playing in the back yard. Ds has a plastic sled and I filled it up with a garden hose. Those kids kept them selves entertained for two hours by standing in the sled with their crocs on and letting the water run into the holes. They filled up squirt bottles and squirted each other. They floated stuff in there. They watered the flowers, etc. etc. They entertained themselves with a sled full of water for free for two hours!

Another great buy for us was a 10 foot plastic tube we got from Home Depot after ds asking repeatedly for it on numerous trips. Granted it wasn't a Dollar, more like $3.50 or so. He slides cars down there. He has a small disc thing that slowly rolls down it. He's had this tube for a year and it's our most played with toy! He keep coming up with creative ideas to play with this tube!

Tuesday nights from about 6-10pm all summer long, Baskin Robbins has $1 a scoop ice cream. I don't know if this is at every location so you might want to check. My son always looks forward to his special weekly ice cream outing!

Also, on Wednesday nights during the summer our park has free concerts. Everyone brings lawn chairs, sodas & snacks. It's really relaxing and the kids like it. You might want to call your local parks & recreation to see if your town has anything like this.

I have started saving things like milk jugs (cleaned out), shoe boxes, paper towel tubes, etc... and then let my girls make whatever they want with their art box and the materials.

We also like to paint rocks.

I put a ton of dry rice in a rubbermaid (we already had both things) and the kids love to play in there with spoons, cups, shovels, etc...

Put masking tape on your child's wrist backwards (so the sticky side is up) and then go on a walk and let them stick things to it to make a nature bracelet.

Pick flowers and leaves on a walk (not from yards, but just weeds or wildflowers) and teach your kids how to press flowers.

Love all your ideas!!!!!!!

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"It's one of the most beautiful compensations in life that no man can sincerely try to help another without helping himself."
Ralph Waldo Emerson

We buy these at Walmart when my kids are wanting something. They love the Kid Songs, I wish they had a few more varities. My son is asking for some I have never seen at Walmart. Maybe they will turn up....

We also do Spash Park, Zoo (we have a membership), feed the ducks (go to Mrs Beards Outlet and they give you a ton of old bread for $1, plus a free treat) and different parks. Another place that is fun is Ikea, the kids play free and Mom can just window shop in peace. The mall is a great place to take the kids to play on the playgrounds also.