Cool activities for under a fiver

Khannie

Last night we went picking blackberries. Myself, my mum and my little girl. We had a legendary time and got a load of organic berries! Free!

Got home and baked a load of savage muffins (recipe, substitute 200g blueberries for 300g blackberries) the total cost of which was under a fiver (and I have enough ingredients left over to make another 2 batches). We're going again tomorrow to get more berries for making jam. So it got me thinking.....

I'm sure you all have cool things that you do that cost less than a fiver that I'd never think of doing. No matter how obvious it seems to you, post it up. I'll edit the original post and eventually there will (hopefully) be a huge list of stuff that you can check for inspiration when you need it.

I'll start (I might group these into indoor / outdoor later, depending on how many we get):

1) Blackberry picking
2) Cake or bun baking
3) Making jam (this is ridiculously easy, but the Irish fruits you can do it with are nearly out of season right now, blackberries are about all that are left)
4) Feed the ducks / swans / whatever
5) Hit the playground
6) Plant some seeds
7) Get some books from the library
8) The Natural History Museum (Dublin)
9) Donadea Forest Park (Kildare)
10) Home made playdough (link)
11) Jumbo chalk for outdoor drawing - CSI outlines, hopscotch, etc.
12) The beach!
13) Make up / Dress up (great excuse for a bath)
14) Make a collage with old magazines / newspapers + prit stick
15) Leaf rubbings
16) Mini-treasure hunt. Draw pictures of up to 10 items the kids have to find on a walk- like a leaf, a stone, a stick etc. If they find them all, they get an ice-cream.
17) Song time/music and dancing
18) Watch a DVD
19) Go for a cycle
20) Collect some conkers (chestnuts). Games abound or plant them.

Ok....your turn.

Mr Magnolia

Feeding the ducks. We get so much happiness from the enjoyent our little girl takes from it.

Hellrazer

Heres ours.

The Natural History Museum(Free entry)--The kids love the stuffed animals and the conversation usually turns into "If you (2) dont stop running mental Im going to get you 2 stuffed

Donadea Forest Park--They can run wild while we sit and have a coffee/soup/sambo.I think its €2.00 for car park entry although some miserable gits park on the road outside and make it a nightmare getting in and out for those who dont mind paying to get in :mad::mad:
Especially good at Christmas when they have Santa there and the place is decorated with lights all over the place and a big coal fire.Oh yeah and the hot chocolate is great aswell.

Then theres the usual: Parks,feed the ducks,make rice crispie cakes.

Khannie

Updated the original post. Keep them coming people.

Nevyn

Jumbo chalks for 2 euro and spent the afternoon decorating the neighbourhood and drawning csi outlines of all the kids on the road.

Wantobe

Home made play dough, always good fun.

Beach time- winter or summer, ours love it. We go looking in rock pools for all sorts of crabs/prawns/fish/shells. Or just muck about with water and sand.

Everyone helps making home-made scones, this gets extremely messy, then we have a hot chocolate milk with the results of our cooking warm from the oven with a little butter.

Make-up! Then usually a nice bath afterwards, dolls and all.

Swimming pool.

Cut pics out of magazines and newspapers and make a collage with prittstick.

Collect leaves and make leaf rubbings.

Mini-treasure hunt. I draw pictures of up to 10 items the kids have to find on a walk- like a leaf, a stone, a stick etc. If they find them all, they get an ice-cream.

Dress-up.

Song time/music and dancing.

Just reading loads of books together, or cuddling on the couch and watching a dvd.

lynski

This was a firm fav of mu niece when she was little and i looked forward to bringing my 2, but is it not closed not indefinitely?

Hellrazer wrote: »

Heres ours.

The Natural History Museum(Free entry)--The kids love the stuffed animals and the conversation usually turns into "If you (2) dont stop running mental Im going to get you 2 stuffed

Donadea Forest Park--They can run wild while we sit and have a coffee/soup/sambo.I think its €2.00 for car park entry although some miserable gits park on the road outside and make it a nightmare getting in and out for those who dont mind paying to get in :mad::mad:
Especially good at Christmas when they have Santa there and the place is decorated with lights all over the place and a big coal fire.Oh yeah and the hot chocolate is great aswell.

Then theres the usual: Parks,feed the ducks,make rice crispie cakes.

Nevyn

The building is closed but there is a seclected exhibition on in the Collins Barracks musem
Was there a few weeks back with my two and they enjoyed it.

silverharp

if you see someone on one of these on the Clonskeagh road on a school day, its probably me:D , great fun



http://www.whycycle.co.uk/cycling_with_children/tag_a_longs_and_trailer_bikes/

Khannie

Thaedydal wrote: »

The building is closed but there is a seclected exhibition on in the Collins Barracks musem
Was there a few weeks back with my two and they enjoyed it.

I thought that too but I checked the site again yesterday and it says it's reopening some time this quarter which is nice.

Updating the first post now. Thanks for all the contributions so far!

bazwaldo

Just one for this time of year. We went to the park on Saturday and collected loads of conkers. That in itself was great fun, but they spent hours yesterday with the conkers. Making puppets, rolling them down the slide out the back.... I haven't even shown them how to play conkers yet.

Wantobe

bazwaldo wrote: »

Just one for this time of year. We went to the park on Saturday and collected loads of conkers. That in itself was great fun, but they spent hours yesterday with the conkers. Making puppets, rolling them down the slide out the back.... I haven't even shown them how to play conkers yet.

Mine too! It's amazing the fun they can have with such a simple thing. Ours played with them for ages, then they collected some twigs and made a 'chestnut tree ( by using playdough to stick the twigs in and to attach the nuts). They were having so much fun by themselves that I never got around to showing them how to play conkers either, and next on the agenda is to plant one and see if a tree will really grow from it.

Khannie

Wantobe wrote: »

next on the agenda is to plant one and see if a tree will really grow from it.

It will I did that years ago. Totally forgot about it. Really good one.

Updated the first post. Cheers.

Edit: We haven't been to feed the ducks in a while. 55c for a loaf of white bread in lidls at the weekend. Money well spent.

Going blackberry picking tonight for berries for jam.

delly

Khannie wrote: »

Edit: We haven't been to feed the ducks in a while. 55c for a loaf of white bread in lidls at the weekend. Money well spent.

I'd recommend driving up the North side of the estuary in Malahide as a good spot for this, the swans are very eager and my 2 year old has a great time feeding them all.

Khannie

That is a great spot alright. I used to live very close to there and went with my folks all the time. Highly recommend it for anyone who lives anywhere near that area (malahide, swords or donabate). There is a duck (and swan) pond very close to where I live (within 500 metres) so we just use that. I'll be out Malahide way next weekend though so I might head down to the swans.

littlebug

For anyone in the West.

The Galway City Library on Augustine Street has a wonderful children's library at the back. We've spent hours in there browsing and reading. There are plenty of crayons and colouring sheets available at the desk. There's kids storytime and colouring at 11am (I think ) on Saturdays.

Yesterday we went to Cong for the opening of the Cong- Clonbur trail as part of National trails days. I've been in Cong loads of time but had no idea that this little treasure was there. As well as the long walk to Clonbur there's a shorter nature trail which takes you round the spooky forest, across bridges and alongside the lake. We gathered conkers and leaves aplenty, tried to figure out what birds we could hear and we saw a salmon jump! A much better walk than that in the ground of Ashford Castle nearby which charges a small fortune to get in.

Later this month there's the roola boola children's arts festival in Castlebar. As well as the shows and workshops that you do pay for there are plenty of free things like a magicians garden, a story room, mad hatters (make hats out of stuff), chalk challenge and a mini drawings wall.
http://www.thelinenhall.com/roola-boola/
My kids look forward to roola boola every year. Last year I forgot to book anything in time but there was enough free stuff to keep us busy!

freida

This is good for older boys or girls. Probably best started on fri or sat night. Get a smooth tin (like pineapple or manderins, not massive) fill it with water and put it in the freezer. The next day take it out and use a nail and hammer to make two holes in the sides at the top. This is to thread a bit of wire through. Then turn the tin on its side and use the nail to hammer out a design, star, heart, skull and crossbones, what ever. It might help to outline it in pencil or marker first (might be hard on the tin though). Once the design is done. you can do different ones on each side or just one. Thread a piece of wire, we use coat hanger through the two holes at the top to make a handle. Now rinse out the leftover ice with warm water, it is only in the tin so it doesn't buckle when you hit it with a hammer. Hey presto, home made night light holder, f

Wantobe

freida wrote: »

This is good for older boys or girls. Probably best started on fri or sat night. Get a smooth tin (like pineapple or manderins, not massive) fill it with water and put it in the freezer. The next day take it out and use a nail and hammer to make two holes in the sides at the top. This is to thread a bit of wire through. Then turn the tin on its side and use the nail to hammer out a design, star, heart, skull and crossbones, what ever. It might help to outline it in pencil or marker first (might be hard on the tin though). Once the design is done. you can do different ones on each side or just one. Thread a piece of wire, we use coat hanger through the two holes at the top to make a handle. Now rinse out the leftover ice with warm water, it is only in the tin so it doesn't buckle when you hit it with a hammer. Hey presto, home made night light holder, f

Wow, great idea. Wish I'd thought of this a while back and started collecting some tins cause we're having a halloween party and these would be great with a bat or pumpkin design and strung up high around the house or garden! Hmmm, nothing stopping me starting to collect them now though!

ash23

Myself and my 6 year old daughter have a great time doing X factor or "Irelands got talent" games.
We take turns being the judges and we sing a song or do something stupid.

We also "camp" or have sleepovers. During the summer we sleep in the garden. In winter I light the fire and we drag the sleeping bags into the sitting room, toast some marshmallows, have hot chocolate, watch dvds and tell stories.

Baking is always a favourite as is taking the "baby" for a walk in the buggy (dolls). We wander up the road to see the ducks and horses and if its raining we put on old clothes and wellies and go and jump in puddles then home for a warm bath.

We do our weekly shopping list in pictures from the leaflets that come in the door and then she finds them in the shop. Might be only 10 items but it passes a couple of hours.

We wash the car ourselves with buckets and sponges which she loves. Car is never cleaned properly but it's fun!

We go on the internet together and play games or look up things that she is learning in school.

Jet Black

1. Hide and seek. One of the best games that can be played anywhere.

2. Im not sure how true this is but heard some gaelic clubs do a hurley burly. Young kids can learn to play hurley.

3. Botanic gardens.

4. Flying kite's.

5. Playing path's. Very fun!

Nevyn

Hop scotch and skipping.
skipping took off big around our way over the summer, one 12ft of rope and up to 7 kids in it at once skipping.

Khannie

Running a bit right now, but I'll update the first post later / tomorrow. Keep them coming! We're building up quite a list here.

Mask wrote: »

5. Playing path's. Very fun!

What's that?

unkel

The blackberries get my vote too. Not many people seem to be picking them so they are (still) out there in abundance. The whole process of picking them and making them into jam is very educational imho. Great way of teaching your kids about food.

Khannie wrote: »

We're going again tomorrow to get more berries for making jam.

Easypeasy recipe. Did it a week or so ago with great results:

You will need the following ingredients (the quantities in this recipe will make about 2¼ pints (1¼ liters) of jam).
Blackberries (2 pounds - 900 grams)
Jam sugar with added pectin (2¼ pounds - 1 kilogram)
Unsalted butter (1 ounce - 30 gram)
Here is how to prepare the jam.
Wash and thoroughly clean the blackberries, mash them using a potato masher, and place in a large pot.

Place the large pot on a low heat, and gradually add the jam sugar, stirring all the time (it is important to use jam sugar rather than ordinary sugar, as the jam will not otherwise set).

Add the butter and mix it in. Continue to stir and gradually increase the amount of heat.

Allow the mixture to come to a full rolling boil, and immediately start a timer. Boil for 4 minutes, then remove the cooking pot from the heat.

While the jam mixture is boiling, prepare some warm jars (make sure you have enough). The easiest way to do this, is simply to place the jars inside a warm (not hot) oven for a few minutes.

Transfer the jam mixture from the cooking pot into your warm jars. You will need to work rapidly as the jam will begin to set quite quickly - however, you must be careful, the jam will be extremely hot.

Jet Black

Khannie wrote: »

What's that?

Em? One person stands on one side of the road and one on the other.

The object of the game is to throw the ball from one side of the road and hit the path on the other. If the ball misses the path its the other players turn.
I know theres another name for it but can't remember it.

Variations.
Play to 100. Ten points when you hit the path.
When you hit the path you move to the centre of the road and throw from there at 5 points with every hit.
Kicking the ball=20 points overhead throw=50 points

Seems stupid explaining it but have many fond memories of it.


Link

Davidth88

Never heard of that game .

I am really enjoying this thread , some great ideas .

Sounds silly , I love taking my little one to the playground .... free !

Donadea ..... I concur , great spot and if I ever got hold of the selfish twits who parked on the road ( sorry saw red there for a second )

We love walking in Lucan Desmaine and feeding the ducks , again already mentioned.

A bus ride can be a treat ( I suppose unless you have to do it every day ) , my little ones excitement being on the top of a bus ......

bazwaldo

Mask wrote: »

Em? One person stands on one side of the road and one on the other.

The object of the game is to throw the ball from one side of the road and hit the path on the other. If the ball misses the path its the other players turn.
I know theres another name for it but can't remember it.

Variations.
Play to 100. Ten points when you hit the path.
When you hit the path you move to the centre of the road and throw from there at 5 points with every hit.
Kicking the ball=20 points overhead throw=50 points

Seems stupid explaining it but have many fond memories of it.


Link

I used to play that as a kid all the time. We used to call it "Kerbs". There was extra points too if you through the ball while a car/cyclist went past (felt safe back then), or if the rebound from the kerb rebounded again off your own side and so on.

Quality

Well mine love the beach, But we are in walking distance of it. Throwing stones in the water, drawing pictures in the sand, frisbee,kites, buckets and spades and splashing in the water!!

Also, the pet shop is another "treat" for mine, they love looking at all the animals fish reptiles etc.

Khannie

Mask wrote: »

I know theres another name for it but can't remember it.

Kerbs.

Great game.