Bring the Family

Spring Broke

Posted by Toni | Filed under Adventures at Home, Day Trips, Get Outdoors, Local Adventures, Parenting

If finances are keeping you close to home for spring break this year, read on.

While many families are heading someplace warm or with water slides for spring break, due to current budget constraints, we’ll be spending our week off closer to home. Even if I’m a bank-account-mostly-empty parent right now, I’m also a coffee-cup-half-full kind of mom. In that spirit, here’s a roundup of some of the cheap, easy, and local ideas I’ve got brewing for this year.

Outdoor fun at home

I’ve never been consistent about gardening, but this year, thanks to getting in better shape and thereby gaining a ton of new energy and flexibility, I’ve got the itch to start digging around outdoors. While it’s a bit too soon to plant veggies outside here, I’ve got it in my head that we can clear some persistently nasty brush (think “burrs both big and small”) from the area beside the house and under our pine trees (pictured, above). It truly feels like a secret garden under there.

We found two good-sized hip bones the other day as we began digging up some weeds. We suspect an animal dragged them here from nearby farmland, as they weren’t buried so much as discarded in the brush. Our entire block was once farmland, and our neighbor’s home was the original farmhouse and our garage (aka squirrel haven) was one of the original outbuildings. Both are well over a century old (hence the squirrel-accessible garage). That odd archeological find got the kids digging around for more cool stuff. I’ve got plans to build a ground level tree house on a shoestring budget in the space pictured above and am looking forward to researching that. I welcome any ideas and suggestions for great books or sites in the comments!

Another idea we have for this space is to create a giant outdoor chess board (an idea that bolstered my theory that there is indeed a web site for every interest). I first got the idea from a flier at a hardware store, and when the kids started getting into chess recently, I mentioned this idea for that side yard and the kids were all over it. 12″ x 12″ paving stones will make up the board, and we’re still thinking of ideas for the pieces, including filling milk jugs with sand to keep them from blowing away and then decorating them with Sharpies to indicate which piece they represent. Perhaps that chess board can double as a foundation for the ground-level tree house . . .

We also have three stepping stone kits I got on clearance a while ago and we may get started on those to decorate our new, soon-to-be-weed-free shade garden. I’m curious to see what the boys decide to use to decorate their stepping stones – Legos? Small rubber cars and trucks? Bird feathers? Coins? Hopefully I won’t be seeing one of my missing memorialized there.

Rainy Day Ideas

The first day we’re stuck indoors due to rain, I’m declaring it Fort Day. Chairs will be moved and blankets will be strewn to create a Fort City for the day. Our board games already got a workout during Earth Hour last weekend (check out the Earth Hour 2010 Flickr group and they’ll come in handy here, too. We’re also big on indoor picnics, and what better place for a picnic than inside your own Blanket Town? I’m sure the Legos will make it in there, too; that’s one toy my kids never seem to tire of, and it’s hard to argue when you see them building castles and houses and robots each week. Now, if only they’d invent Lego bricks that put themselves away; I’d be first in line for that series.

Another thing my kids love to do is create their own board games. I’ve already mentioned the chess mania going on around here, and there are so many possibilities for making your own chess board, like one based on the video game character Kirby, a big hit in our house. (Yes, we play video games – in moderation. I’ve found that some games inspire other interests, such as my kids’ love of the Olympics, which came directly from the Mario and Sonic at the Olympics video game or augment current interests, as with the Kirby chess set idea). We own a Simpsons chess set that the kids love and a friend of mine has a Muppets chess set – how cool is that? So really, the possibilities are endless for creating games based on your kids’ interests, and they can be as simple or as complex as your kids’ imaginations and age levels will allow. (Another idea for non-rainy days: my kids often make board games on our driveway using sidewalk chalk).

Day Trippin’

We already took one day trip, complete with picnic lunch, to a nearby state park for our first spring hike of 2010. (Look for a new feature here–Bring the Family Trail Guides!–soon). Other options we’re going to explore include visiting local history museums, which are often under-funded and more than happy to receive visitors, touring the Trek bicycle factory in Whitewater, Wisconsin, and possibly heading even further north one day to visit Horicon Marsh in Wisconsin, a federal and state-managed wildlife area known for wild bird viewing.

The key to keeping day trip costs down and meals healthy is bringing your own snacks from home. Fill a cooler with granola bars, grapes, apples, peanuts, bagels (with peanut butter or string cheese), carrot sticks and water bottles to keep everyone satisfied and to ward off impulse snack purchases while on a day trip. If you’ll be hiking and spending a lot of time outdoors, be sure to pack some protein in your cooler to better fuel everyone’s bodies. For a fast but healthy option on the road, we usually go for subs with lean meats and no mayo or chips (places like Jimmy John’s and Potbelly have awesome dill pickles!); they cost a bit more than burgers or chicken nuggets, but they keep well for hours in a cooler for post-hike picnicking and are much healthier!

Obviously, we won’t get to all of these ideas this week, but I like having a stockpile of ideas to choose from – and to save for next year. For more inspiration, check out this awesome teacher’s blog featuring 14 Days of Adventure – but be warned: it’ll make you want to go back to school and have Mr. Hancock as a teacher!

Tell me: did you have/are you planning an affordable spring break close to home? What worked and what didn’t? Share your thoughts, ideas, and experiences in the comments.

Permalink | Comments (4) | March 29, 2010

4 Responses to “Spring Broke”

1. Jen in TX Says:
   March 29th, 2010 at 4:53 pm

   What we did this year: invite friends to come stay in your home, rather than vacationing together in hotels. Your everyday life might be super-fun for out-of-state visitors…and your own family will see things through new eyes & just enjoy the company!

2. Toni Says:
   March 29th, 2010 at 5:28 pm

   Jen in TX, what a terrific idea! My guys are begging for playdates so that’s in the mix, too but having friends come and visit is even better! Thanks for sharing your idea.

3. Marc Says:
   March 29th, 2010 at 11:56 pm

   Grandma and grandpa took one of our kids at a time and let us spend “special” time with the other. For one, we spent half a day at a local hot rod shop. He loves anything to do with cars, and they were happy to show him around, let him crawl around through hot rods in various stages of being built, etc. He absolutely loved it, and I purchased a t-shirt for him to keep his excitement high and to say thanks to the owner for being so cool to him.

   For my older son, we spent a day snow-shoeing through a local national forest. This trip only cost gas to get us there and back.

   Plenty of time at the park and playing with other kids in the neighbourhood have also been thrown in.

   We also saw ‘How to Train Your Dragon’ and the kids wanted to make their own Viking gear. I found some cardboard boxes at work and we were able to use them to make shields (with some elastic on the backside for them to put their arm through) and swords. They also painted their own design on them. I’m still working on a good helmet design! They love running around the yard and house with their gear! Again, no cost, loads of fun and imagination!

4. Toni Says:
   March 30th, 2010 at 8:26 am

   Marc, I like the way you think! Thanks for sharing all of these great ideas – we try to do one-on-one time with our three boys, too and they seem to really appreciate it.

   Our family wants to see that Dragon movie – I may be more excited than they are about that one.

Leave a Reply

Name (required)

Mail (will not be published) (required)

Website