105 FREE AND LOW COST ACTIVITIES
Local Activities for you and your Little
1. Visit a Museum
2. Write a letter to congress or your local representative,
sharing your feelings about local issues- positive or otherwise.
3. Roast marshmallows with toothpicks over the flame of a
candle.
4. Participate in a neighborhood clean-up day.
5. Go for a drive with your Little where you only stop or
turn when you encounter a pre-determined area or event, such as a garage
sale sign or a street that starts with the letter M.
6. Check out a theatre production at the Imagination
Theatre.
7. Visit the Folsom Zoo.
8. Go to Farmer's Market. See if you can identify the
different types of fruits and vegetables. For more of a challenge, try to
identify the different types of flowers.
9. Go to shopping. Let each person have $5 and see who can
buy the best item for it.
10. Have a competition to design a protective package for an
un-boiled egg. You cannot spend more than $1 on supplies. Then see whose egg
can be dropped from a pre-determined height without breaking.
11. Take an architectural tour of a nearby city. Spend a few
minutes researching the buildings online and then stake 'em out. You may
have passed by cool sites you have never even noticed.
12. Make up short stories and remove random nouns, verbs,
and adjectives. Ask your Little to fill in the blanks, then read the story
aloud.
13. Hold a movie marathon. Show movies that you enjoyed when
you were younger.
14. Finger paint with chocolate, strawberry, or lemon
pudding.
15. Visit the Apple Hill.
16. Play croquet with a twist (in the wintertime or at night
with flashlights.)
17. Go to the Library
18. Learn to skate at a local skate park. Talk to your
Little about why it's important to wear safety gear.
19. Take a trip to a discount clothing store. Let your
Little design a new look for you.
20. Get a free make up demonstration at the mall
21. Paint nails
22. Write a letter to one of your Little's favorite
celebrities.
23. Play Frisbee at the park
24. Go to Lions park in Placerville and check out the new
playground
25. Visit El Dorado National Forrest, have a picnic
26. Take a bike ride around Union Valley Reservoir
27. Learn a magic trick.
28. Have an ice cream sculpting contest. Use a block of ice
cream, spoons, knives, and toppings. See who can build the best house, boat,
car, etc.
29. Take a bike ride on a local trail.
30. Volunteer yourselves as models for a beauty school at
Ponderosa High School.
31. Walk a dog
32. Rent a kayak and go out on Folsom or Sly Park Lakes.
33. Look at old photos and try to guess their career,
lifestyle, and make up a story about that person.
34. Work on a “garage project”
35. Bake and frost cut out cookies or a cake
36. Get a couple of disposable cameras and go some place to
take pictures. Then once the pictures are developed, compare how different
they are.
37. Roll up and make paper balls. Hold an indoor snowball
fight or shoot hoops into a waste paper basket.
38. Take a walk together with a memento bag and collect
interesting leaves, rocks, junk.
39. With your Little's birthday money, open a savings account
for him/her at a local bank
40. Take your Little to a volleyball or basketball game at
the high school he/she will attend.
41. Skip rocks on the water.
42. Take turns playing advice columnist and help seeker. Take
turns to see who can come up with the worst problem and the best advice.
Then try coming up with some of society's most challenging problems, with
your ideas for real solutions.
43. Visit a second hand store. Buy and design old t-shirts
for each other.
44. Have a water balloon fight.
45. Teach your Little how to bargain shop and find treasures
at a flea market or garage sale.
46. Research famous individuals that have lived in El Dorado
County.
47. Cheer on your favorite racecar at the Placerville
Speedway
48. Plan an outing around a book checked out from the library
(i.e., astronomy, origami, French cooking, etc.)
49. Challenge each other to a contest. Anything works, and
the sillier the better! Try sand castle building, hop scotch, name that
tune, marbles, or kite flying.
50. Go for a hike
51. Visit Coloma
52. Go to a Rivercat’s Game or a Kings Game
53. Visit a farm and milk a cow or a goat. Have your Little
taste fresh milk.
54. Use a Frisbee to knock down 2 liter plastic soda
bottles, set up like bowling pins. Score the game the same as bowling.
55. Go swimming at the local pool
56. Visit a local coffee shop to sip hot chocolate or soda
while playing chess, checkers, or backgammon.
57. Create a time capsule and bury it. Open the capsule on
your one year match anniversary.
58. Take a tour of City Hall or attend a City Council meeting
to find out how your local government works.
59. Make a garden at the mentor’s house
60. Make up a non-sense word and come up with a creative
definition. Add the word on Wikipedia.
61. Read through the Guinness Book of World Records
together. Look for a record you and your Little could potentially beat.
62. Get active with a local intramural sports team.
63. Have a BBQ
64. Cerate your own nature or shopping mall scavenger hunt
and use a camera to capture items. Example: something from each color of the
rainbow, something living, something dead,, something non-natural, something
that begins with "X."
65. Go out to breakfast before school.
66. Walk around a local car show.
67. Raise money for future outings by collecting recyclable
bottles and cans, holding a lemonade stand, or ice cream stand.
68. Get manicures/pedicures at a local beauty college.
68. Buy a glow in the dark Frisbee and two glow sticks. Each
person holds a glow stick so the other knows where to aim.
69. Have a sock war- five minutes and 20 pairs of socks.
70. Have a bonfire and invite friends.
71. Learn a new trick. It could be a day of learning card
tricks, learning how to juggle or learning to make bird calls.
72. Do something crafty. Make a scrapbook for each other
73. Volunteer together at a local non-profit or charity
during the holidays.
74. Go to the airport for lunch and watch planes take off and
land.
75. Taste some fresh apple cider from Apple Hill
76. Rent a paddle boat
77. Go to the mall. Discuss body image and how certain
clothes affect body image.
78. Go to Fairytale town and the Sacramento Zoo
79. Hold a thematic dinner for your friends or family (e.g.
beach, 50's, jungle, superhero, etc.) Pick foods, decor, invitations that
reflect the theme, and ask everyone to dress up.
80. Learn how to play a musical instrument with your Little.
Form a band-choose a name for your band and make a music video.
81. Get a book of animal's tracks and explore a pond or trail
together to see what animals live in the area.
82. Go Bowling.
83. Go Play Golf
84. Help preserve our local trails. Volunteer for trail
cleanup
85. Use pre-made pizza dough or pie crust and make pretzels
or cinnamon snacks.
86. Develop a list of 30 questions: odd and unusual facts you
would like to know about each other. Fill them out and read them to each
other.
87. Make a calendar of the major events of his/her year.
88. Go puddle hunting on a rainy day and make a BIG splash.
89. Collect leaves and safe plants on a hike. Make plant
rubbings or press the leaves between wax paper and hang in your window.
Watch how the plants glow.
90. Create an "International Night." Decorate the home with
an international theme, dress up, prepare ethnic foods, listen to
appropriate music, and watch a foreign film on DVD.
91. Take him/her to a photo darkroom to see how negatives and
prints are made.
92. Build a sand-structure. Use colored sand and the things
you find in the surroundings to enhance your creation.
93. Open the hood of a car and learn about the different
parts of an engine. Teach your Little how to change the oil in your car.
94. Grow fruits and vegetables. When it comes time to eat
your creations, discuss how much sweeter your foods are.
95. Take a Ranger-led hike. Learn about the city through a
personal tour.
96 Sit on a bench and watch people. Take turns guessing where
you think people are going.
97. Go star gazing at the community observatory: http://communityobservatory.com/
98. Do a craft related to the time of year it is
99. Go to the movies
100. Bring your Little some ice cream
101. Play a board game
102. Invent a new meal. Put outrageous ingredients together
and dare each other to eat it.
103. Make each other a bracelet
104. Go fishing at High Hill Apple Ranch.
105. Hold your own Olympic games. Create your own teams,
flags, colors, ect.
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