Post free and low cost lessons/children's ACTIVITIES here...

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I just thought a thread on free and low cost children's activities would be nice.

 

I'll start:

 

AWANA.  If you are a Christian, the AWANA program is only about $35/ year and provides 1.5 hours of game time, theme nights, parties, Bible learning, BIble memorization, badges, uniforms and more every week during the school year.  Ages 3-6th grade.

 

Online Flute lessons (see my other post)  learnfluteonline.com

 

American Heritage Girls -we hope to join a local chapter.  About $60/year for books and uniforms, and then I think it's about 35 for dues.  There will be other little expenses here and there but it's all what you make of it.

 

Library activities- our local lirbary has classes for all ages, which are enriching.  It doesn't stop at toddler story time.  Our old library in FL had a weekly craft time, first aid classes and more.

 

Your local homeschool support group- This may seem obvious, but usually you can find all kind of happenings which are free or inexpensive. My new group here in Cali has a huge free organized sports program.  My old one had lots of park days, field trips, lessons, etc.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[TraceyS/FL]

Our local library offers free classes to homeschoolers. It varies given the ages of who is around - but there has always been at least one art class. The kids are looking forward to it starting up again at the end of the month!

 

They also have computer classes and such - but geared told the "retired" community so I have no idea how those are for kids!

[sdobis]

The one that pops into my mind is Civil Air Patrol. I don't know a great deal about it. My son went to one meeting and decided it wasn't for him. Great for teens interested in leadership, aerospace, military. I know it's also very inexpensive and meets for one night a week with other special events. I really wish he would've been interested but it can be hard to motivate a teenager. 

 

Another I just thought of is Flying Eagles. I really wish I had websites but they're easy to Google. It's a free program where once a month, children 8-18 can take a plane ride at your local airport with volunteer pilots who want to help youth learn more about piloting. My kids have enjoyed this a lot. 

[Ravin]

My city has very affordable recreational classes, and people with low income can get up to 85% discounts. In another city where I lived, there were great community extension classes for kids offered by the community college.

[ocelotmom]

http://www.questclubs.net/ and http://frontiergirlsclubs.com/ (Quest is co-ed, Frontier Girls is girls). Alternative scouting with endless badge opportunities that can be done individually/as a family or as a group. Quest is $30 for a family membership.

 

Civil Air Patrol has equivalents in other branches of the military, like Sea Cadets.

[TraceyS/FL]

CAP is great, but can be not so cheap! In fact, my oldest's membership expired last night and I can't renew it.

 

But it is great, and there are a ton of opportunities in it for teens and adults!

[PhotoGal]

This is a great idea for a thread!

 

Around here there are free summer concerts. There is also a local orchestra that has free concerts for kids.

 

Home Depot has free workshops for kids (they get to make something out of wood) once per month.

 

There is a local astronomy club that has free events/meetings.

 

One of the libraries nearby has a free book club for upper elementary and older.

[Arcadia]

Free

Art class - art museums and the refuge have free classes for kids, adults and families

Fishing - free classes a few times a year.

Knitting/Crocheting - libraries have a class for kids and one for adults

Workshops - Home Depot, Lowes

Math and English remedial - free at the libraries for kids and for adults

Bowling - free sessions in the summer

[Elfknitter.#]

If you check the Lego website, you might find a local store that does monthly builds in the evenings. There's one near me that gave the first 150 kids free bricks to create whatever item was scheduled for that night. They also seemed to have a kind of Lego build/ story time that was in conjunction with their latest Chima series. I believe they were giving away books, but I maybe wrong. It was just the impression I got from the emails.

 

Museums and aquariums here have a free day each month and some have homeschooling days so you don't have to worry about working around school tours.

 

Sometimes you can find gems in your city or county via local history, like historic sites.

 

Hiking is a great family activity that gets you outdoors, exercising and enjoying nature.

[whitestavern]

Not free, but extremely affordable, The First Tee golf golf lessons and etiquette program.

 

http://www.thefirsttee.org/Club/Scripts/Home/home.asp

[Dmmetler]

Along with the lego store events (at least one a month, and in the summer, it's more like one a WEEK-most are free, with the only exception being the special, before the store opens, lego club events-and those load your kid with enough stuff to be well worth the $20-my DD did the June one in Birmingham, had a great time building with about 10 other kids and two store employees, and came home with a t-shirt and gift bag containing $10 in lego store gift certificates, a $11.95 lego set, and lots of various other things), Lego does builds at Toys R us every few months as well, often related to the release of a new series or a holiday-for example, the last two were lego Chima and building a boat for Father's Day.

 

 

American girl stores, if you're lucky enough to have them, do free events frequently where the girls can come in and make a craft or do an activity related to one of the dolls-sometimes historic, sometimes the Doll of the Year. They also have some with a charge attached.

 

Michael's craft stores do free or very inexpensive craft make and takes and classes many weekends, similar to the Home Depot or Lowes projects.

 

If you have a Maker guild in your area, they'll do weekend workshops that are free or cheap.

 

 

 

 

[sdobis]

Letterboxing or geocaching are both free if you have basic equipment.

[kagmypts]

The one that pops into my mind is Civil Air Patrol. I don't know a great deal about it. My son went to one meeting and decided it wasn't for him. Great for teens interested in leadership, aerospace, military. I know it's also very inexpensive and meets for one night a week with other special events. I really wish he would've been interested but it can be hard to motivate a teenager. 

 

Another I just thought of is Flying Eagles. I really wish I had websites but they're easy to Google. It's a free program where once a month, children 8-18 can take a plane ride at your local airport with volunteer pilots who want to help youth learn more about piloting. My kids have enjoyed this a lot. 

 

I had no idea that this program existed, but it looks awesome.  Here is the link:

 

http://www.youngeagles.org/programs/youngeagles/

 

Thank you for sharing!

[Erica in OR]

Letterboxing or geocaching are both free if you have basic equipment.

 

Our local park & rec organization allows us to check out geocaching equipment for free.

 

Erica in OR

[K&Rs Mom]

Along with the lego store events (at least one a month, and in the summer, it's more like one a WEEK-most are free, with the only exception being the special, before the store opens, lego club events-and those load your kid with enough stuff to be well worth the $20-my DD did the June one in Birmingham, had a great time building with about 10 other kids and two store employees, and came home with a t-shirt and gift bag containing $10 in lego store gift certificates, a $11.95 lego set, and lots of various other things), Lego does builds at Toys R us every few months as well, often related to the release of a new series or a holiday-for example, the last two were lego Chima and building a boat for Father's Day.

 

 

How do you find out the upcoming events?  The nearest Lego store is by my mom's house, a few hours from here, so we could coordinate with a visit to grandma.  I have one who would really enjoy this.  We're in the point-club from the Lego store, so I get emails from them, but it's always about product releases never events.

[swellmomma]

flute lessons are free/low cost for you and out here they run at $50 an hour :)  Although my kids were part of a free fine arts program in the city that got them free music lessons, free art classes,and free drama classes

Okay other things

Missoula children's theatre, 1 week theatre intensive program, depending on where you live you may or may not be charged for tickets to watch the play but the program itself is free.

Many sports teams will reduce their fees or erase them altogether in exchange for volunteering with them.  Working bingos made baseball cheaper, cleaning the gym made gymnastics free, serving on the board made soccer cheaper etc.

Cadets, love love love this program, kids get so many experiences, and it never costs me a cent.

In the city they have a family recreation pass for lower income families, that gets them access to the city attractions (botanical garden, fort ed, zoo, nature center etc), and it gets you free access to city pools and a reduced fee for swim lessons.  I miss having that

The YMCA has their reduced fee program and offers tons of activities, plus swim lessons ifyou live near one

The library in the city always had amazing programs, visitors, etc this one in this town nada, but it is worth checking in it

Young naturalist society, is like $15 for a year membership and they host nature based activities all summer long, like bat viewing, birding, bird banding, starry nights etc.  Also our area has a naturalist society that gets together biweekly for free and does nature study type activities in the nearby provincial park

girl guides and scouts can get expensive, BUT they do waive the enrollment fees if you can't afford them because they don't believe anyone should be left out due to finances.  SOme clubs have a new charge for whatever activity weekly that gets old fast, but many are not like that at all.

check into your city/town rec department.  Out here on PD days once a month the town hosts free bowling from 10-12 and then free swimming from 1-3.  So at least once a month we can go bowling and swimming without breaking the bank.  As well in the summer they offer $2/person friday night swim, and twice a week $5/family swim, so we can go swimming several times a week without going broke.

Camps, camps and more camps.  Summer camps offer subsidies, kids can go to really amazing camps for free or reduced cost and have amazing experiences.  We have one out here that doesn't care what your financial status is, every kid is only $10 for a week of sleepaway camp.  They have a great time, that is where ds14 is right now, he is getting picked up at noon.  But my kids have attended a bible camp annually for free, this summer dd14 went for a 2 week riding camp that included a 5 day trail ride.  It was an amazing opportunity for her, so yes even horse riding camp can be free.

WHen we lived in the mountains there was a ranch that offered horse rides for $30/1/2 hour.  My oldest kids were only 18 months and 2.5.  The mommy and me playgroup we were in decided to book the horses (I think we booked 3 for 30 minutes) and each kid got to ride in the ring being guided for about $2/each.  For some kids like ds once around the ring was enough, dd was next to impossible to get off the horse, she was hooked at 18 months old, so for $2 she rode for 1/2 hour and had a blast.  If you are involved with a group similiar things can be organized.

fieldtrips, think outside the box, basically anywhere you can think of has fieldtrip potential and most are free.  I am working with a local beekeeper to organize a fieldtrip to see his operation and how he keeps the bees on his acreage.  We have toured the vet clinic, the newspaper, grocery store, sheep cheese farm, college farm to see their cattle operation in the fall and again in the spring to see their sheep operation, there is a "backyard" zoo about 45 minutes from here, it costs us about $25 to get in but the kids love it and the owners like to give us treasures to bring home for our nature table (porcupine quills from their porcupine that died after 20 years there; some burmese python skin, eggs my kids found in the hen house, and I have bought a few things-an emu egg and muskrat's pelt of it's head).  Getting to know those in businesses like that locally can really help either get you more bang for your buck, or cost you less to participate.

million minute challenge.  You register in the fall and declare how many minutes your group (family, club whatever) is going to play board games.  You log your minutes online and your name gets entered for a draw for a free game.  My kids love participating in the challenge, because it makes us stick to having a family game night and not letting life push it aside.

Our local college has a $5 drop in fee to use the rec facility, so I can take the kids, pay the drop in fee and play basketball in the gym for a while and then go swimming.  They also have an annual family pass that is not cheap up front ($649 for the year) but gives unlimited access for the year to the gym, workout room, pool, squash courts etc, so it would pay for itself quickly because for my family it works out to $25 each drop in visit.  So if I was using it often the family pass is a better value long term.  The same is true for family membership passes to the science center, etc.  It may look too expensive up front but it pays itself off much faster and if you have it you are more likely to go to that venue and utlize what it has to offer.  SO while it is neither free nor low cost up front, over the year is sure is.

We have a local church that offers a free teen drop in twice a week, they have pool table, video games, snacks, homework help etc basically just something for teens to do rather than wandering town after school.  They also offer cooking classes for like $30 once  year (it is a 6 week session) that my kids have enjoyed doing.

In the city there was a lady that offered sewing lessons for kids for $30, dd took several sets and sewed an apron, 2 different tote bags, quilt, and pj's.  Very good value as it included the fabric and everything.

Look into continueing education classes offered by the city/town, great things to choose from and they will waive or reduce the fees for 1 class per person per year.  My big kids got their babysitting course done that way for free, and they took an art class that way.  Next year I am thinking perhaps a self defense class would be a good choice.

And then of course is taking advantage of the natural surroundings, like my old house had a big hill right out the back gate so the kids could go sledding all winter, the big field next to it was perfect for launching rockets etc and the outdoor rink was free to skate on all winter.  OUt here we don't have any of that, but what we do have is a beautiful provincial park that we can explore to our heart content, the huge river to go canoeing, or pond dipping or fishing in, the stocked trout pond to fish in, great open areas in designated "dark zones" where we can take our telescopes, lots of nature study to be had there.  When we lived in the mountains, we would walk the mountain trails (my kids were little so we didn't do big hikes), and drive to the dump and see the bears, Heck sitting in the livingroom you could look out the window and see deer in your yard.  The chinook winds that blew all winter meant lots of outdoor play without getting too cold.  So simply getting out and exploring and utilizing what is right out your own front door.  My kids love our nature studies, they love when I announce we are headed to the provincial park for an exploring day, they loved being able to sled and skate all day long (and I loved that I could see them from inside my warm house :) I get cold way before them).  THose sorts of things are just as important as any other lessons/activities out there.

 

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Wow tons of great ideas here! Thanks!

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Swell mama,

 

Thanks for all of this ideas.

 

Check out my link for the flute lessons. She is an online video based flute teacher - amazingly worth it and well done. And when we get stick she can give a Skype lesson for 30.00

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(We don't qualify for any sort of aid/scholarships.). But it's great to share about that in case someone else reading this does!

[MissKNG]

It costs about $25 for 4-H a membership here.

[swellmomma]

It costs about $25 for 4-H a membership here.

Wow that is awesome, it costs $60-100 here depending on which club you join plus the cost of whatever your focus is.  My teens are joining 4H this year in the multiclub so they can do small engine repair and it is $60, plus they have to supply their own tools and track down a small engine (like a lawnmower).  SO not the cheapest activity out there but cheaper than what dd did last year.