Long behold summer has officially started and I must say I’m excited and not excited. Summer for my kids is great because well no more school for a few months, sleeping in, spending time with friends, and vacationing who doesn’t love summer. The thing about summer for parents can be great and not so great especially when your low on cash. Being a single mom raising kids can be tough and planning fun things in the summer can at times be challenging. Let’s face it friends are not always around, so that means your child is in the house half the time bored, playing video games, or eating up all the food you have in the pantry. If you are a single parent or even a two parent household most parents still have to work during the summer to make ends meat, thus leaving kids at home with or the older ones without a babysitter. At times during past summer breaks I felt guilty because I couldn’t take my kids on vacations or out to fairs or carnivals because I just didn’t have the money. Between making sure I could pay rent, bills, and extra for food because they weren’t in school, I just couldn’t do all the fun things they wanted to do.

I stated researching and brainstorming some ideas that parents could do to have fun  with their kids, either for free or with discounts so that they could have fun quality time with them.

1. I have found the many movie theatres throughout the country in the summer have discount day. The theatre chain Cinemark in Chicago has $1.00 movie days on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. The movies are mostly G and PG rated and are the old movies, but ones the kids love to see over and over again. I think it’s a great way to get the kids out of the house and more exciting to go to the theatre to see rather than at home.

2. There are many restaurants that provide kids eat free or free items for kids with a purchase of a adult meal. With summer comes really hot days and that means mamma does not want to cook, who wants to turn their oven on even the stove top in 90 degree weather.  Chili’s Bar and Grill has kids eat free Tuesdays with the purchase of a adult entrée, and Steak n Shake on Sundays with every $9.00 spent don’t forget half price drinks and shakes during the weekdays between 2-5, who doesn’t want a nice cold shake in the summertime.

3. I love Groupon I tend to go on their site weekly and check what new deals they have between getting a discount on eating out, doing things around town, or special prices on trips away for a mini vacation. Last summer I bought a Groupon to this kids arcade place named Enchanted Castle the Groupon cost $30.00 and it included 2 premium activities for 2 kids, $12.00 in game play for each child, one large one topping pizza, and pitcher of pop. The total of all this would of probably been well over $70.00 or $80.00 so to me it was a good deal. The kids loved the food and got to play laser tag, bumper cars, indoor go karts, and arcades while I just sat and watched, SCOREEEE.

These are just a few ideas I had for summer fun on a budget. I have many more that I will be posting in days to come, but if you have kids at home bored try to take some time and do your own research. Look into movie theatres, bowling alleys, family restaurants, and discounts sites like Groupon and Livingsocial and see what fun things you can come up with. I would love to hear your ideas and suggestions as to keeping kids entertained, after all we as parents are in this parenting thing together so as they say “sharing is caring.”