Cheap or Free things for Teens and Pre-Teens this Summer!
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10 Cheap or Free Things for Teens and Pre-Teens to do this Summer
When I was a teenager, the biggest thing that got in my way was money, or rather, lack of it. While I had a job when I turned 16, I didn’t make that much for all the things I wanted to do and there was a lot of free time. Little kids are easy to keep busy in the summer with tons of crafts, amusement parks and so on. Teens/pre-teens can be a bit of a challenge.
Here are some ideas to keep the kids busy and have fun planning too!
1. Play fun nighttime games like Football in the dark, the classic telling of ghost stories around a bonfire or hide and seek. Yes, teens will still play hide and seek if it is at night and includes flashlights! There is nothing like a fun game of night time hide and seek.. I have some of the best memories with my neighborhood friends running around on summer nights!
2. Have a backyard camp out with a group of friends. Do a small bonfire, or even one in a backyard grill and roast marshmallows and allow them to stay up as late as they want. I can still remember camping out in my backyard with my friend Cathy when we were growing up, it was a ton of fun. I think we might of slipped back into the house during the middle of the night if I remember right, but the whole idea of staying out there super late as long as we wanted was fun!
3. Go fishing! Most teens like to fish. I live in an area that has a TON of lakes and some stocked local ponds that make it fun for anyone to fish. You can buy an inexpensive pole from a discount store or pawn shop to get started cheaply. My nieces and nephews LOVE going fishing and are really good too!! If you are in the Ocala area, Tuscawilla Park recently stocked the pond with catfish for the fishing derby, the my niece and nephew caught fish left and right a couple of weeks back. In Belleview, Lake Lillian has a stocked pond to for kids to fish from the dock!
4. FREE BOWLING!! Kids 15 and under can get two free games PER DAY through a couple of different programs. AMF Summer Unplugged is one to check out for sure, CLICK HERE, it is super easy to get started! If your area isn’t listed, there is another program calls Kids Bowl Free to check out too! Same program, just a different group of bowling alleys! CLICK HERE to check out the Kids Bowl Free program.
5. Have your teen gather friends and have them hold their own yard sale with clothes they have grown out of and old stuff they never use anymore. This will not only be a good way to make some extra cash, but it will be fun to hang out with friends all day doing it. I know it doesn’t sound super exciting, but once they get that cash in their pocket and head to the mall to hang out they will be looking for more things to sell!!
6. Help your teen find a place to volunteer if they have the heart for it. Many teens would like to volunteer and volunteering can be fun, they just need to be shown the way! My niece Amanda volunteered at a summer camp here in our area and loved every minute of it. She also volunteered at a soup kitchen one summer and it was an invaluable experience for her.
7. Have your teens get together with friends and make a short film or funny YouTube video. Have them write a script, design costumes and find locations for the film. Offer to help. It is super fun to upload a funny video on YouTube then show it to all of their friends and family! My niece Arizona and I did a video last summer where we did a remake of Britney Spears song “You wanna piece of me” and renamed it “I wanna pizza please”, it was hilarious and one of our best memories together!
8. Teen Dinner Night! Kids really do like to cook, have them plan a night that they are responsible for a full meal including appetizer, dinner and desert. They can research what they want to make and what ingredients they will need. Don’t forget to show them how to use coupons to get the items cheap! Kids Health has a whole section with Teen Recipes that most kids would enjoy! You can check out the different recipes by CLICKING HERE.
9. Go to a minor league baseball game near you. The tickets are usually a whole heck of a lot cheaper and the games are usually just as fun. Most minor league teams offer free admission to kids on Sunday or during home games. You can check out the Minor League Baseball site for teams and locations by CLICKING HERE.
10. Have a photo scavenger hunt with friends. Each of you go out in teams with a list of things to take photos of such as “Old lady with a funny hat“ or “Brown Dog“. After a specific amount of time, meet up and laugh at all the funny photos you were able to take. The person with the most pictures from the list wins! They did a cool scavenger hunt like this for adults in downtown Ocala a couple of years back that was SUPER FUN! I really like this idea and will probably do something like this for the kids in my family this summer!
Do you have a fun and cheap idea for Teens and Pre-Teens to do this summer? If so, please share!
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