Looking for cheap ways to entertain your children during the summer?

1. Take them to Walmart and let them use the free blood pressure machine. My children ask to use it every single time we shop. I have always said no in the past so when I announced that we were making a special trip JUST to use the machine, all the children were ecstatic. I’m happy to announce that my young’uns are hypertension-free.

2. Buy a gross of paperclips and tell the children that once they are all linked together, everyone gets a paperclip jump rope for the jump roping contest. The winner gets to control the hose in the next water fight. If they complain of sore fingers, suggest they soak them in the sink as they wash dishes.

3. Challenge the children that if they can remove the stale french fry smell from the minivan and make it look like it’s owned by a family with only two children rather than a family with seven, everyone gets a Happy Meal to be eaten INSIDE the restaurant! If there is fighting or complaining, they get an Unhappy Meal–PB&J on Pumpernickel bread.

4. Have a weed pulling contest. The child with the greenest hands in the end gets all the root beer flavored Popsicles in the box. Anyone caught with a green magic marker is immediately in charge of unhooking the paperclips.

5. Give each child a bucket of sudsy water and a paintbrush. Have them “paint” the woodwork on the front porch. The child who won the jump rope contest gets to wash the “paint” away.

Feel free to share your ideas. A mother can never have too many.