Summer on a Budget

One of the perks of being a teacher is having the summers off; it's a nice break, considering the increasingly demanding nature of the teaching profession.  However, one of the downsides of summer break is not having a paycheck for two months.  So, one of the challenges I face in the summer is to have fun with Ethan, keep my sanity, and not spend too much money.  I'm definitely a "throw money at the problem" kind of girl, so it requires some planning on my part to avoid breaking the bank.  

As I've discovered over the last week, there are plenty of free activities around town to do with kids, TONS, actually.  I found a website that has been extremely helpful.  It lists pretty much every free activity there is to do with kids in Rochester in one place so I don't have to spend time trolling various websites to figure out what to do. 

Where I get stuck is with finding things to do at home with Ethan.  Since he's still so little and has a short attention span, I need to have new and unique activities ready to keep him occupied, but I can't afford to go shopping every week for new or even used toys (I think I'll need to do a post soon on my love of baby/toddler consignment shopping!) Fortunately, Pinterest has helped immensely.  I get plenty of ideas for activities and toys from Pinterest, and most of the materials involved I already have in my house or just call for a quick trip to the Dollar Store.  We made a trip to the Dollar Store Monday, and so today, since it's rainy and Ethan is feeling a bit under the weather, I broke out the goodies - a package of pom-poms and a set of ice cube trays.  For a whopping 20 minutes, Ethan busied himself placing the pom-poms in the ice cube trays, dumping them out, and then starting over.  He even enjoyed just putting the pom-poms back into the zip-loc baggie.  What I like about this activity is that it can grow with him as he develops.  Right now, it's all about hand-eye coordination, but as he gets older and understands colors, categorizing, and counting, he'll be able to use these items in other ways.  All this for only $2, yes, that's right, only $2!!! (re-read this line in your best infomercial voice).