Cost-effective activities for kids

Amusing your child can be difficult at times without going to a lot of expense, especially if you have things to do yourself. Here's some things I have found are good:

* Give them chalk and tell them to decorate the fence. It washes off easy and kids love it.

* Got any paint brushes? Especially big ones? Give the kids a brush and a bucket of water and tell them to paint the fence. You can even put food colouring in the water.

* Fill a large container (those plastic storage boxes are good) with water, again use food colouring for more interest, and let the kids play in the water - they can wash their toys, float little toy boats, or whatever.

* You just can't beat the good old play dough. Make it yourself! A good no-cook recipe is: 2 cups flour, 1 cup salt, 4 tablespoons cream of tartare, 2 tablespoons cooking oil, 1 3/4 cup boiling water, food colouring - simply mix together into a firm dough. Let the kids mix it themselves!

* Got old magazines around the house? Give the kids a theme such as food (or just let them pick the pics they like) and tell them to find pictures, cut them out, and glue them onto paper.

* Make goop. What's goop? Well, goop is so much fun! It's simply corn flour and water. Use a large container, put a packet of cornflour in and add a little water at a time, mixing the water in well each time. The idea is to end up with a gooey consistency, sort of like thick paint. Kids love the gooeyness and it cleans up easily as it is only cornflour and water (oh, make sure it is outside, lol).

* The internet has a lot of good sites which have great pictures you can print out for the kids to colour. My kids love having pictures of characters from their favourite movies and, if you search, you can find almost any of them. Example, I have colouring pics I found on the net from Cars, Over The Hedge, Narnia, Harry Potter, Shrek, Chicken Little, the Barbie movies, Winx Club, Lilo and Stitch - and the list goes on! Coming up to Christmas, you can find some great pics the kids can colour to use as decorations.

 ..... These things are very cost-effective and guaranteed to amuse the kids for hours, giving you the time to do whatever you like!