Family Recreation, Entertainment & Friends

[SadieJ]

So I have a problem.  My family is bored/lonely most weekends.  We are introverted people and have trouble making friends, especially similar-minded friends.  We do projects around the house some weekends - the kids don't really get into them.  The kids are 6 and 8.  We also go to parks and the playground and such but this winds up being very anticlimactic for us adults.  We are not close to extended family.  I'm looking for some suggestions for cheap family entertainment and/or social activities.  Thanks in advance for any ideas!

[Cassie]

Since your kids are school age perhaps volunteer to help at their school to make friends with some of the parents.  Then you could invite people over for a potluck.  When my kids were little it was a great way to make new friends.

[tmac]

SadieJ, I could have written your post. We're homebodies, and have a hard time getting out and about. But we've just moved and are trying to turn over a new leaf. Saturday is now designated Family Day, and I have a calendar that is slowly gathering possibilities -- local outdoor concerts, farm tours, pick-your-own apples or berries, hiking, swimming, museums, big fun art projects, etc. This Saturday is the community drive-in movie, where there's apparently a playground.

I'm also going to try volunteering (since the kids are in school and I'm working at home) here in town to meet some like-minded adults. I dislike the kinds of activities required to be active in the PTA, so that's out. Options floated so far include conservation/outdoors clubs, the historical society, friends of the library (frontrunner!). My teen son is half-way decided to get involved with community theater. My husband and youngest son play the same musical instrument, so they're scoping out local bands they could play with. Our hope is that the scheduled activities will spawn some built-in socializing and maybe some offshoot friendships.

Good luck to you. And to us. :)

[Inspired, I just now emailed an old friend who lives nearby and asked if she'd like to get together with the kids to do whatever their favorite local thing is.]

[cmk]

When my kids were that age, we really enjoyed geocaching as a family.  Go to geocaching.com, input your zip code, and choose some geocaches in interesting parks.  Do a long hike, have a picnic, and search for hidden treasure .  Sometimes you'll find decent trade items for kids.  Along the way feed ducks, go swimming, rent a kayak, basically whatever adventures the kids like.   

In many areas, gatherings are held, which is a nice way to meet other families.  They are called "event geocaches" on the web page.

Almost forgot to mention,  it's very frugal.  GPS handhelds can be cheap on ebay and craigslist, and if you have a smartphone with a decent gps, you can use that.

[yddeyma]

We're introverted engineers, too.  The kids are both daycare kids (4 and 2), so if we take them to the park somewhere they inevitably start playing with other kids.  My husband and I don't care to interact with people.  We're not anti-social, we're just UN-social.

That said, it works out way better for us if I make a list of things in the area that are free or cheap and fun.  I try to stay within a 45 minute drive (we're in a rural area, so that is what we consider "close by").  I try to do things that require both my hubby and I to be active, since we are cubicle workers.  On my list is:

1. Children's museum (we bought a one-time annual pass)
2. State Park event days (they have music festivals, fishing rallies with free supplies for kiddos, living history days, etc.)
3. Produce picking (strawberries in April, Peaches in May, Blueberries in June, Blackberries in July, Apples in September, Pumpkins in October etc.)
4. Library
5. Animal Sanctuary (free, but we give a donation)
6. Geocaching
7. Hiking
8. Free events at the civic center or agri-center

We don't do things like this every weekend, but try at least once or twice a month.  The other times we have chores around the house we do.

[Goldielocks]

We biked a lot a as a family when the kids were 6 and 8.   (and before, with the gator bike along attachment).  Like, every weekend and vacation.  This means you need a bike carrier for your car to get out to the "neat" places.

Liked seasons pass to the zoo one year, and the science museum another year, especially at 4 yrs to 8 yrs..   If you go 4-6 times it is worth it.   I always like science stuff, and the parks at the zoo are very beautiful too.  Both on city transit.    I had to wait until my daughter was 14 before anyone wanted to even walk through an art museum with me, though.

We would go to a big city park far (1.5 hr)  from home, by taking two bikes on the bus with us.   That was an adventure, many tourists go there.    One or twice per year.   Fireworks, etc.  The cities will often put on free children's festivals, or small skits, or musicians that are interesting.  Even if only a few times per year, it mixes up the outings.  Look them up.

My husband likes to build stuff, so showed the kids how to use the wood stapler, scroll saw, etc. and they would make their own bird houses, or "crafts" from wood scraps. while he worked on his projects.   Yep, even at 6-8yrs old they can start to use some of the big person tools.

Family board games a big hit at this age.   I had to buy some german style games as Monopoly is not my style.   

Learning how to take video and post to U Tube is fun too.  Stop motion animation anyone?  With clay people, now that was fun during winter / rainy season.

We started hiking (instead of biking) at around 10 yrs of age for the youngest, and geo caching is a hit.

There is also a portals game on the cell phone (caution, uses data), that we like to play as we walk around our neighborhood or to new places in town.  It is a collaborative on line app game, that you attack other people's portals, and defend your territory.  Kids really love it.


Check out family "meet up" invites and see if there is anything interesting!     We ended up forestry (free) camping while the kids built rafts in the woods one year after getting to know a few other families.   

[bogart]

We have one 7 year old and are similarly UNsocial.

We get DS together with friends (his school friends) on weekends, some.  This is great for him (he is VERY social) and OK for us.  It's mostly just drop-him-off-at-someone's-house or have-another-kid-over-to-ours, nothing complicated.

We go to the local pool (town pool, we have an annual membership) and swim.  I take him to a large lake and we throw rocks in or build in the sand on the shore or swim (free).  Or we go to the dam and study how the recent weather has affected the spillway (both those activities involve driving significant distances, by mustachian standards).  We play disc golf (free).  He is signed up for a number of local kids' sports (soccer season is coming up), and those include games on weekends when they are active.  We bike.  We camp.  He and his dad fish (I'm not into it).  He is learning golf through an organization called First Tee, which is absurdly affordable (but again, for us, involves driving).

Our local community center has a climbing wall open to 6 and up and we may try that soon.  We also have a commercial climbing center in our town, and I may look into that.

[brand new stash]

We have a dinner with friends with kids nearly every weekend.  The way we started this was by inviting the families of kids that our kids like over for dinner.  Nothing fancy, burgers and corn on the cob type thing. Kids run around and play, parents chat.  If we click and like the parents, we invite them again.  If we don't, no big deal, and we now know our kids friend's families better.  And the other benefit is many of the families invite us over in return.  We've been doing this for a few years.  We dramatically widened our social circle with these dinners.  My kids love them too.   They are fairly mustachian especially once you get into the return invitations, because it usually isn't too much more expensive to cook a dinner for 10 rather than 5, and then we get the free dinner when they reciprocate. 
 

[Bob W]

We have a 7 (started 2nd grade today!) and 12 year old.  The split is pretty broad at this point. 
Here are some things we do --

Season pass to amusement park
Hiking
Swimming in lake and pools
Camping - (used to do this a lot, burned out)
Visiting family at a distance
Hunting for treasures (generally walking around at parks and places and looking for things people have left behind or lost)
State parks
Bocci Ball (the soft leather ones)
Playing catch, soccer, freeze tag, hide and go seek
Going to unique stores
Church activities

You can Google for free/cheap family fun activities.

To really ramp it up,  pack your TVs, Tabs, books and computers up for 3 months and start to live life.  My guess is that you really aren't introverted so much as your distracted.

And don't forget --- Plenty of hugs!