Whether the economic recession has affected you or not, most of us are in a place where we are looking to save money anywhere we can. I am just such a person. I am a young mother with two little girls (ages 3 1/2 and 1 1/2) and a baby on the way. I am always looking for fun activities to do with my little ones, but they have to meet some specific requirements. Most importantly, the activity needs to be either free, or very inexpensive. (More often than not-- free!) It has to be something that is kid friendly to small children, and somewhere I am able to get to without too much trouble. Also, because my children are so young they can only last for so long, so most of our adventures are pretty brief. I have searched out what fun things there are to do for free and gotten lots of help from other mom’s too. Here are a few of the activities I have found.
1) The Library is a great source of free, kid friendly activities. Most libraries have a weekly story time for kids of different ages. They have a summer reading program, and by completing a certain number of books or hours reading you can turn in tokens and get free books, free passes to the Lied Discovery Museum, or other goodies in the treasure box. After you complete the program your kids get a medal for their accomplishment and their name gets put in a drawing for a $50.00 gift certificate for Borders Books. They have a great summer line up of entertainment such as puppet shows, DJ Tony, Reading is Magic Show, and other great activities. If you stop by your local library they should have a little booklet that will list all of the planned events for all of the libraries in the entire County. If you aren’t able to make it to your own library for an event you might be able to catch it at another library in town. Going to a new library for a specific event makes it feel even more like a special adventure!
2) Free Movies!!! My children are just barely getting old enough to sit through a movie in a theatre so we have for the first time been able to take advantage of the great summer movie line up they have at some of the the movie theaters around town. Regal has a weekly free family movie on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings at 10:00am. If you go to www.regmovies.com then click on Tickets and Showtimes then click on Free Family Films you can see the list of shows, dates, and theaters where the movies are playing. Also the District is showing movies on Friday and Saturday nights outside under the stars free of charge, with free popcorn too! The films start at sundown around 8:00pm. Go to www.thedistrictatgvr.com then click on Events then click on Outdoor Picture Show for a list of movies and dates. The Rave theaters at Town Square also have some free summer movies for families. Go to www.townsquarelasvegas.com and click on Free Family Movies at Rave Motion Pictures for more details.
3) Ethel M Chocolate Factory gives free tours and has Botanical Cactus Gardens with trails you can walk. They even give special guided tours to parties of 10 or more by calling ahead. Go to www.ethelschocolate.com and click on Factory Tour at the bottom of the page.
4) Whitney Ranch Activity Pool located in Henderson has a great facility for kids to play. There is a $1.00 free for children 3-17 and a $2.00 charge for adults. Go to www.cityofhenderson.com and click on Pools, Overview of Pools, then Whitney Ranch Activity Pool for pictures and location.
I hope you have fun planning fun summer activities for your family! Happy Summer!
Heather Gillins
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