Looking for fun, educational & frugal activities to do with your child?  Mom on Dealz will provide you with weekly activities to keep your children learning while you stay on budget!

 This week’s idea was submitted by Madame Deals

Materials:
Magazine with pictures of your chosen animal (National Geographic was used for this one)
scissors and glue or tape ($1)
shoe box
2 dolphin (bought at Dollar Store) ($2)
Total Cost of Project: $3

Directions:
1. Have your child select the animal they would like to make a “home” or habitat for in the box.
2. Discuss with your child the types of things found in the habitat (coral, water, other fish for a dolphin).
3. Have your child search thru the magazine for these types of pictures. If they are old enough to cut them out allow them to do so, otherwise you will need to do this.
4. Glue or tape your pictures inside the shoebox to make it look like the habitat.
5. Tape your animal’s picture inside it’s “habitat”.

Educational Modifications:
1. Science: Obviously this activity is geare towards Science and the topic of habitats. You can discuss other animals and other habitats after creating this one.
2. Language Arts: Have your child write the steps to creating the shadowbox. You can also have them do some computer research about their animal and habitat and write about what they find. Remember that you can write their thoughts down for them if they are too young to write. Will LOVES researching things on the computer with me (usually dinosaurs) and we always summarize what we find while searching.

Looking for fun, educational & frugal activities to do with your child?  Mom on Dealz will provide you with weekly activities to keep your children learning while you stay on budget!

Materials:
Construction paper
Magazines/Internet
Glue
Scissors
Play Money (can be printed HERE)
Markers

Directions:
1. Talk with your child about what kind of store they would like to open (Will chose a dinosaur store). Draw that store on paper.
2. Browse magazines or the internet for pictures of items that may be in the selected store. Cut out the pictures and glue them in a display on the paper (Obviously we used PBS.org to get our Dinosaur Train pictures).
3. Label the items in your store with prices.
4. Print out the paper money and cut it out or use play money from the Dollar Store.
5. Shop your store. Be sure to give your child a set amount of money they can spend so they learn the concept of not spending more than they have.

Language Arts Modifications:
1. Have your child create a shopping list before they “shop”. Making a list is one form of pre-writing in the writing process.
2. Have your child write about their “shopping trip” afterwards and seqence the items they bought.
3. Have your child write how they determined what items they could buy and still maintain their budget.

Not sure what to do with the kids this weekend?  Take a look at these FREE events courtesy of Keeping Cents to keep your child entertained and learning without breaking the bank:

AC Moore – Saturday 1-3pm, Easter Buckets: Purchase a Bucket and decorate it Free.

AC Moore – Sunday 1-3pm, Make n’ Mold Candy Making Demonstration: Easter Pretzels.

Bank of America – Saturday & Sunday, Free Museums On Us days for Bank of America cardholders! There are over 100 participating Museums, Zoos, Science Centers, and Botanical Gardens across the US.

Home Depot – Saturday 9am-Noon, Free “How-to Workshop”: build a Planter/Basket!

Jo-Ann Fabric & Craft Stores – Saturday 1-3pm, Free Demo: Fabric Crafting with Simply Spray.

Lakeshore Learning – Saturday 11am-3pm, Kids create a Free ‘Friends Around the World’ display.

Michaels – Saturday 10am-Noon, The Knack Easter Egg Event Make-It Take-It: with $5 purchase of 7″ craft egg. Kids can decorate a cheerful craft egg for the holiday.

Target – select a city to find free or reduced-price admission to arts and cultural events in your area, sponsored by Target.

Toys R Us – Saturday Noon-2pm, Chuggington Celebration: try out the newest talking interactive train! Plus, enjoy storytime, coloring and FREE giveaways!

Toys R Us – Saturday 2:30-4:30pm, LEGO Ninjago Spinjitzu Training Camp: Learn new spinning techniques. Bring your own spinner and battle with Friends. Plus, get a FREE giveaway! For participating stores, visit Ninjagospinjitzucamp.com.

Walmart Event Finder – enter your zip code to see what is going on in your area.

*It’s always a good idea to call your local store to confirm participation!

Looking for fun, educational & frugal activities to do with your child?  Mom on Dealz will provide you with weekly activities to keep your children learning while you stay on budget!

If you’re the parent of a school-aged child, you know that a major skill most children struggle with is learning how to make change.  This is also a challenge for some teachers to teach.  When I was teaching 2nd grade I came up with a game that really helped my children understand a little better.

Children love to engage in dramatic play/games and I tried my hardest to allow them to do this during center time in the classroom.  Games and role playing are huge learning tools!  When I first began teaching I also waited tables at night at our local Applebee’s (further evidence that teachers are not paid enough).  My students were aware of my second job and were always very interested about it.  I thought I would take advantage of this interest and use it to grab their attention, hence my Dining Out game was invented.

Materials:
Baby Wipe Container-Free if you have babies!  If not, use an empty tissue box.
To Go Menu(s) from your favorite restaurant-FREE
Play Money (you can print some from HERE or buy some at the Dollar Store)-Free or $1

Directions:
1.  Have your child decorate the outside of the wipe container to look like his/her favorite restaurant.
2.  Place to go menus inside with fake money.
3.  Assign roles of waitress and dining guests.  You can have as many guests as you like and you can rotate the roles.
4.  Take turns ordering off the menu and then “paying” for your meal.  The waitress will need to make change from the money that the dining guest pays with and the guest will need to double check the change they receive. This helps everyone involved practice their change making skills and also reinforces double checking your work. 

It’s a simple but effective game.  You can also change the prices in the menus since most of them end in .99 or .49 and the kids will catch on fast what amount of change needs to be given.  This game also reinforces reading skills as there are sure to be some words they need to sound out while selecting their food.

Adaptations for younger children:
My 2 year old obviously can’t play this game. However I can begin working on his money skills by teaching him to count different sets of items and eventually counting by 2′s, 5′s, and 10′s.  After that we can begin working on simply identifying different coins and paper money.