Summer months are prime time for informal learning.Here are eight inexpensive summer ideas appropriate for grade school children.

1. Obstacle Course
Cost: Zero
Details: Set up objects to crawl over or walk through in a yard or indoor play area. Use lawn chairs, stools, boards, tires or plastic pipes.

2. Kid-Size Tent
Cost: About $1 apiece for 1-by-2-inch strips of wood, plus $4 for clothesline.
Details: Lash five poles together into a teepee shape with length of clothesline; drape a sheet around it and fasten with a clothespin. Or put a blanket over a card table to make a tent.

3. Bubbles Aplenty
Cost: $2 for fly swatter
Details: Mix a gallon of warm water with 4 tablespoons of dishwashing soap and 1 tablespoon of corn syrup. Dip a new fly swatter into soap and swirl through the air.

4. Nest Building
Cost: Zero
Details: Pretend you're a bird and gather enough twigs park to make a nest.

5. Race Car Box
Cost: Negligible
Details: Find a cardboard box big enough to sit in. Tape a plastic plate to the “dash” as a steering wheel; place a wooden spoon into a corner as a gearshift.

6. Hallway Bowling
Cost: $1 to $2 for art supplies
Details: Using markers, tempera paints and foil, decorate six toilet paper tubes or empty juice cans. Stand them on their ends to form a “V”; knock them over with a tennis ball.

7. Buried Treasure
Cost: Minimal
Details: Wrap a small shoebox and lid in foil and fill with costume jewelry. Dress up as a pirate and bury it. Draw a map so you can retrieve it later.

8. Flying Saucers
Cost: $2 for packet of premium paper plates, $1.50 for bowls, $1 for glue
Details: Glue the edges of two heavy-duty paper plates together, then glue on an inverted paper bowl. Draw some doors and portholes. Send it flying.

Last reviewed: July 2008