03.17.2008 1:09 pm
Spring break without breaking the bank
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
So begins spring vacation for school children around the region…and high traffic time for places like City Museum and Magic House. Fun but exhausting! Anybody got any ideas out there that don’t require a tank of gas and and a pricey admission ticket? Yesterday, for the price of two round-trip MetroLink tickets, I gave my three-year-old a memorable afternoon. Who knew a ride to Scott Air Force Base would be so much fun?
The floor is open. We’re looking for simple ideas with big impact for restless kids and desperate parents.
Nancy Cambria is the Children and Families reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. She writes on a wide variety of topics pertaining to the well-being of children and family issues. She posts on children and family policy in The Grade blog and on general family and parenting issues in the Parents Talk Back blog located in the lifestyle section. 
My favorite when it’s not raining is always the zoo. It’s not that far, and free. Plus, I have my Grandma get my 4 year old son a membership every Christmas so him and I can just pick up and go whenever. Then all I have to worry about is remembering to take a snack with us and the money for gas to get there. If you have older kids you could probably still go on a drizzly day and spend a good hour or so just in the Living World and it’s all indoors.
Head to your local library check out a stack of books and dvds. If your child is over the age of five, most libraries will allow a child to get their own library card.
When my girl was a toddler, she loved nothing better than heading to Home Depot for a couple of hours to smell the wood, pat the plastic garden owls, sit on the lawn tractors, and play with countertop samples. She’d stand in the kitchen displays and pretend to make soup and pie, and then hand out imaginary pieces of pumpkin pie to shoppers. She’d smell the flowers in the garden section, lean back in the cart and look at the ceiling fans, and play with the doorknob displays. We’d have pretend swordfights with the wooden yardsticks in the paint section, discuss how much ice cream we could fit in a chest freezer, and play strongman with bricks and paving stones.
Most times we wouldn’t spend a dime, and nobody ever seemed to mind us being there.
The play area at the mall seem to be a popular place. The kids get to play and the moms get to chat. Altough I do wonder how often they are cleaned and disinfected. There is also the Musuem of Transporation.