Are your kids always asking for a dollar here and a dollar there?  Do they want to earn some money of their own?

Here are 15 ways kids can earn their own money during the summer:

• Walk neighborhood dogs
• Bathe neighborhood dogs
• Sell lemonade or punch
• Sell cookies
• Sell the books they read last year (at a lemonade stand)
• Mow lawns
• Rake leaves
• Pull weeds
• Plant flowers or trees
• Babysit
• Hold a bike wash
• Offer to wash neighborhood automobiles
• Wash windows
• Collect aluminum cans
• Do extra chores at home

If you have any other ideas you would like to contribute for other mothers, please leave a comment.

In conjunction with the Kids Summer Planner, I have put together a list free things to do in the summer with your kids.  You can fill your summer with fun activities without breaking the bank.

Here are the free things to do with your kids in the summer:

Local library activities

Free park concerts

City events, check the local city website for their calendar of events

Visit a pet store

Some local museums and zoos have a free day

Tour your local city buildings (fire, police, and capitol)

Tour a local college campus

Help your kids start a collection of rocks, seashells, uniquely shaped twigs or sticks, or leaves and flowers that can be pressed

Go rock hounding

Go on a hike

Go on a bike ride

Go fishing

Go to the lake or beach to swim

Have a picnic

Camp in your back yard

Stargaze (look for constellations and satellites)

Start a book club for neighborhood friends to meet weekly

Exchange movies with neighbors and have movies nights or matinees

Allow late nighters with friends

Please let me know if there are any free fun activities that I have left off this list so I can share them with other readers. 

Thanks for visiting emomsblog!

Are you interested in building a membership site?

I wanted to share a free eBook called The Membership Site Masterplan. The free book is very informative. Here is the link to get your copy: Membership Site Masterplan

When I find free information on building blogs and websites that I feel is of value, I will share the links with readers of emomsblog because this blog has been such a wonderful experience for me. My start came when I found 10 free videos that walked me through, step by step, how to set up a blog, this blog. Writing emomsblog has been so much fun and is still a work in progress as many of my pages are still not complete, but will be soon.

Watch for the kids’ summer planning information coming soon. I am excited to share what I have been working on!

How do you pick out books your children?

For me, it is a challenge.  My son is very particular when it comes to books and if he isn’t reading something he is enjoying, it is a challenge to get him to read 30 minutes per day. When he is enjoying a book, he will read for hours at a time.

I found a service that works great for us. When you search for a book, it will give you recommendations based on what others purchased with similar searches. Just put a book you really enjoy in the search cell and scroll through the recommendations section.

Here is an easy link to check it out. Just click on this box: It will take you to the book section.

I hope you enjoy this service as much as we do.

Reading is something that the average American learns to do as a child. What a privilege it is to be able to read!

I realized how privileged I was in a waiting room and a gentleman sitting next to me mentioned he couldn’t read. He couldn’t read any of the signs hanging in that room! I guess I was a bit naïve until that day about how fortunate we are to be able to read and how hard life would be if we couldn’t.

Reading is rewarding and my children love books. Because we buy a lot of books and dvds, we like to look for a lower price then retail. We found a place where you can buy new and used books at a discounted rate. We have never had a bad experience and always received what we expected. If you are in a hurry, you must upgrade from media mails since your purchase can take up to two weeks to arrive. Click here to search for discounted books

Here’s to great deals!

Back up your computer.   This can save you a lot of time and money in the future.

I had previously backed up on a flash drive about three months ago so I wasn’t too worried about backing up again.  Finally, after several reminders from both Norton and Quickbooks, I decided I would back up Quickbooks because I had entered items almost daily in that program.  Lucky me!  My computer crashed and is in a bootloop (lingo from a techy).  

We have a second computer which is used by the family.  If this computer crashes we would lose our family snapshots from the past 5 years.  I am backing it up as I type this post.  I guess the most important thing to me is that I have all of our family pictures backed up because those are what I care about.  With digital cameras, it’s just too easy to lose your memories if your computer goes down.

Back up.

With all the talk about our “bad” economy, let’s insert some positive items into the mix.

1.  Maybe we will all get healthier because we will eat less junk and fast   food.

2.  Maybe we will walk more and drive less giving us a fitter heart and body, limiting the amount we pollute the air with our vehicles.

3.  Maybe we will spend less on our vehicles because we won’t have the wear and tear of so much driving and we won’t fill our fuel tanks so often.

4.  Finally, maybe we will all learn to be more careful with the money we spend giving us the opportunity to begin budgeting and planning better for the future.

Hope this spin on the economy helps a little!

We purchased an new fridge 5 years ago so it’s been that long since I cleaned off the coils….

Vacuuming all that dust off the back of the refrigerator had been eating at me for a few weeks (since I should have done this years ago and at least once every 6 months to a year).  I finally pulled my refrigerator from it’s tightly fitted cubby only to find out that it doesn’t have coils.  Well now I know and I am sharing this fact with you.  The floor underneath did need a good cleaning and there were a few vent areas that I cleaned.

If you do have an older refridgerator, remember to clean the coils.  Keeping your coils clean will help your refrigerator run more efficiently.  Be sure to unplug your refrigerator before you start to clean your coils.  You can use your vacuum’s dusting attachment.  Be gentle because the coils are fragile.  Don’t use anything sharp as you may puncture a coil.  Also, please have someone help you pull your refrigerator out so you don’t bump the coils, tip it, or hurt yourself.