My kids love it when school’s out (three weeks left), but summer break makes me a little nervous, because it’s hard to fill all the free hours with purposeful plans. You know, I want my kids to be active, and I want them to learn some stuff, and I want them to have a lot of fun. Oh, and I don’t want to spend loads of cash.

I’ve started making my list of possible plans, and I’m going to share any winners with you when they pop into my head, OK? Here’s one: Chalk!

You can buy a bucket of chalk for cheap, and for Easter, I stuffed my kids’ baskets with packages that cost me just $1 each. My boys still have their assortments of colors, so I’m going to challenge them this summer with some driveway and sidewalk chalk games. Family Fun magazine lists lots of ideas, like Do the Math Hopscotch, Driveway Baseball, Splat! and more. My kids also like to have their bodies traced so they can decorate their outlines, and they love to draw cities with all their favorite buildings and modes of transportation — they’re experts at train tracks.

What are your summer plans? Share some good ideas, and we’ll write about them here.

Photo by: stevendepolo on flickr