In the next few days, kids will be home for the summer. So how do you entertain them? Inexpensively? Here are a few ideas for younger kids:

In these first few days, let them chill. They need a break. They just completed brain boggling tests and being on a pretty strict schedule every single day. Give them the opportunity to do something mindless like sleep in and just be kids. And yes watch a little TV. In addition to anything Nickelodeon and PBS kids, my three kids loved Saved by the Bell.

Let them play — good-old fashioned play where they entertain themselves and use their own imaginations. My kids reveled in nature. They took their collections of trucks, cars and action figures outside and played in the puddles and sandbox. For hours.

Check out Pinterest.com for fun ideas that entertain.

Enjoy your kids. Take time everyday to go for a walk, a bike ride or to sit on a swing with them. Cuddle. Before you know it, that kind of time will be hard to come by. Enjoy these first few days of summer vacation.

Pam Parker is an award-winning writer and editor for Lake Erie LifeStyle, Her Times and House to Home at the Erie Times-News in Erie, Pa.