There’s no question that there is plenty to do here in San Miguel, but as part of a family of three with one parent on a leave of absence, we need to be creative with our money and our playtime.

To that end, I’ve compiled some of the best and least expensive ways we’ve found to “play” in San Miguel. I’ll be straight with you and tell you that a few of these ideas were “borrowed” from friends, and some were orchestrated by my husband and me, but for the most part, my kids have found their own fun in their own way. Here are some ideas you might like to try with your own kids or with visiting children:

Squeeze! Buy an inexpensive lime squeezer from the market, collect limes (or buy them) and squeeze them into a jug. Add sugar and make a lime cordial to mix with water or agua mineral.

Shine! Wear your shine-able shoes to the Jardín and have Nicolás (our favorite) shine them for you. Then go home, change into another pair and go back again—or better yet, shuffle around in the dust for a few hours with your nice new shiny pair and go back again when they are sufficiently dirty.

Snap! Visit the Tianguis market (or any market) with your digital camera and find items (in Spanish) that start with each of the letters of the alphabet and photograph them. When you get home, download them and create a slide show with your collection. (Warning! There are very few words that start with the letter ‘W’ in Spanish.)

Climb! Go to the little Jardín by the San Antonio church. Climb the trees. Make forts. Then slide down the concrete side wall on the stairs leading up to the front door of the church.

Color! Buy small inexpensive tin items from the artisans’ market and paint them with some of the fantastic colors of San Miguel.

Critique! Visit art galleries and ask your kids as you look at each piece: “What would you call this one?” It makes them at least consider each piece. Then tell them to pretend they’re famous art collectors and can buy any piece they want. Ask them which one they’d pick—and “why?”

Navigate! Divide your kids into two teams (you may need to invite some friends for this one) and hand each team a map of San Miguel with the same four points marked and numbered at different locations around the city. Send the teams off with their map and some water (and a parent or guardian, of course) and tell them to make their way to each point as best they can. This one can take you to unexplored neighborhoods and teach kids how to read maps.

Collect! Bottle caps, plastic ice cream spoons, bits of twisted metal. We’ve got it all! We even used our camera to “collect” pictures of La Virgen Guadalupe. Click! Use your camera, preferably digital, to record some San Miguel minutiae: cracks in walls, iron bars on windows, funny shaped cobblestones, bits of garbage. You’ll be happily surprised with what these little guys can find—even Bart Simpson in a crumbled concrete wall.

Crack! Take a series of scarves to the Jardín and watch as the kids play Crack-the-Whip. Compete in three-legged races. Play Hide-the-Scarf—and any other number of crazy games. My husband and I watched in amazement one night as our kids played for two hours with one scarf, and then begged to come back the next day!

Sell! Have a garage sale or (in our case) an art & jewelry sale and raise money for the SPA or one of the other community service projects in the city.

Ride! Grab a map and some pesos, and then hop on the next bus and chart its course on the map with a pen. Get off that one and climb on another! Some of these may not be appealing to all children, but I’m constantly amazed to see what types of “play” my kids create in the absence of the multitude of toys we left behind. It makes me proud of them, and happy that so many of these activities show them another way of life here in Mexico.