So, here are a few budget-friendly ways to beat the heat, especially considering how most community pools are still a few tantalizing days away from being open and relief dangles just out of reach – for the moment. Consider also that a trip to Super Aqua Club, for example, will incur extra fuel costs that might make the trip unappealing to the wallet – or maybe you just have a bunch of yardwork to get done.

Either way, there are some easy and inexpensive ways to beat the heat, and I had to use every trick up my sleeve to entertain my daughter and my nephew – who fight like brother and sister -- for four hours as the two grew increasingly cranky and tired.

First: a wading pool. It's a key element of any backyard summertime experience, especially if your kids are still young enough to sit down and play in it. Give the kids two plastic pails and a full wading pool, and they're going to find ways to entertain themselves for 45 minutes at least.

Second: plastic popsicle molds available at the dollar store and 2 cans of juice -- lemonade, in my case -- from concentrate make a treat that is far more nutritious and a lot cheaper than a trip to the ice-cream parlour. The key to making the popsicles extra-scrumptious is to mix the juice with about one-third the amount of water they usually recommend, thereby ensuring your kids will finish the popsicle, and not abandon the frozen, colourless husk on a deck chair, devoid of any juicy flavour.

Not in my house.

Curtailing the amount of water in the mix ensures the popsicle will be as delicious at the end as it is at the beginning. It also leaves water for . . .

. . .squirt guns! Again, these bad boys are available at the dollar store, and will forever teach your child the satisfaction of squirting their parents with water. You pull out the little corky-plug thing at the end of the gun, dunk it in the wading pool and squirt away.

Add whatever else you can turn up: lay towels out, blow up a beach ball and grab a book for some quiet time, if you need it, and it's a day at the beach in your backyard.

Total cost: minimal.

Total hassles: none.

Using the hot weather to your advantage to entertain impatient three-year-olds?

Priceless.