If you're got growing kids and a shrinking budget, consignment sales are a great way to outfit your kids at a fraction of retail prices.

And right now is prime shopping season for spring consignment sales in the Triangle.

Most sales offer early shopping days for volunteers and sellers, and many offer discounts in the final days of the sale. I highly recommend clicking on the links to individual sales to get sale hours, directions and discount information.

Here are a few upcoming sales and their public sale dates:

Keep the kids busy for free with upcoming activities at the Lego store, Home Depot and Lowes Home Improvement stores.

If you're looking for free entertainment for the kids this weekend, Home Depot is hosting its monthly kids' workshop.

From 9 a.m. to noon this Saturday, Jan. 7, kids ages 5 to 12 are invited to build a bank in the shape of a storage shed.

The kids will also receive a free apron, pin and certificate.

Click here for more details on the kids' workshops, which are held the first Saturday of every month.

What a week for buying school supplies.

The office supply stores are offering penny and nickel deals and the drugstores and grocery stores all have deals.  Even Toys R Us is getting in on the act with sales on Crayola products.

On top of that, North Carolina's sales tax holiday starts Friday so keep that in the back of your mind as you're studying the deals.

Here's a store-by-store breakdown:

Here's an opportunity to do a good deed and get a good deal at the same time.

All this month, Lynn's and Daphne's Hallmark stores in the Triangle are collecting donations to send recordable storybooks to soldiers serving in Afghanistan who won't be home to celebrate the holidays with their kids.

In her weekly Who’s Got Game column in the North Raleigh News and the Midtown Raleigh News, correspondent Teri Saylor takes a look at area competitors.

Coming Wednesday: Eric Gabriel of North Raleigh saw his active recreational sports participation end with knee trouble, a knee replacement and complications that left him with a steel rod in the leg. Then he made an extreme decision: He would have the bum leg removed. Now, he’s a competitive rower.

Now online: Athletes as young as 4 hit the mat for competition with the Capital City Wrestling Club. Sure, there are occasional tears, but even the little ones can compete in this sport, says club organizer Joe Cesari, a former N.C. State wrestler with an outstanding wrestling heritage.

*** Got recreational sports news? Email Teri Boggess at play@newsobserver.com. ***
 

Boys and girls in Durham are learning a new sport - rugby - from Duke University students and volunteers.
 
About 30 youths, most ages 9 and 10, have been learning the game since August in an in-house fall league at the John Avery Boys and Girls Club at 808 E. Pettigrew St.

"It has been a pretty good response for such a new program," said James Gillenwater, a second-year law student who formed the league as his N.C. Albert Schweitzer Fellowship health-based project, which is to promote youth fitness through sports.  

The Big Kick was a big success.

More than 500 youths and volunteer coaches from 55 teams in the A.E. Finley YMCA’s soccer program raised $4,290 to help less fortunate families.

Led by the A.E. Finley sports staff, the Big Kick program ended Sept. 25. For six weeks, players learned about teamwork, sportsmanship and philanthropy while raising money for less privileged children ...

Two children died after they were thrown from their car in a Durham railroad crossing crash on Dec. 9, and witnesses said they had not been wearing seat belts. Another child was thrown from his car and killed in a car-train crash in Efland.

Now the Highway Patrol says 6-year-old Taryn Greise was not using a booster seat or seat belt when her family's SUV overturned on I-95 on Christmas Day, killing her.

This terrible news makes this a good time for reminders about what the law says, and what safety experts say, about child passenger safety. (See today's Road Worrier column, with reader comments.)

North Carolina law requires drivers to make sure that all children less than 16 years old – in front seat and back seat – are buckled up. The law sets minimum standards, with generic requirements that do not specify products or devices.

Experts at the UNC Highway Safety Research Center recommend higher levels of protection. They provide detailed guidance and links to local resources at www.buckleupnc.org.

What the law says: ... [MORE]

On Tuesdays and Wednesdays from now until Halloween, kids (10 and under) in costume eat free at Skylines Cafe.

Also, these weekly bargains continue to be offered at Skylines: 

* Wednesdays: half price bottles of wine

* Thursdays $5 martinis, with live music from 7:30-9:30pm