I was talking to a friend this weekend and she mentioned how her kids were having a really hard time being stuck at home all the time and having to finish school at home. That got me to thinking about some of the things people could do with their kids to keep them from being so bored.
I know when I was a kid we never went anywhere since we pretty much lived in the middle of nowhere. But we were always busy and having fun.
Studies have shown that the simple act of having nightly family dinners does wonders for the
emotional, academic, and even physical development of the children in the home. Imagine how much more could be achieved with regular, fun activities that will also help you all bond and become even closer as a family!
I think we have all gotten so busy with life that we haven’t taken the time to truly interact with our families. People seem to be seeing this now after having to be home all the time they are realizing how important and fun family time can be. I have talked to several people who are going to be making changes and doing more things with the family instead of everyone going their separate ways.
I thought I would throw out a few ideas of things that families can do together. I am going to do a 34-day challenge. I will post one a day for 34 days. These are ideas to do as a family or do with your Grandkids. Do one a day, stretch them out to every other day, or whatever works for your family. Take the idea and make it your own, tweak them to fit your family.
# 1 Baking
Let everyone choose something they want to bake together as a family. It could be cookies, cake pops, muffins, a pastry—anything yummy and bake-able! Then, you all work together as a family to get the ingredients and make something super delicious everyone can be proud of being a part of. If you have a big family, you can even do a different baking project every other day until everyone has had a chance to make their favorites.
#2 Gardening
Gardening is a very useful skill and can be a lot of fun to get into. You can start a little vegetable, herb, or flower garden depending on the space you have. If you have a lot of space, everyone can have their own little plot where they can grow what they want as well! Gardening is a great way to show your kids how patience, hard work, and perseverance can pay off in big ways!
Let the kids pick what they want to grow and you might even have them pick at least one thing that they have never tried. If they grow it themselves they are going to be more inclined to try it. You might even let them help to cook it or fix it. They will be proud of what they grew and helped cooked.
#3 Story Time
To get the whole family involved in a favorite story, try acting it out instead of just reading it! Everyone will become part of the story, and you will all have an amazing memory to look back on forever. Bonus points for going all-in with costumes, funny voices, and homemade props!
When I was little my Brothers and Sister would act out plays for our parents. It was so much fun. One summer when my girls were younger they and the daycare kids spent two weeks planning a wedding and they had flowers and dresses and they had a blast with it.
Pick a story read it then work on gathering all the props and act it out.
# 4 Board Games
Sometimes just a relaxing day of playing board games is a great way to pass the time. If you want to add a little something extra, try making up some new rules and change the same old games up a bit! You can also create your very own games like themed charades, or scavenger hunts! Unleash your creative side, and play by your own rules. ;).
If you don’t have any board games pick some up at the second-hand store or garage sales. If they are missing a few parts or your games are missing parts you can contact the company and for a small price, they will send you the missing parts. A lot cheaper than buying new games.
Another option is to do a game exchange with friends. Just exchange games for a week or so. This way you get to try new games without having to spend a fortune on them.
#5 Craft Day
Coloring, collages, slime making, painting, etc. are all examples of super fun crafts you can do with your family. Art is something that can be therapeutic, so make sure this is a positive experience with no bad ideas or critiques. Art styles are all different, and there is no wrong way to be creative. Just have fun! Need inspiration? Visit Pinterest, or you can go to funfamilycrafts.com for more great ideas.
Use what you have on hand think outside the box if you don’t have all the supplies you need for a certain project.
#6 Build a fairy garden
You don’t need a lot of fancy stuff to make a fairy garden. Find a place to put it outside in a special area, Or a container most anything will work. Use your imagination to make furniture and houses. Pinterest has a ton of low or no-cost ideas for fairy gardens.
#7 Pizza Night
All you need is dough, toppings, sauce, and an oven to have your very own family pizzeria! Everyone gets enough dough for a personal-sized pizza, and they can top it however they want. Then, you just bake and enjoy it! This makes personal pizzas truly personal, and makes for great bonding time with food and fun! This is something else I have done with my daycare kids and they love making their own pizzas.
If you don’t have dough you can use french bread cut in half or hamburger buns. A can of hunts spaghetti sauce is usually a dollar a can and will make a lot of pizzas’.
# 8 Pillow Fort
One person can make a pretty awesome pillow fort, but a whole family can make an epic pillow CASTLE! Use cardboard boxes, blankets, couch cushions, pillows, and more to create a huge pillow fort to hang out in.
#9 Movie Marathon
(This is a great add-on to pillow fort day) Get comfy and watch a movie series for a day with lots of snacks and finger food. Stay in your pajamas for extra coziness.
# 10 Learn Sign Language
Sign language is a very useful language to know, and it is actually a lot of fun to learn. You can use books and/or online tutorials, help each other practice, and even try going a whole day communicating with just sign! Find more about learning sign language here: American Sign Language.
# 11 Film For A Day
Use your phones, or an old camcorder to document a whole day with your family. Then you can watch it back and even edit it into a fun family movie if you want to! As the years go by, it will be fun to look back and remember what a fun day you had, and how you lived at that time.
# 12 Dance Party
Make a playlist with everyone’s favorite songs, and have a big dance party! Go crazy and have fun just shaking out all your troubles. You will get a great workout for it, too.
# 13 Yoga/Pilates
Speaking of workouts, Pilates, and Yoga are fantastic ways to help with flexibility and fitness. Start with beginner positions, and practice daily until everyone is super comfortable with learning gradually more complex positions. Never overdo these exercises, and they can be a really amazing way to promote a healthy body and mind. This site might be helpful if you are a beginner: Yoga Basics
# 14 Picnic
This can be indoor or outdoor, depending on your situation. Pack up some food, drinks, snacks, pillows, and blankets. Then set up a nice little picnic spot in your house or backyard! Picnics are always a lot of fun and much more relaxing than a typical formal meal at a table. Little ones love having picnics in the back yard. I would just lay and old blanket on the ground and bring out their lunch thy love it.
# 15 Make Cards/Write Letters
Letters and cards can mean so much to the elderly in nursing homes and troops overseas. Make some handmade cards with happy messages, or write some kind letters, and send them out to senior homes and military bases. This is a wonderful way to boost morale and spread love to people who may be lonely and discouraged. You can use these links to send your cards: https://supportourtroops.org/cards-letters AND https://www.operationgratitude.com/express-your-thanks/write-letters
# 16 Fashion Show
Let the kids try on some old clothes from your closet, and make the craziest outfits they can think of… Then, the parents can pretend to be fashion show judges and score everyone’s costumes. The judges can even have their own eccentric outfits on for extra fun! You can even try a theme such as 60’s or royalty.
# 17 Write A Story
This can be done in a lot of ways. You can use a white/chalkboard to add words while everyone takes turns adding one word at a time. You can also write one altogether and put it on paper you can bind together into a homemade book. This also works with filling in mad-libs if you need a starting point to get your creativity rolling!
Be sure to keep a copy of it to read years later.
# 18 Tie Dye
Tie-dye is a lot of fun, and is also a great outlet for creativity! You can tie-dye just about any article of clothing, and there are a million ways to tie and dye them! Once they are all finished, you will have a great memory every time you wear whatever you made! Check out “5 easy tie-dye instructions — plus, 4 tie-dye patterns to try” HERE :
# 19 Learn To Sew
Sewing is a skill that always comes in handy at one time or another. Even knowing how to sew on a button can be the difference between an awkward situation and a quick fix with no fuss. Basic stitches are also good to know in any future fashion emergencies. You can cut out a simple bear shape and teach the little ones a basic stitch and go all the way around till you have about an inch left then stuff with cotton or batting then finish sewing it up. You can sew eyes and a mouth on it also.
# 20 Build Models
Order a model airplane, building, robot, car, etc. and build it together as a family. Model building is an awesome way to learn about how things go together, and how to work together as a team.
# 21 Family Video Games
A lot of modern video games and systems have awesome multiplayer options that make family fun super easy! The Wii in particular has some of the best games and features for this, but you can use any system if you take turns playing one single-player game. Keep it pressure-free and have fun! Games are meant to be played to have FUN, not just to win.
# 22 Check Out Old Photo Albums
Learning about family history is a great way to keep memories and traditions alive. Great grandma’s cookie recipe will mean that much more if your kids have a face to place with the stories. Pictures are worth a thousand words, and they also preserve the memories of the past.
# 23 Make A Scrapbook With New Photos
To make your own memories for your family’s future, take pictures and add them to a new album! You can even try out scrapbooking to make it even more meaningful and organized. Everyone can fill out a page in their own style and write their own little memory notes next to each picture.
# 24 Life-Sized Drawings
Get a big piece of poster board and have someone lay down on it. Then you can trace around their body so you have a template. Once that is done, everyone can work together to fill in the template and make a life-sized drawing of the family member! Color it in or add yarn, fabric, or any other craft item you can think of to fill in the clothes, hair, and faces.
# 25 Karaoke
Karaoke is a lot of fun and making it a family affair is sure to get lots of laughs. You can even hold a contest for the silliest song/voice combo… Bonus points for interpretive dance.
# 26 Look For Four Leaf Clovers
Clovers with four or more leaves are actually very rare. Looking for some in the backyard can pass a lot of time! Finding them is always very rewarding and exciting. You can also choose something else to hunt for; like molehills, spider webs, or dandelions.
# 27 Make A Critter House
A typical birdhouse can be a home for lots of animals besides birds! Chipmunks, squirrels, mice, and other small mammals can also make their homes in birdhouses. This is a great way to keep these little guys warm and sheltered in the rain or cold that may be coming up where you live.
# 28 Make a dollhouse or a barn for the play dolls and the play animals
You can use a cardboard box standing on its side and glue another piece about halfway up for the second story. Use colorful paper to glue on the back of it for the separate rooms. Then use your imagination to build furniture.
# 29 Follow An Online Tutorial
This can be anything from cake decorating, to wreath making, to knitting a scarf! Just find a beginner video of something cool, and if you have the supplies you need—give it a try! It can be a lot of fun to see how your finished product compares with the videos. This can be a team effort to do one big project, or each family member can work on one small project! This is a great way to see how differently each person can do the same thing. Use this as an opportunity to teach your kids about individuality, and help them see that everyone is different in awesome ways.
# 30 Play In The Rain
Rain is usually an excuse to stay indoors, but you can have a lot of fun stomping in puddles and playing in the mud. Just make sure it is not too cold out, and that there is not any lightning nearby.
# 31 Scavenger Hunt
Scavenger hunts are really awesome ways to get the brain and body moving. There are also lots of ways to set up a scavenger hunt! You can theme it by color, size, room, and more! Set a time limit if you have older kids; and make sure if you have younger kids, that they can have fun without feeling too pressured to “win.” Family days and activities should be all about fun.
# 32 Play charades
Pick things that are age-appropriate. This makes the kids think about how to describe something without using words so others will know what it is.
# 33 Paint Rocks
Have everyone find a cool rock outside. Then, you all can use your imaginations to see a shape of something specific in that rock. Once you have figured out what your rock looks like, you can paint it so it becomes that thing. For example, a lumpy rock might look like a toad; so you can paint legs and eyes and spots on it to make it look like a real toad.
# 34 Quiet Time
Quiet time is an opportunity for the kids to think, play by themselves, and give mom and dad a break!
Here are a few ideas to try for quiet time:
1. Puzzles
2. Word search
3. Reading
4. Educational worksheets
5. Extra chores
Helpful Links:
https://www.howweelearn.com/quiet-time-activities-mess-free/
http://www.wordblanks.com/mad-libs/adventure/story-generator/amp/
http://puzzlemaker.discoveryeducation.com
http://puzzlemaker.discoveryeducation.com/WordSearchSetupForm.asp
https://www.parenting.com/child/10-best-educational-websites-kids/
Family activities are wonderful opportunities to bond and create amazing memories with your kids. Always be sure that everyone can enjoy themselves, and that not everything is a competition. Just be creative and have fun with it, and it will be a wonderful thirty four days of family activities the whole family will love.
Be sure to check back for tomorrow’s idea.