While it's essential to prioritize family time, nightly family dinners do wonders for the children's emotional, academic, and physical development. So imagine how regular, fun activities will help you bond and become closer as a family! Below are thirty days of family activities to get you started.
Baking
Let everyone choose what they want to bake together as a family. It could be cookies, cake pops, muffins, a pastry, or a pastry! Then you all work together to get the ingredients and make something super delicious! If you have a big family, you can even do a baking project every other day until everyone has had a chance to make their favorites!
Gardening
Gardening is a handy skill and can be a lot of fun. Depending on your space, you can start a little vegetable, herb, or flower garden. If you have a lot of space, everyone can have their little plot where they can grow what they want! Gardening is a great way to show your kids how patience, hard work, and perseverance can pay off significantly!
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 a fantastic memory to look back on forever. Bonus points for going all-in with costumes, funny voices, and homemade props!
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. 😉
Craft Day
Coloring, collages, slime making, painting, etc., are all examples of super fun crafts you can do with your family. Art can be therapeutic, so make sure this is a positive experience with no bad ideas or critiques. Art styles are different, and there is no wrong way to be creative. Just have fun! Need inspiration? Visit Pinterest, or you can go to: https://funfamilycrafts.com for one great idea.
Pizza Night
You only need dough, toppings, sauce, and an oven to have your family pizzeria! Everyone gets enough dough for a personal-sized pizza, and they can top it. Then you bake and enjoy!
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 colossal pillow fort for hang-out time.
Movie Marathon
Get comfy and watch a movie series for a day with lots of snacks and finger food. Stay in your pajamas for extra coziness!
Learn Sign Language
Sign language is advantageous and is a lot of fun to learn. You can use books or online tutorials, help each other practice, and even try going a whole day communicating with just a sign! Find more about learning sign language here: https://www.startasl.com/american-sign-language-alphabet/.
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 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.
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 an excellent workout for it, too!
Yoga/Pilates
Speaking of workouts, Pilates and Yoga are fantastic ways to help with flexibility and fitness. Start with beginner positions, and practice until everyone is super comfortable with learning more complex positions gradually. Never overdo these exercises; they can be a fantastic way to promote a healthy body and mind. This site might be helpful if you are a beginner: https://www.yogabasics.com/practice/yoga-for-beginners/.
Picnic
Picnics can be indoor or outdoor, depending on your situation. But, first, pack food, drinks, snacks, pillows, and blankets. Picnics are always a lot of fun and more relaxing than a formal meal at a table.
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 residences and military bases. Letters are an excellent 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/.
Fashion Show
Let the kids try on old clothes from your closet and make the craziest outfits. Then, the parents can pretend to be fashion show judges and score everyone's costumes. The judges can even have their eccentric outfits on for extra fun!
Write A Story
Story sharing happens in a lot of different ways. For example, 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.
Tie-Dye
Tie-dye is a lot of fun and an excellent 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 make! Check out “5 easy tie-dye instructions — plus four tie-dye patterns to try” here: https://www.care.com/c/stories/3341/5-easy-tie-dye-instructions-and-4-tie-dye-pat/.
Sewing
Sewing is a skill that always comes in handy at one time or another. Knowing how to sew on a button can distinguish between an awkward situation and a quick fix with no fuss. Basic stitches are also good to know in any future fashion emergencies.
Build Models
Order a model airplane, building, robot, car, etc., and build it together as a family. Model building is a terrific way to learn about how things go together and work together as a team.
Family Video Games
Modern video games and systems offer excellent multiplayer options that make family fun! The Wii, in particular, has some of the best game features, but you can use any design if you take turns playing a single-player game. So keep the pressure-free and have fun! Games should be FUN.
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 much more if your kids have a face to place with the stories. Pictures are worth a thousand words and preserve the memories of the past.
Scrapbooking
To make memories for your family's future, take pictures and add them to a new album! You can even try scrapbooking to make it more meaningful and organized. Everyone can fill out a page in their style and write their little memory notes next to each picture.
Life-Sized Drawings
Get a giant poster board and have your child lay down on it. Then you can trace their body to make a template. Then everyone can work together to fill in the template and make a life-sized drawing of the family member!
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!
Four Leaf Clover Search
Clovers with four or more leaves are rare. Looking for some in the backyard can pass a lot of time! You can also choose something else, like molehills, spider webs, or dandelions!
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. A great way to keep these little guys warm and sheltered in the rain or cold that may be coming up where you live.
Online Tutorial
Online tutorials can be anything from cake decorating, to wreath making, to knitting a scarf! Just find a beginner video of something extraordinary, and give it a try if you need the supplies! Seeing how your finished product compares with the videos can be fun. Then, create a team effort to do one big project, or each family member can work on a small project! 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 remarkable ways!
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 ensure it is not too cold and there is no lightning nearby.
Scavenger Hunt
Scavenger hunts are fantastic 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!
Paint Rocks
Have everyone find a cool rock outside. Then, you all can use your imaginations to see the shape of something specific in that rock. Once you have figured out what your stone 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!
Quiet Time
Quiet time allows the kids to think, play alone, 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
Family activities are excellent opportunities to bond and create unforgettable memories with your kids. Always ensure 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 days of family activities the whole family will love.
