Post written by Sherri Kruger. Follow me on Twitter.
My fondest memories are from those times spent with family. My husband, my sisters, my folks, my in-laws and more recently my kids.
Having fond family memories requires active participation from everyone involved.
Experiences don’t just happen you have to create them.
Here are five fun activities that you can do with your family or use them as inspiration to get you started.
1. Host a theme potluck dinner. Choose a food that is a hit with your family (Thai, Mexican, Chinese, Italian, etc.). Invite your whole family to attend. Ask each of them to bring a different dish to fit the theme. Experiment with foods you’ve never tried before, you may discover a new family favorite. Have music, drinks and snacks to fit the theme. Set up games that might have originated in or are popular in the region your theme dinner is based on. There are no rules to how this comes together. Have fun, use your imagination and encourage participation.
2. Host a family games night. Games certainly bring our family together. For as long as I can remember we’ve always played games at Christmas, summer holidays at the lake and most other large family get-togethers. How you do it is up to you. Have one game for everyone to play like Pictionary, charades or Nintendo Wii. You could also set up a few tables and have different games for people to play and rotate through. You may want to make it interesting and have structured challenges or championships. It’s up to you. Again, have fun with it and make sure there is something for everyone.
3. Scavenger hunt. My husband and I have done a couple of scavenger hunts and they were so much fun. One was a preset list of items to collect from various locations around town. We had to get specific pictures with monuments and people. We also had to collect random items such as coasters, shells and matchbooks. There was a set time limit. We all met up again at the end and compared notes. The other was just the two of us taking photos. I made a list of items to take photos of (water fountain, a bridge, a train etc.) and we spent the evening walking around snapping what we could. After, we went for dinner and looked through some of the photos we took. It was great fun and didn’t cost a whole lot.
4. Dinner and a movie at home. This is one of my favorite things to do with the family. For less than $20 we can have dinner and a movie for 4 all in the comfort of our own home. We have pizza or chicken wings and fries or a BBQ followed by a movie. The good thing about a night out at home is it’s a lot less expensive than dinner and a movie for 4 at a restaurant and theater. It’s also nice that it’s in the comfort of your own home. You can sprawl out on the floor or curl up in a chair. The evening can unfold at your own pace. But the best thing about movies at home, you can hit the pause button for a bathroom break.
5. Tourist in your own city. I find it interesting that the more you travel the more you know about everywhere else except the very place you call home. Grab a map of downtown and head out on foot. Walk around and discover sites of interest in your own city. What are all those old buildings about? How long have they been there? What is their significance to the city? If you met a tourist on the street where would you tell them they had to visit? Go there. Look at things through the eyes of a tourist. Talk to people. Find out a bit of their story how long they’ve lived there or what their favorite places are. It’s amazing how things get overlooked when we see them everyday.
There are countless activities to do as a family that are fun and get everyone involved. These are my top 5 and I would love to hear what fun activities you do with your family.
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Sherrie-these are great ideas Our favorites are dinner and a movie and it has been a great learning experience as our kids have grown (and grown apart) to learn what interests everyone and what really can bring us together in fun and conversation. A family games night is also great fun. Our kids are now teens and in the early years it was critical for learning about how competition vs. cooperation and it has provided a great vehicle to see a whole other side of our personalities. Laughter in all of these is key! and food and bathroom breaks are close seconds!
Thanks for this.
pearl
Hi Pearl,
Thanks for sharing. It’s lovely to hear about another family who’s put a focus on being together. Even though your kids may have grown apart now that they’re older I’m sure they have very fond memories of the time spent with the family as a whole. :)
I’m so glad to know that we practice at least 3 of these 5 excellent ideas. On my list is also what we call “Furry Night” where we spend time with the four-legged members of the family. This includes simple activities like petting, grooming, playing, and just being goofy with them.
Thanks for opening the tunnel for the family with this blog!
This made me smile :) I’m in my 30’s and till today my favourite childhood memories include lying under the stars at night with my family and pointing out constellations; playing word games over dinner; pictionary evenings and going swimming with dad. It’s the little things. It’s always been the little things .. Thanks for the trip back memory lane Sheri! Tia @TiaSparkles
Hi Sherri.
Congrats. What a wonderful initiative and well deserved to become the zen family blogger.
Being a tourist in your own home town is a winner and so true. We sometimes know more about oversea locations than about our own place which is exotic in the eyes of others but plain in our own. Funny that.
Our great fun activity was a treasure hunt on birthdays, with Easter and Christmas.
We hid the presents and Easter eggs and gave them clues which took them to a hiding place where they found another clue. When they had solved all these say 7 consecutive clues they would finally arrive where the presents or eggs were hidden.
The kids loved it until they were well in their teens and I am sure they will have this fun with their own children.
In the end it was more about the treasute hunts and solving the clues than the presents.
@ Paul – I love the “furry night” idea! We have two golden labs who felt quite put out when our human babies arrived. This would fit in wonderfully and I know the dogs would love it. :)
@ Tia – That’s great! It is always the little things that leave the biggest impact.
@ Wilma – Thank you so much for your kind words. I’m really excited about this project and can’t wait to meet so many more lovely people. When we lived in Australia for a while people would always ask what Canada was like and well … we didn’t really know that much about it. In fact, we had seen more of Australia at that point than we had of Canada. Like you say home is plain only because we see it everyday. But with a fresh perspective it certainly doesn’t have to be.
I also love the furry idea, as I’m sure my husband will. We have a very energetic 8 month old golden retriever who is the size of my 7 year old. He could use the affection.
One of my favorite family activities is reading. We all get a book and lie in one big pile together reading or listening to a story.
We need to do things like that more often.
Great ideas, Sherri! I also love to invite our extended family to join in on family time, too – cousins, my sisters and sister-in-law… I’m amazed at how hard it can be to schedule family time with the kids’ cousins that live 5 minutes away!
Develop the sense of community and togetherness at a young age.
Hello Sherri!
I love the new blog, and even though I am currently single with no kids – it’s never too early (or late) to get great info and inspiration!
I am a family photographer, and would be honored to contribute my pictures for your blog…. take a peek and let me know :)
http://www.ChristaMeola.com/blog
Warmly,
Christa
Hi Sherri
I’ve been thinking about arranging a ‘pool comp’ at my parents house for the family. I thought one Friday night / month, come if you can, we could even have a theme potluck dinner and games night combined. Your post has encouraged me to just go ahead and do it.
Congrats on the site. Can’t wait to be part of aaaaaall the inspiration and great ideas and advice I know you’ll be delivering.
Many, many thanks in advance.
Phillipa
When someone asks if I have children – I hesitate and say that I have eight – nieces and nephews.
I did some of what you mention this summer – It was Camp Aunt Patty. I had three separate ‘camps’ and had a great time. It was simple, we packed a picnic lunches and dinners, went to see fireworks one evening, museums (borrowed the passes from the Library!), oh yeah, borrow movies and books from the library for reading and watching time. What was important for me – was making memories with my nieces and nephews and having them experience the simple way to have fun.
What lovely and sweet ideas, Sherri! We are HUGE fans of dinner and movie night at home, both for family fun nights and for date nights for my husband and I. We are such homebodies that it is a perfect fit for us. I think that’s part of the fun of it all – discovering things that really work for YOUR family and not worrying about trying to do what other families do.
Watching a movie and eating my family’s favorite pizza is such a wonderful activity to do. My family is lazy so its hard for them to do the games and activities that take energy, but a silly movie and simple dinner at the house is so easy and enjoyable.
thank you for these ideas. i especially like “tourism in your own city”. i look forward to seeing what our local town has to offer this weekend, and what WE can contribute as a family to our community!
My girls love having a camp-out in the living room, complete with tent, sleeping bags, stories by flashlight or lantern, and of course, s’mores! Looking forward to all the simple family goodness here at the new blog!
Hello, Sherri and Leo. I just wanted to say congratulations on the launch of your new joint project!
Love your ideas, we have two children Max aged 5 and Toni 13 months and my favorite thing is on a Sunday morning spending a hour with us all watching cartoons and deciding what were are going to do in our bed all snuggled up.
A great reminder that is EXPERIENCES, not possessions, that bond families!
When we have money to spend on our family, we always choose a trip, outing, dinner together or something of that kind rather than material things. My adult children always talk about these memories – but they can’t recall many of the material gifts they received.
My focus, as an older dad, is exposing my two youngest children to the outdoors. As a family we try to get away from home once a month camping. Occasionally we go to popular campsites but we especially like to visit remote wilderness areas. Karla (6yrs) and Johan (4 yrs) are taught skills rarely acquired by city kids: learning all about nature first hand, how to cross a fast flowing river, scramble up a section of rock face are the some of the things I do with them. The results: They cannot wait for the next camping weekend to arrive. And the family bonds are strong.
Thank you for all your great comments and for sharing the fun activities you do with your families. I now have a few more things to throw into the mix.
Hi Sherri,
I’m so excited about the new site. Great work so far!
I really like the ideas you’ve listed here. Another one I read about recently, and plan to try soon with my own family, is to create a backyard obstacle course. It can either become competitive where family members time each other, or just a fun “race” to see who can get through all the obstacles first. I imagine that much of the fun is in setting it all up.
Sherri,
Congrats on the website. As a father of two boys – 5 and 2 years old – I look forward to reading the blog and getting some great ideas about zen parenting and zen family life.
Jeff
I am so already seeing a great future in this site. It’s all everyone zen-based needs to read about everyday. I like that it retains the color neutrality of the previous mother site. Kudos to everyone maintaining this site.
Sherri!
It’s been far too long since I’ve reached out and commented on some of your great posts at Serene Journey– but when I read that you are editor of this blog I was thrilled for you and had to squeeze a minute in to say congratulations!! I can not wait to read all the fantastic stuff I know you will have in store! -Lisa at WellGrounded Life
Congrats on the new site. Will be watching it for tips. Article idea: “Eating Zen: Simplify your food chain”
Great new site! We definitely enjoy the ‘Tourist in your own city’ activity. We live in London (UK) and always have fun taking our nieces and nephews to places we haven’t been or even revisiting those places we know well. Picnics in the park are another favorite with our family.
I love that your ideas are simple and inexpensive. They apply to families with children of all ages.
Congratulations again sherri, looks like making of a new content blog already here. Wishing you much success.
As a working mother of two wonderful kids (10 and 9), I’m always looking for ways of spending time together as a family, and make those times as much fun (if not more) than when they hang out with their friends.
I love the photo scavenger hunt! What an inspired idea -creativity and gaming, all in one yummy family package.
Great post, and congratulations on the new blog.
Sherri, one of my favorite family activities is one that I’ve recently been sharing with audiences I speak to and has generated some good excitement, so it’s my pleasure to share it with you and your readers. Two words: Pajama Run.
About 15-20 minutes after the kids get put down to bet, Mom and/or Dad burst into the bedroom banging on pots and pans, shouting “Pajama Run!”
Everybody gets up out of bed and, still in their pajamas, hops into the car and heads to the local ice cream place for a late night treat! I recommend this for school nights, as it’s most surprising for the kids. Grandparents can even get in on the fun by calling up the parents ahead of time and doing some secretive advance planning.
I am also working on introducing my son to camping and returning to “where I belong.” I believe one of the best things you can do for your children (along with giving them an education and good teeth) is to introduce them to nature. I was fortunate to spend a lot of my childhood outside in the woods and learn life lessons in that classroom. Lessons like some trees die to make room for others, the mouse doesn’t always get away and there is beauty in everything if you look for it. It grounds you into the reality that we are animals and not these mysterious, plastic and steel entombed masters of the universe we try to convince ourselves we are. I will know I have been a successful father when I see my son taking his kids camping as much as possible too.
I still remember how we used to help our mom cook and clean before a cricket match so that we could stay frozen in front of the TV during the cricket matches! Loved all the wonderful ideas. And I love your site :)
Great tips, Sherri! I’ve done the scavenger hunt with a group of friends, and that was great fun. It’s nice to be reminded of all the interesting things to do in your own city, as well. We live in a very small town, but there are beautiful beaches within 20 minutes drive. Sometimes we’ll just take a drive to one of them to see how big the swell is.
Great ideas! We try to come up with fun, inexpensive ways to have fun with our kids. We sometimes have what we call, Dance Party USA, in our living room. The kids absolutely love it. We turn on some music, put our socks on and dance around on our wood floor. It’s fun, it doesn’t cost a thing, and we get both exercise and a lot of laughs. I want to try the scavenger hunt idea. Thanks for sharing!
My husband loves doing the movie and dinner at home idea it saves us a packet on going out he even invites the family round,theres only one problem though im a professional chef so i get to cook the 5* food for everyone,its all good fun though and its great to get the compliments on my cooking.