You don’t have to go to Disney Land, Sea World, camping, hiking, fishing, or spend the day at a waterslide park to strengthen connections between family members, but you can. These are things I did with my family.
Family activities don’t have to take up a weekend or even an entire day. Here are some ideas that range from a few minutes to a few months:
- Frisbe toss
- Swimming at the community swimming pool
- A trip to buy ice cream cones
- A trip to the pizza parlor
- A bike ride
- Going to the driving range and hitting a bucket of balls
- Miniature golf
- Sleep out in the back yard
- Build a fire and roast marshmallows
- Innertube or taboggan down a snowy slope
- Build a snowman
- Go ice skating
- Horseshoes
- Archery
- Ping-pong
- Tennis
- Pickleball
- Basketball
- Movie night with popcorn
- Family meals
- Laugh together
- Tell jokes
- Help another family in need
- Do a random act of kindness
- Visit a museum
- Horseback riding
- Visit the zoo
- Camp in the backyard
- Play a board game
- Have a picnic in the living room floor
- Fly kites
- Have breakfast for dinner
- Visit the library and check out some books
- Learn something new like origami
- Create a family bucket list
- Set up a lemonade stand
- Go bowling
- Go to a play
- Visit an aquarium
- Experiment with a new recipe
- Run or walk a 5K
- Do a jigsaw puzzle
- Visit a place where you have never been
- Attend a sporting event
- Have desert before dinner
- Have a spaghetti dinner where everyone eats with their hands
- Make a time capsule and bury it
- Plant a tree
- Do karaoke
- Create your own family band
- Have family meetings
Family Meetings
A family meeting is where everyone comes together to discuss, learn, and play on a regular basis – ideally, weekly. Consider the following activities to be included in your family meetings:
Appreciation Time – This is where everyone takes a moment, at the beginning of each Family Meeting, to tell one thing they appreciated about each family member during the past week.
Calendar Time – Family meetings are a good time to coordinate everyone’s schedule for the following week.
Open Discussion – Open Discussion is the opportunity for anyone to talk about anything. It can be used to ask for help in making a decision, register a complaint, present a problem and find a solution, make an announcement, or request help with something.
Teach Something – This is a good time for mom or dad to teach something that might be awkward or difficult under any other circumstance. This is where good values are learned and discussed. Teaching values is Skill #11. Someone can teach a new skill: magic trick, yo-yo trick, listening skill, etc.
Fun Time – Fun Time can be as simple as going around the room and having everyone tell a joke, to something more ambitious like going for a bike ride. It should be the last item on your Family Meeting agenda. Try board games, card games like Uno, or skill games like Jenga.
Treat Time – Everyone enjoys treats, so be sure to make treat time part of every Family Meeting
Family Time Meets all Four Emotional Needs
Family time builds relationships between family members and helps to meet all four of the 4 Emotional Needs:
- A sense of belonging
- A sense of personal power
- To be heard and understood
- Boundaries
Stephen R. Covey, in his book, The 7 Habits of Highly effective Families (p.140) says, “I have taught this idea now for over twenty years, and many couples and single parents have said that family time is an enormously valuable and practical “take home” idea. They say it has had the most profound effect on family prioritization, closeness, and enjoyment of any family idea they have ever heard.