Bringing your family closer together doesn’t have to be a chore. Instead, it can be a lot of fun. There are all sorts of things that you can enjoy together that both children and adults will love. Take a look at the following ideas.
Go On A Nature Walk With Cameras
Don’t just sit in the house all day, looking at the same four walls. Instead, go for a nature walk with your kids and take your cameras with you. Snap shots of wildlife and show your kids how to get the best angles. Then review your photos together when you get home to see whose are the best.
Do Some Baking
Baking is a great family activity because the process is fun and the results are delicious. Ask your children which type of cake they would like to bake and then get on with making it happen.
Give your kids a large mixing bowl and a wooden spoon and show them the basics. If you want to keep it simple, you can make cookies. You don’t need to wait for these to rise (or anything complicated like that) and they can be ready in as little as 15 minutes!
Buy Everyone Roller Skates
Roller skates are a fun and soul-lifting way to get around that really makes a difference in how you feel on the inside. You’ll find that after a session of gently gliding through the park, everyone is laughing and giggling.
To avoid painful scrapes and bruises, make sure that your kids have gloves plus elbow and knee protection. You don’t want fun in the sun to turn into a painful session of cleaning up a wound in the back of the car.
Dress Up And Pretend To Be Scientists
Dressing up and pretending to be scientists is always a lot of fun. You could get your kids big, thick glasses, white coats and mad scientist wigs and then carry out all sorts of weird experiments in your garden. You could also buy a degree just for the entertainment value from a top university, like Harvard or Yale, to prove that your children have the right scientific credentials.
Go Watch Sports
Going to a sports match is a wonderful family bonding opportunity. The atmosphere of the game gets everyone excited and in the mood to have fun.
The best are team sports. Go to a baseball game or football match and join in with the rest of the crowd. Order delicious snacks from the stand-side vendors and let rip.
Try A New Type Of Food
Don’t stick with the same boring meals day in, day out. Instead, branch out and experiment a little. Find a new cuisine that nobody has tried before and then order it or whip up a meal yourself. Trying new things is a great conversation starter and brings the entire family together.
Go For A Round Of Frisbee
Frisbee is one of those sports that is just intrinsically fun and everyone enjoys. Buy a couple of ring frisbees and then let your kids see how far they can throw them. Just make sure that you find a big enough field since frisbees can go a long long way.
Go For A Family Bike Ride
Going for family bike rides can be a lot of fun. Not only is it a chance to get fit but it is also an opportunity to explore new countryside and get into nature.
Biking is also thrilling, especially if you go offroad. You may find that your kids develop an appetite for adventure and want more capable bikes as they grow up.
Have A Water Fight
If the weather is hot, having a water fight is a great way to cool down. The best way to have a water fight with kids is to use soft sponges dipped in a paddling pool. This way, they can’t hurt each other by spraying water pistols in each others’ eyes. You can also experiment with water-filled balloons, but you’ll need a lot of them.
Arrange A Family Movie Night
Even though you don’t talk during movies, they can be a great way to bring everyone together to share a single activity. All too often, family members are busy tapping away on their own devices. Rarely do they spend time enjoying the same shows.
But institutionalising family movie nights changes this. If you do it for long enough, you can transform it into a family ritual – something you do over and over again.
Go Camping
Camping is another wonderful way to bring the whole family together. Smartphones run out of battery very quickly, so there is nothing for anyone to do other than play and set up the camp.
There are all kinds of activities that you can enjoy together at camp with the family. Long walks in nature, star-gazing, cooking over an open fire and playing camp games. You can also have a sing-a-long if there is nobody else around.
Grow Some Herbs
Some kids love gardening. They enjoy the idea that you can plant a seed and it will grow into a plant that they can eat, virtually by itself.
Making a herb garden is easy. You’ll just need a trowel, some soil, and some seeds to get started. Once you have that, it’s just a matter of planting and then waiting a few days for the first sprouts to appear.
Make A Picnic
Here’s another fun food-related idea you could try: make a picnic. Picnics are great because they force you to think out of the box. You need foods that everyone in your family can enjoy easily, without spillages.
Remember to take plenty of water, fresh salad and bread with you to go with the main course.
Go To An Adventure Playground
Adventure playgrounds are like regular playgrounds, but seriously upgraded. These fun facilities allow kids to play games and learn new skills. They can also be a lot of fun for adults too, especially if there is a cafe nearby.
Take The Family Canoeing
If you haven’t been canoeing together as a family yet, you should try it. Family-sized canoes are large boats where each member has their own seat and oar.
The best places to go canoeing are lakes. That’s because it is easy to return to shore if people get tired. Canoeing down a river is also an option, but you’ll need a high level of physical fitness to get to various checkpoints. You don’t want to run out of steam (or water for that matter).
Start Drawing Together
You can also bring the family together by doing artwork together. Go to a local art supply store and buy a large canvas – maybe six foot by six foot. Then get a bunch of watercolours and paintbrushes and hand them out to the members of your family.
Lay the canvas on the floor and then start drawing on it at the same time, together, and see what you come up with. Make sure you pick a theme, otherwise you could wind up with complete chaos!
Pick Fruit
Going fruit picking after summer is a wonderful family activity and a great way to get some healthy ingredients for your recipes too. If you go blackberry foraging, you can collect berries for a pie. The same goes for apples and even figs.
We hope that these fun family activity ideas bring you and your loved ones closer together. Often, it is more about what you do as a family that counts than what you say.
