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The deepest desire of every parent is to have a close family where everybody gets along and all members enjoy spending time together.
But how does that actually happen?
There are many ways to take intentional steps toward family bonding. One of them is scheduling in a regular family fun night.
In this post, you will get ideas on what kind of activities you can do for a family fun night.
Today’s post is coming to you from my blogging mentor and virtual friend, Paul Scrivens.
I have met Scrivs through one of his blogs where he teaches all kinds of smart things about how to blog. Soon after, I joined his Billionaire Blog Club community and things kind of took off from there.
Over to you, Scrivs!
Hilda said I had to write a bio and talk about myself.
While I can usually do this easier with a martini in me, I’ll do it on the fly, so here it is. I’m still learning about family and life and just trying to make sure I don’t screw it all up.
I blog to support my family and I make my family do crazy things so I can blog.
Growing up, my family was never a night time activity family.
In fact, I can’t even remember if I sat down to watch TV with my dad. Maybe he was working.
So that usually left me with just my mom (who is awesome) but I don’t think we did any activities.
When I would see families doing things together at home on TV, I figured it was all made up.
Then I discovered that some families really do have days that are devoted to specific activities!
What kind of voodoo was this?
The stuff you see on TV actually happens in real life? I called shenanigans until I started to do some research.
Apparently, lots of families have special nights.
Life is truly like TV.
Well, I didn’t want to be left out of this so I decided to research and see what kind of activities I could introduce to my family so that we can have our own TV episode kind of nights.
10 Family Fun Night Activities
I must warn you that if you have a competitive family you might want to stay away from some of these activities.
The goal of these activities is to help with bonding and keeping your family close.
If an activity turns into a Game of Thrones bloodfest then you might want to find a new activity.
Nobody wants to explain to the remote family at Thanksgiving why Suzy is not coming to dinner because she lost in Family American Idol.
Trust me.
1. Movie Theater Night
Look, having a movie night makes sense and it’s all good, but you can take things to a higher level.
You can make tickets out of index cards and even have a little concession stand with treats.
Teach your kids that they need to pay for their stuff and you can even make it a personal finance lesson as they do chores throughout the week to earn movie money to get extra popcorn!
Kids want to be grown ups so they shouldn’t have a problem paying for extra butter.
2. Movie Production Night
Okay, work with me on this one and try to lower your expectations but what if you had a movie production night?
During the week you plan out a movie you can make with the family and then one night you actually film the movie!
Every smartphone/tablet has the ability to record video so you can shoot different scenes and make a full-fledged movie.
And then you can watch that movie on movie night where your kids have to pay for things!
This might be the new family business!
3. American Idol Night
It’s important that you teach your kids the value of a karaoke bar where all of your fears disappear as you grab a mic and sing a terrible Tina Turner song.
You can easily replicate this in your own home.
If you want to throw in a little bit of competition you can even add judges to the mix and have people go through rounds.
Be careful with this added step though because the first person eliminated usually holds a grudge and never forgives Simon for not only eliminating them but also saying those mean things.
This is why everybody liked Paula more.
4. Volunteer Night
This one is important because we live in a world where more and more people just want to look out for themselves instead of looking to help others.
If you can instill in your children early on the virtues of helping others then they are more likely to carry that on through adulthood.
Find a place where you can help others and that your kids will find interest in.
If you or they like animals then volunteer at the local humane society.
If it’s preparing and serving food then head down to the local soup kitchen.
5. Shopping Night
For this one, you need to set a limit. Maybe it’s $7 shopping night where each family member gets $7 to spend at the store.
This is a great way to teach your kids how to budget and spend wisely.
I know what you’re thinking…” we’re going to Target!”
Target would be the wise choice because it’s awesome but don’t limit yourself to just Target. Mix things up.
6. Costume Picnic Night
You head on down to the local Goodwill, buy some random outfits, dress up, and then go have a picnic.
Even better if you can take on the personalities of the outfits that you are wearing.
It’s all about imagination. Something we seem to lose as adults but maybe our children can help us find it all over again.
Heck, in today’s world, most of the outfits that you pick will end up being fashion trends anyways so this is a win-win situation.
In a similar vein, you don’t want to do family hair salon night where you all cut each other’s hair.
Don’t do it. Don’t even entertain the thought.
7. DIY Pizza Night
This isn’t just “order a pizza and wait for the delivery guy to appear” night. This is an actual “you make your own pizza” type of night.
That allows your children to choose their own toppings for their own crazy mini-pizza.
And making your own pizza isn’t that hard!
You can buy a pre-made crust, just add the toppings and pop it into the oven.
I mean if you want, you could be hardcore and roll your own dough and all of that jazz but after a long week, why make your life more difficult?
8. Jigsaw Puzzle Night
Remember jigsaw puzzles?!
I do remember doing them with my family so maybe we did have a family activity night thing?
However, I only remember doing two of them!
Well, now that I’m all grown up and can buy my own puzzles I can go way beyond just doing two of them!
However, if you have kids that tend to throw and lose things then you don’t want to get into puzzles.
Nothing is worse than getting close to completing a puzzle only to find that you are missing a piece.
An unopened puzzle is better than an unfinished one.
9. A How-To Night
This is my favorite concept of all because it means growing as a person.
As adults, we can sometimes forget that life is about experiences and learning.
We tend to stop both.
On How-To night you can choose something brand new to learn how to do and your kids can join in. That way, everyone gets to learn and grow together!
Seriously, this is the best one. I should’ve just made this a top 1 thing to do with your family.
10. Shared Memories
It’s easy to get caught up in the idea that you need to do crazy and extravagant things with your family but that isn’t what family life is all about.
It’s really about experiences but those experiences can’t happen unless you plan for them, so make it a habit to have at least one specific night a week where the family gets together and does something.
It’s these shared memories that will last a lifetime and build a strong foundation for a happy family.
For more inspiration, check out this post about the Best Family Board Games or this one about How To Spend Quality Time with Kids.
What do you do for family fun night?
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