Strengthening your family bond doesn’t have to be difficult. There are fun activities that can create many happy memories, help you get to know each other better, and let you experience the world in new ways.
To help you along, we’ve produced a list of 25 fun things to do with family members so you can easily find out a little bit more about each other.
1. Get Some Board Games
Traditional, sure, and maybe even a little out of place in an era of smartphones and games consoles. But board games such as Monopoly, Scrabble, and Trivial Pursuit offer a different type of socialising.
Get yourself a few and set a game night so you can set some happy memories.
2. Have a Picnic
Heading out into the fresh air to enjoy a picnic is something of a lost art. Although the occasional wasp might be an issue, there’s still the sense of serenity and a chance to catch up over some homemade foodstuffs.
3. Get a Family Pet
You may already have a cat or a dog, but how about adding a new member to your family?
Pets make for a great talking point and you can get a lot of happiness from simply watching animals can be a special experience.
4. Read Together
Reading is essential for personal development. It provides mental stimulation, stress relief, memory improvement, and vocabulary improvement.
It’s also fantastic for bonding – reading a story to your kids each evening is a popular family pastime that can create many positive memories.
Here’re 30 unforgettable kids books you can consider.
5. Take Up Crafts
We have you covered for these as well, with 30 awesome DIY projects you can try at home.
Crafts are a brilliant way to express creativity. But as you have to work as a team, it’s a great chance for families to enjoy making something together.
6. Take Up Your Children’s Hobbies
Whether they play video games or read book series you would normally avoid at all costs, being aware of your children’s hobbies can have many benefits.
From conversation points to understanding what sort of culture your child likes, you can then direct them to other things.
Plus, it makes buying them birthday and Christmas presents a touch easier if you know their hobbies.
7. Set a Movie Night
Most people love films (I’ve only ever met one person who doesn’t). The magic of cinema can unite people in unexpected ways.
So set yourself a movie night, get some popcorn ready, and take a tour through the classics (or latest releases). It’s kind of the reason why Netflix was invented.
8. Volunteer
Check your local community and offer to chip in where possible. There may be a cat shelter in need of staff, a local park looking for helpers, or a race track looking for marshals.
You never know what it could involve, but it’ll off endearing new experiences all the same.
9. Bake Food
Baking is fantastic fun and highly rewarding. As a family activity, it’s a character building, entertaining, and skilful practice.
Try out some new recipes and work together as a team – get your baking perfected and then head on to a new recipe. Here are 40 mind-blowing baking hacks to help you along.
10. Build a Blanket Fort
Perhaps try this one with your movie or reading night. But building a blanket fort is great fun – no matter how daft it seems. Calming, cosy, and quiet, you’ve got a great chance to chat or enjoy some culture together as a family.
Plus, it’ll show your kids adults aren’t ultra-serious sticks in the mud at all times.
Here’s how to build a blanket fort:
11. Go For a Walk
It could be a walk around your local community or a trip to the countryside.
Either way, walking has many health benefits – weight loss, better cardiovascular and pulmonary (that’s heart and lung) fitness, meditative purposes, you get to see some sights; and all the while providing you with the ideal chance to chat with your family members (and walk the pet dog, if you have one).
12. Pick a New Holiday Destination
Liven up your holiday routine with a trip to somewhere new. It can be tempting to fall into a generic pattern of choosing the places you’re familiar with.
But shaking up your next trip abroad with a new destination can revitalize your routine and provide your family with an exciting new environment to explore.
13. Visit Your Grandparents
Having a lazy weekend? Visit your grandparents. It’s a chance for your kids to learn about their lives and heritage.
Surely this ranks as one of the leading things to do with the family – a chance to bond across multiple generations!
14. Have a Dinner Party
Get your family friends around for a dinner party. Socializing is a great way for your kids to make new friends, which can lead to new social opportunities in the future.
Whilst it’s great getting to see your kids flourish, you can also be an active part in their developing personal life.
15. Get Artistic
Bring out your family’s creative side. Buy some plain white paper, some coloring pencils, and challenge each other to create something spectacular.
You can provide feedback, support, tips, and could start a blog documenting your efforts to connect with the wider world.
16. Teach Others Your Skills
What are you good at? Can you juggle? Are you still proud of that Super Mario Kart track record, but your SNES is in the attic? Are you a brilliant knitter looking to pass on your skill set?
Well, there’s nothing stopping you from (at least trying) to get your family interested.
Having a shared passion is a great way to spend some fun, quality, productive time together.
17. Learn Something New Together
Of course, you can also learn a new skill entirely. Thinking of the future, you may want to learn the basics of web coding. Or you could start blogging on a platform like WordPress, take up photography, or learn a new sport together.
There are also sites like Udemy where you can learn a huge variety of topics at your own pace. Whilst great for family bonding, it can also set your kids up with some essential new skills.
18. Go Camping
Kids more used to their gadgets may need some convincing, but a camping trip is essential.
It’s almost a rites of passage for any family – a trip into the wilderness to set up camp, cook around a fire, and enjoy some rural sights. It’s relaxing, fun, and a great chance for your kids to get away from a blue screen for a while.
19. Try glamping
If camping seems too primitive, try glamping. It’s glamorous camping. You can have all of your creature comforts around, but enjoy the great outdoors simultaneously.
Some glamping hotspots offer tempting venues, so have a scour around online to find the right match for you.
20. Keep a scrapbook
Store your family memories in one of these! You can buy some beautiful scrapbooks online that are just waiting for you to fill them with memories.
You could update it one a week as a family, but looking back and reminiscing is also a memorable bonding activity.
Take a look at this example:
21. Build a garden
Gardening is relaxing, rewarding, and teaches your kids about the natural world.
Sow the land, work hard to create a living garden, and keep tabs of your progress in a diary (or, again, a blog).
You can add to the experience by maintaining (even building!) birdhouses. Attracting some local wildlife to watch is educational and also great fun.
22. Play I Spy
There’s something weirdly compelling about this game. From my experiences as a kid, it was always brilliant for long car journeys. Staring down at my Game Boy wasn’t always desirable.
Simply think of something you can see, then your family can gradually work their way towards working out what it is. Again, fantastic for long car journeys.
23. Perfect Some Healthy Snacks
Moving on from #9 (baking) above, it’s not always the healthiest food to eat. Why not learn a few nutritious snack recipes as well? Popcorn is a great example.
Here are 15 of them you should always have at home (make it 16 now that you know to remember the popcorn option).
24. Create a Time Capsule
Put together a time capsule to hide away for the future. You can throw together some memorable items from your life now (perhaps not your iPhone, though) and put them in an airtight capsule.
You can then plan to revisit it in a decade and see what memories it can throw up for you. Opening it can throw up some powerful emotions.
Memories pay a big part in family life, so this can be something to cherish further ahead in time.
25. Dress Up
Last of all… why not? Pick a theme for the weekend and spend your day waltzing around as a dashing pirate, vicious Viking, go for Victorian era wigs, or as a celebrity of your choice.
There’s no real purpose to this other than to have a few giggles, although you could add some pictures to your scrapbook for safekeeping.
