Family Night

This term is no longer part of our everyday vocabulary. "Family time" is becoming less and less of an activity these days with both parents working, kids involved in numerous activities and no time leftover to have FUN as a family. It's time for a change. Certainly, there is one night out of the week that you can dedicate to spending with your family. Pick a night, any night and stick to it! Here are some ideas to get you started:

Play a board game
Scrabble, Monopoly or Clue would be a fun time had by all. Kids love to beat their parents at these games! If your kids aren't quite old enough for these advanced board games, the Leap Frog games are great starting at the toddler age. I've talked about them here before.

Go fly a kite!
...or some other fun activity. Windy days are great for flying kites. Rainy days are great for building a fort in the living room. Prepare hotdogs on a stick; then toast the old marshmallows; tell stories, and have a great time. If the family is into sports, get out the basketball and play a few games of HORSE. Or for exercise; why don’t you and your family go out for a bike ride in the neighborhood.

Bake some cookies
Take a vote on what they would like and assign everyone one job. For example; mom could make the dough; the kids could use cookie cutters to cut them out; dad could do the baking. Then everyone can get together and help decorate!

Other Ideas:

• Play Charades
• Instead of regular dinner - have a picnic in the back yard!!
• Frisbee
• Touch Football (girls against the guys)
• Scrapbooking - get out those holiday pictures that you haven't done anything with yet. Everyone will enjoy reminiscing and will love to help find cropping and decorating the pages!
• Have Dinner TOGETHER as a family!!

Whatever you come up with, ideas for family night activities can be fun and bring everyone closer together. That’s the whole point, isn’t it? With everyone going off in different directions, think of how wonderful it will be to enjoy each other's company once again!