If you’re like me, you may be losing steam on family-fun. We are having fun as a family; it’s the intentional family-fun activities that have become a little more like a chore than I ever wanted. And the reason for that is too many other commitments. This week is busy for me and I will not spend much time at home. It’s time for some quick, easy, family-fun activities!
With the few minutes I do have at home, I will have to get all of my household work done, my writing done, and my most important job of parenting done! It’s a lot staring me down…and then there’s that pesky family-fun commitment. When I’m low on time, that’s usually the first thing to go, but not this time. I made a commitment to this and I’m going to push through and keep it! I needed to plan ahead and come up with a few quick, easy, family-fun activities we can do that don’t take long, but are still intentional.
Last night was one of those nights. I had a lot to do in order to start this week off half-way decently and I just didn’t want to take the time for family fun, but I knew I needed to keep my priorities straight. My husband played a lot with our girls and they had the best time making mud pies in their mud kitchen! Our youngest daughter came in covered in so much mud! I had to make sure she didn’t try to eat the mud pies. Nope. She’s just a messy “baker.” It’s so easy for me to just think, “Well, they had fun so that counts.” But it wasn’t family-fun! Why am I so content with being left out of the fun?
I was running out of time to squeeze in family fun. My oldest son wasn’t in a great frame of mind for family time and my younger son was at Grandpa and Grandma’s so we didn’t want to do something big that he would feel he had missed out on.
My husband went to the freezer and announced to me, “I bought ice cream earlier this week! Let’s have it for dinner!”
Perfect. Something we don’t normally do and didn’t require a huge time commitment. It was quick and easy and a rare treat!
I assume you’re thinking, “That’s family fun?” as you click the unsubscribe button, but I hope, instead, you’re thinking, “Oh. I could do that.” Family-fun doesn’t have to be epic all the time! In fact, usually the epic things are not what kids remember.
When I was around eight years old, my parents saved up to take the family trip of a lifetime; we were going to Disneyland! We took a three-week road trip and drove half-way across the country, visiting relatives along the way, to go to Disneyland. It was a great trip, but as adults, whenever we talk about that trip, no one talks about Disneyland! What my brothers and I remember most about that trip was how my oldest brother hogged the backseat of the car, practically lying down on top of us while he tried to sleep!
And when my brothers and I have been asked about our favorite childhood memories, Disneyland doesn’t come up! I feel badly because my parents worked so hard to save up the money to go. We didn’t grow up with a lot of money, but my parents budgeted incredibly well. It was still a financial stretch for them, but Disneyland doesn’t compare with Sunday afternoons spent playing board games, going to the lake, having family rubber band battles, family breakfast with devotions, and family sing-a-longs in the car! Once in a while, we had ice cream for dinner too.
It’s good to have epic family-fun, but quick and easy family-fun is better than nothing, and you never know! It might be one of your children’s favorite childhood memories!
So, in case you’re pressed for time, but you want to stick with your commitment, here are some quick and easy family-fun activities.
Quick and Easy Family-Fun for When You Have Limited Time
- Quick Card Game—
We like to play just one or two “holes” of Golf—the card game, that is. It’s a good card game for very young children to help with and most school-aged kids can play with a little bit of help. Normally, you would keep score and play either nine or eighteen “holes,” but it can easily be played only a few times to shorten it up. If you’ve never played, you can find the directions here.
- Read Together—
We are looking for a new series to start, but our children have loved reading the abridged versions of classic literature like Pilgrim’s Progress (our absolute favorite!); The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn; Sherlock Holmes; and The Little House on the Prairie series. Even squeezing in one chapter before bedtime will make for a great experience for your kids. It’s family time and it’s intentional so it definitely counts!
- LEGO Challenge—
All of our children, no matter their ages, love to build with Lego blocks. My sons are always challenging each other to come up with a certain contraption, and the girls like to actually “play” with LEGO people. Doing a family challenge can be a lot of fun and working together to build one thing (i.e. a carousel or Ferris wheel) can be very rewarding. The best part is that you don’t have to finish your projects all in one night. This is something you can do for 10 or 15 minutes, if that’s all you have time for, and be continued the next day!
- Draw with Sidewalk Chalk—
This is one of my favorites. I love to draw so sometimes, I like to go all out and draw big characters for my kids on the cement. I haven’t done it for a while though and the other night, I thought about how fun it would be to just go out and draw together as a family! It’s great practice for young children and my guys might not love it, but they’re usually game anyway. It’s quick and requires pretty much no preparation and no set amount of time.
- Have a Family Sing-a-long–
Some of my fondest memories are from family sing-a-longs in the car. I’m pretty sure my family invented the playlist—except that we didn’t listen to the same songs over and over, we sang them! We pretty much had the order down to a T. We don’t always have sing-a-longs in the car, but we do have a lot of them in our home!
You don’t have to be overly musical for this to work! You can just sing along to your favorite playlist; or you can go all out and sing karaoke-style!
Remember to be silly! Sometimes, a willingness to shed all of the day’s responsibilities and frustrations to just be silly with your family is all it takes for a great night of family fun! So, even when you’re short on time, life doesn’t have to be short on fun. You can do it! We’re almost there now! Choose one of these quick and easy activities for family-fun and keep going!
RElated: Five Benefits of Laughing with Your Kids
