Family Fun Night Ideas
Your family has decided to set aside some time each week to have a family night, but now you aren’t sure what to do. Playing games is a good start, but you can do so many other things to keep family night interesting. Here are 50 ideas for family fun night.
- Make a craft project.
Paint and decorate the family mailbox.
- Decorate a Family Vacation Jar in which you save change.
- Create a family newsletter to send out to family and friends. This can be a monthly project.
- Have family movie night and watch old family videos together.
- Family star-watching night. Lay outside on a blanket in the yard and look up at the stars together. Try to map out constellations together. Afterward, look up the stories behind each constellation on the Internet.
- Enjoy a cookout and campout. Pitch a tent in your yard and cook food over an open fire (or on the barbecue). Sit in a circle and tell ghost stories.
- Volunteer as a family. Help out at a school fundraiser or serve meals at the local soup kitchen.
- Bake together. Take turns picking favorite recipes out of a cookbook and let the kids and dad join in on the fun.
- Go to the local playground and swing together or climb the monkey bars. Kids love it when parents play like they do.
- Play hopscotch.
- Set up an obstacle course in your backyard. Using things like hula hoops and jump ropes, create an outdoor obstacle course in which you can compete with each other for best time. This is not only a fun activity but also a great way to provide exercise for the whole family.
- Learn a musical instrument together. Find an instrument that every member of the family would enjoy playing and take turns learning a song. If everyone already plays an instrument, try learning a song together.
- Visit the zoo. Have each person write down which animal he liked best and what he learned about that animal.
- Visit a museum.
- Have a game show night. Set up a stage and give each family member a part as the host, contestant, etc. Use trivia games, word games or whatever you enjoy playing as part of the game show. Play for points or fake money.
Make sock puppets. Gather some old socks, decorate them and then use them to put on a show.
- Create a family photo album. Have the kids pick photos from a recent vacation, family gathering or other event. Together, place the photos in a scrapbook with each member adding a funny saying or description to the photo they like best.
- Take family photos. Get out the camera and have some fun taking photos of each other. Be silly, be serious and have fun.
- Create your own family board game. Draw up a board on a piece of cardboard, make up rules and find interesting things around the house to use for game pieces.
- Take the family bowling.
- Play miniature golf.
- Put a puzzle together
- Go roller skating.
- Play card games.
- Build a birdhouse together.
- Work on a family genealogy chart together. Talk about distant relatives and family history.
- Rent a dance DVD and learn a new dance together.
- Go on a nature walk at a local park or outdoor trail – point out different types of trees and plants.
Have a formal family dinner. Set the table with your best tableware, have everyone dress up and use your best manners. Give everyone a fancy name and title -- like prince or princess -- and behave as one would. This is a fun way to teach table manners.
- Play show and tell. Have each family member choose an item that is important to them and tell all about it.
- Set up game stations. Mom and dad can each have a different game station, and each child takes turns playing a quick game like Tic-Tac-Toe or Hangman with each parent separately. After 10 minutes, everyone switches. Older siblings can have a station, too, if there are several kids in the house so everyone is playing something all the time.
- Go biking.
- Take a class together like cooking, drawing, ceramics, ballroom dancing or music lessons.
- Write a story together. Decide on characters and theme, and then let each family member come up with a one-page chapter for the book. Put it together and read aloud to find out what adventures the characters encounter.
- Color together. Bring out the pile of coloring books and bucket of crayons and have everyone sit at the dining room table and color. This is a good way to let the conversation flow while everyone is creating.
- Visit a local historical site. Learn about it together, take pictures and add it to your family album or newsletter.
- Play a casual game of baseball, football or basketball.
- Go ice skating.
- Make your own bubble solution out of dish soap and water. Add glycerin if you have it for firmer bubbles. Go outside, blow bubbles, and chase and pop them.
- Learn a language together.
- Make a family cookbook. Have every family member choose several of their favorite recipes and type it up. Make copies to pass out as gifts at Christmas.
- Teach your dog some tricks. Learn how to teach simple tricks and have the entire family work with the dog on a new trick each week.
Make a family movie. Write up a script together, put together some costumes and film it.
- Collect seasonal items outside, like leaves, branches, flowers, rocks or pine cones. Bring them inside to create a table centerpiece in a bowl or jar.
- Paint your own mug. Buy inexpensive glass mugs and acrylic paint, and have each family member decorate a mug for their own use.
- Play Name That Tune.
- Read under a blanket tent. Set up a huge blanket tent in the living room and have the entire family sit under it while one family member reads a favorite book out loud.
- Cook together. Cook a meal that everyone agrees on and let the whole family help in preparing it.
- Make collage posters. Set out a batch of old magazines to cut up, and print out some favorite family photos that can be used to create a decorative collage. Give every family member their own posterboard and let them each create a collage poster.
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