With most of us spending more time looking at screens than truly interacting with people in meaningful ways, family time is at an all time low. It's more important than ever to make our families a priority. If you want to get closer to your partner and kids this month, grab our free list of 31 activities that make the most of your family time together.
Studies show that simply sharing dinner round a table each evening does wonders for the emotional, academic, and even physical development of children. Imagine how much more could be achieved with regular, fun activities that will also help to strengthen family their bonds and bring you even closer together.
Here are 31 days of family activities to get you started…
Baking
Let everyone choose something they want to bake together as a family. It could be cookies, cake pops, muffins, a pastry, basically anything yummy and bake-able!
Then, you all work together as a family to get the ingredients, and make something super delicious everyone can be proud of being a part of. If you have a big family, you can even do a different baking project every other day until everyone has had a chance to make their favourites!
See: Our Favourite Recipes to Cook with Kids
Scroll down to grab the free printable 30 day family activity planner.
Gardening
Gardening is a very useful skill, and can be a lot of fun to get into. You can start a little vegetable, herb, or flower garden depending on the space you have. If you have a lot of space, everyone can have their own little plot where they can grow what they want as well.
Gardening is a great way to show your kids how patience, hard work, and perseverance can pay off in big ways!
See: How to Teach Children to Garden
Story Time
To get the whole family involved in a favorite story, try acting it out instead of just reading it!
Everyone will become part of the story, and you will all have an amazing memory to look back on forever. Bonus points for going all in with costumes, funny voices, and homemade props!
Some of the best stories to act out:
Board Games
Sometimes just a relaxing day of playing board games is a great way to pass the time. If you want to add a little something extra, try making up some new rules and change the same old games up a bit!
You can also create your very own games like themed charades, or scavenger hunts! Unleash your creative side, and play by your own rules.
Looking for new board games?
Craft Day
Colouring, collages, slime making, painting, etc. are all examples of super fun crafts you can do with your family. Art is something that can be therapeutic, so make sure this is a positive experience with no bad ideas or critiques.
Art styles are all different, and there is no wrong way to be creative. Just have fun!
See: Fun Crafts for Kids
Pizza Night
All you need is dough, toppings, sauce, and an oven to have your very own family pizzeria! Everyone gets enough dough for a personal sized pizza, and they can top it however they want. Then, you just bake and enjoy!
This makes personal pizzas truly personal, and makes for great bonding time with food and fun!
Pillow Fort
One person can make a pretty awesome pillow fort, but a whole family can make an epic pillow CASTLE!
Use cardboard boxes, blankets, couch cushions, pillows, and more to create a huge pillow fort to hang out in.
Movie Marathon
(This is a great add-on to pillow fort day) Get comfy and watch a movie series for a day with lots snacks and finger food. Stay in your pyjamas for extra coziness!
Learn Sign Language
Sign language is a very useful language to know, and it is actually a lot of fun to learn. You can use books and/or online tutorials, help each other practice, and even try going a whole day communicating with just sign!
Film For A Day
Use your phones, or an old camcorder to document a whole day with your family. Then you can watch it back and even edit it into a fun family movie if you want to!
As the years go by, it will be fun to look back and remember what a fun day you had, and how you lived at that time.
Dance Party
Make a playlist with everyone’s favorite songs, and have a big dance party! Go crazy and have fun just shaking out all your troubles. You will get a great workout from it, too!
Yoga/Pilates
Speaking of workouts, Pilates and Yoga are fantastic ways to help with flexibility and fitness. Start with beginner positions, and practice daily until everyone is super comfortable with learning gradually more complex positions.
Never overdo these exercises, and they can be a really amazing way to promote a healthy body and mind. This yoga site might be helpful if you are a beginner.
Picnic
This can be indoor or outdoor, depending on your situation. Pack up some food, drinks, snacks, pillows, and blankets. Then set up a nice little picnic spot in your house or backyard.
Picnics are always a lot of fun and much more relaxing than a typical formal meal at a table.
See: Vegetarian and Vegan Picnic Food Ideas
Make Cards/Write Letters
Letters and cards can mean so much to elderly people in nursing homes as well as your own friends and family.
Make some handmade cards with happy messages, or write some kind letters, and send them out to senior homes. This is a wonderful way to boost morale and spread love to people who may be lonely and discouraged.
Fashion Show
Let the kids try on some old clothes from your closet, and make the craziest outfits they can think of… Then, the parents can pretend to be fashion show judges and score everyone’s costumes. The judges can even have their own eccentric outfits on for extra fun!
You could even make crazy outfits out of newspaper.
Write A Story
This can be done in a lot of ways. You can use a white/chalk board to add words while everyone takes turns adding one word at a time. You can also write one all together and put it on paper that you can bind together into a homemade book. This also works with filling in mad-libs if you need a starting point to get your creativity rolling!
Tie Dye
Tie dye is a lot of fun, and is also a great outlet for creativity! You can tie dye just about any article of clothing, and there are a million ways to tie and dye them.
Once they are all finished, you will have a great memory every time you wear whatever you made. They're perfect for your next family fashion show too!
Grab our free printable guide to tie dye here.
Learn To Sew
Sewing is a skill that always comes in handy at one time or another. Even knowing how to sew on a button can be the difference between an awkward situation and a quick fix with no fuss. Basic stitches are also good to know in any future fashion emergencies.
Build Models
Order a model aeroplane, building, robot, car, etc. and build it together as a family. Model building is an awesome way to learn about how things go together, and how to work together as a team. Or get the LEGO out and make something amazing.
Family Video Games
A lot of modern video games and systems have awesome multiplayer options that make family fun super easy!
The Wii in particular has some of the best games and features for this, but you can use any system if you take turns playing one single player game. Keep it pressure-free and have fun! Games are meant to be played to have FUN, not just to win.
Look at Old Photo Albums
Learning about family history is a great way to keep memories and traditions alive. Great Grandma’s cookie recipe will mean that much more if your kids have a face to place with the stories. Pictures are worth a thousand words, and they also preserve the memories of the past.
Make A Scrapbook With New Photos
To make your own memories for your family’s future, take pictures and add them to a new album!
You could even try out scrapbooking to make it even more meaningful and organized. Everyone can fill out a page in their own style and write their own little memory notes next to each picture.
Life Sized Drawings
Get a big piece of poster board and have someone lay down on it. Then you can trace around their body so you have a template.
Once that is done, everyone can work together to fill in the template and make a life sized drawing of the family member!
Karaoke
Karaoke is a lot of fun, and making it a family affair is sure to get lots of laughs. You can even hold a contest for silliest song/voice combo… Bonus points for interpretive dance!
Look For Four Leaf Clovers
Clovers with four or more leaves are actually very rare. So looking for some in the backyard or on a walk can pass a lot of time!
Finding them is always very rewarding and exciting. You can also choose something easier to hunt for like mole hills, spider webs, or dandelions!
Make a Critter House
Put up a bird or bat box (these can be ordered online). Or why not make a bug hotel. These are simple to make from lengths of wood, sticks and pieces of bamboo. Here's a useful guide to making a bug hotel.
You might also like:
How to Invite Wildlife Into Your Garden
Easy and Fun Nature Activities for Kids
How to Make a Simple Bird Feeder
Follow An Online Tutorial
This can be anything from cake decorating, to wreath making, to knitting a scarf! Just find a beginner video of something cool, and if you have the supplies you need—give it a try!
It can be a lot of fun to see how your finished product compares with the video's. This can be a team effort to do one big project, or each family member can work on one small project. It's a great way to see how differently each person can do the same thing.
Use this as an opportunity to teach your kids about individuality, and help them see that everyone is different in awesome ways!
Play In The Rain
Rain is usually an excuse to stay indoors, but you can have a lot of fun stomping in puddles and playing in the mud. Just make sure it is not too cold out, and that there is not any lightning nearby.
Scavenger Hunt
Scavenger hunts are really awesome ways to get the brain and body moving. There are also lots of ways to set up a scavenger hunt!
You can theme it by colour, size, room, and more! Set a time limit if you have older kids; and make sure if you have younger kids, that they can have fun without feeling too pressured to "win". Family days and activities should be all about fun!
See: The Best Scavenger Hunt Ideas for Families
Paint Rocks
Have everyone find a cool rock outside. Then, you all can use your imaginations to see a shape of something specific in that rock or to imagine what scene to paint there.
Once you have figured out what your rock looks like, you can paint it so it becomes that thing. For example, a lumpy rock might look like a toad; so you can paint legs and eyes and spots on it to make it look like a real toad! Acrylic paint works best.
Quiet Time
Quiet time is an opportunity for the kids to think, play by themselves, and give mum and dad a break!
Here are a few ideas to try for quiet time:
1. Puzzles
2. Word search
3. Reading (let them see you read too)
4. Colouring - see our free colouring pages
5. Educational worksheets or activity packs
You can make your own word searches here.
Family activities are wonderful opportunities to bond and create amazing memories with your kids. Always be sure that everyone can enjoy themselves, and that not everything is a competition.
Just be creative and have fun with it, and it will be a wonderful thirty one days of family activities the whole family will love.
More fun challenges for kids:
Pin it:
Studies show that simply sharing dinner round a table each evening does wonders for the emotional, academic, and even physical development of children. Imagine how much more could be achieved with regular, fun activities that will also help to strengthen family their bonds and bring you even closer together.
Here are 31 days of family activities to get you started…
Baking
Let everyone choose something they want to bake together as a family. It could be cookies, cake pops, muffins, a pastry, basically anything yummy and bake-able!
Then, you all work together as a family to get the ingredients, and make something super delicious everyone can be proud of being a part of. If you have a big family, you can even do a different baking project every other day until everyone has had a chance to make their favourites!
See: Our Favourite Recipes to Cook with Kids
Scroll down to grab the free printable 30 day family activity planner.
Gardening
Gardening is a very useful skill, and can be a lot of fun to get into. You can start a little vegetable, herb, or flower garden depending on the space you have. If you have a lot of space, everyone can have their own little plot where they can grow what they want as well.
Gardening is a great way to show your kids how patience, hard work, and perseverance can pay off in big ways!
See: How to Teach Children to Garden
Story Time
To get the whole family involved in a favorite story, try acting it out instead of just reading it!
Everyone will become part of the story, and you will all have an amazing memory to look back on forever. Bonus points for going all in with costumes, funny voices, and homemade props!
Some of the best stories to act out:
- We're Going on a Bear Hunt
- A Squash and a Squeeze
- Stick Man
- Duck in the Truck
- Mr Gumpy's Outing
- The Gruffalo
Board Games
Sometimes just a relaxing day of playing board games is a great way to pass the time. If you want to add a little something extra, try making up some new rules and change the same old games up a bit!
You can also create your very own games like themed charades, or scavenger hunts! Unleash your creative side, and play by your own rules.
Looking for new board games?
Craft Day
Colouring, collages, slime making, painting, etc. are all examples of super fun crafts you can do with your family. Art is something that can be therapeutic, so make sure this is a positive experience with no bad ideas or critiques.
Art styles are all different, and there is no wrong way to be creative. Just have fun!
See: Fun Crafts for Kids
Pizza Night
All you need is dough, toppings, sauce, and an oven to have your very own family pizzeria! Everyone gets enough dough for a personal sized pizza, and they can top it however they want. Then, you just bake and enjoy!
This makes personal pizzas truly personal, and makes for great bonding time with food and fun!
Pillow Fort
One person can make a pretty awesome pillow fort, but a whole family can make an epic pillow CASTLE!
Use cardboard boxes, blankets, couch cushions, pillows, and more to create a huge pillow fort to hang out in.
Movie Marathon
(This is a great add-on to pillow fort day) Get comfy and watch a movie series for a day with lots snacks and finger food. Stay in your pyjamas for extra coziness!
Learn Sign Language
Sign language is a very useful language to know, and it is actually a lot of fun to learn. You can use books and/or online tutorials, help each other practice, and even try going a whole day communicating with just sign!
Film For A Day
Use your phones, or an old camcorder to document a whole day with your family. Then you can watch it back and even edit it into a fun family movie if you want to!
As the years go by, it will be fun to look back and remember what a fun day you had, and how you lived at that time.
Dance Party
Make a playlist with everyone’s favorite songs, and have a big dance party! Go crazy and have fun just shaking out all your troubles. You will get a great workout from it, too!
Yoga/Pilates
Speaking of workouts, Pilates and Yoga are fantastic ways to help with flexibility and fitness. Start with beginner positions, and practice daily until everyone is super comfortable with learning gradually more complex positions.
Never overdo these exercises, and they can be a really amazing way to promote a healthy body and mind. This yoga site might be helpful if you are a beginner.
Picnic
This can be indoor or outdoor, depending on your situation. Pack up some food, drinks, snacks, pillows, and blankets. Then set up a nice little picnic spot in your house or backyard.
Picnics are always a lot of fun and much more relaxing than a typical formal meal at a table.
See: Vegetarian and Vegan Picnic Food Ideas
Make Cards/Write Letters
Letters and cards can mean so much to elderly people in nursing homes as well as your own friends and family.
Make some handmade cards with happy messages, or write some kind letters, and send them out to senior homes. This is a wonderful way to boost morale and spread love to people who may be lonely and discouraged.
Fashion Show
Let the kids try on some old clothes from your closet, and make the craziest outfits they can think of… Then, the parents can pretend to be fashion show judges and score everyone’s costumes. The judges can even have their own eccentric outfits on for extra fun!
You could even make crazy outfits out of newspaper.
Write A Story
This can be done in a lot of ways. You can use a white/chalk board to add words while everyone takes turns adding one word at a time. You can also write one all together and put it on paper that you can bind together into a homemade book. This also works with filling in mad-libs if you need a starting point to get your creativity rolling!
Tie Dye
Tie dye is a lot of fun, and is also a great outlet for creativity! You can tie dye just about any article of clothing, and there are a million ways to tie and dye them.
Once they are all finished, you will have a great memory every time you wear whatever you made. They're perfect for your next family fashion show too!
Grab our free printable guide to tie dye here.
Learn To Sew
Sewing is a skill that always comes in handy at one time or another. Even knowing how to sew on a button can be the difference between an awkward situation and a quick fix with no fuss. Basic stitches are also good to know in any future fashion emergencies.
Build Models
Order a model aeroplane, building, robot, car, etc. and build it together as a family. Model building is an awesome way to learn about how things go together, and how to work together as a team. Or get the LEGO out and make something amazing.
Family Video Games
A lot of modern video games and systems have awesome multiplayer options that make family fun super easy!
The Wii in particular has some of the best games and features for this, but you can use any system if you take turns playing one single player game. Keep it pressure-free and have fun! Games are meant to be played to have FUN, not just to win.
Look at Old Photo Albums
Learning about family history is a great way to keep memories and traditions alive. Great Grandma’s cookie recipe will mean that much more if your kids have a face to place with the stories. Pictures are worth a thousand words, and they also preserve the memories of the past.
Make A Scrapbook With New Photos
To make your own memories for your family’s future, take pictures and add them to a new album!
You could even try out scrapbooking to make it even more meaningful and organized. Everyone can fill out a page in their own style and write their own little memory notes next to each picture.
Life Sized Drawings
Get a big piece of poster board and have someone lay down on it. Then you can trace around their body so you have a template.
Once that is done, everyone can work together to fill in the template and make a life sized drawing of the family member!
Karaoke
Karaoke is a lot of fun, and making it a family affair is sure to get lots of laughs. You can even hold a contest for silliest song/voice combo… Bonus points for interpretive dance!
Look For Four Leaf Clovers
Clovers with four or more leaves are actually very rare. So looking for some in the backyard or on a walk can pass a lot of time!
Finding them is always very rewarding and exciting. You can also choose something easier to hunt for like mole hills, spider webs, or dandelions!
Make a Critter House
Put up a bird or bat box (these can be ordered online). Or why not make a bug hotel. These are simple to make from lengths of wood, sticks and pieces of bamboo. Here's a useful guide to making a bug hotel.
You might also like:
How to Invite Wildlife Into Your Garden
Easy and Fun Nature Activities for Kids
How to Make a Simple Bird Feeder
Follow An Online Tutorial
This can be anything from cake decorating, to wreath making, to knitting a scarf! Just find a beginner video of something cool, and if you have the supplies you need—give it a try!
It can be a lot of fun to see how your finished product compares with the video's. This can be a team effort to do one big project, or each family member can work on one small project. It's a great way to see how differently each person can do the same thing.
Use this as an opportunity to teach your kids about individuality, and help them see that everyone is different in awesome ways!
Play In The Rain
Rain is usually an excuse to stay indoors, but you can have a lot of fun stomping in puddles and playing in the mud. Just make sure it is not too cold out, and that there is not any lightning nearby.
Scavenger Hunt
Scavenger hunts are really awesome ways to get the brain and body moving. There are also lots of ways to set up a scavenger hunt!
You can theme it by colour, size, room, and more! Set a time limit if you have older kids; and make sure if you have younger kids, that they can have fun without feeling too pressured to "win". Family days and activities should be all about fun!
See: The Best Scavenger Hunt Ideas for Families
Paint Rocks
Have everyone find a cool rock outside. Then, you all can use your imaginations to see a shape of something specific in that rock or to imagine what scene to paint there.
Once you have figured out what your rock looks like, you can paint it so it becomes that thing. For example, a lumpy rock might look like a toad; so you can paint legs and eyes and spots on it to make it look like a real toad! Acrylic paint works best.
Quiet Time
Quiet time is an opportunity for the kids to think, play by themselves, and give mum and dad a break!
Here are a few ideas to try for quiet time:
1. Puzzles
2. Word search
3. Reading (let them see you read too)
4. Colouring - see our free colouring pages
5. Educational worksheets or activity packs
You can make your own word searches here.
Family activities are wonderful opportunities to bond and create amazing memories with your kids. Always be sure that everyone can enjoy themselves, and that not everything is a competition.
Just be creative and have fun with it, and it will be a wonderful thirty one days of family activities the whole family will love.
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