Could you imagine only seeing your kids 15 minutes a day?
About 50 years ago, it wasn’t uncommon for fathers to spend around 15 minutes with their kids a day. Thankfully, today mothers and fathers are spending more time with their kids than ever before. Especially now, with the coronavirus, remotely working parents find themselves having more time with their kids than they’d ever imagined possible.
If you want to turn your family time into unforgettable memories then you need to learn how to plan family fun nights. From making a backyard movie theatre to lettings your kids play chef, there are so many things you can do safely from home.
Read on to learn about a few of the best fun things to do for families.
Outdoor Movie Theatre
First, on our list of family fun ideas, let’s talk about setting up an outdoor movie theatre in your backyard! We love the idea of outdoor movies since they’re fun, inexpensive to do, and they fall in line with social distancing guidelines. That means your kids can have fun with friends, while still being safe!
Here are the supplies you’ll need to make your outdoor theatre a success:
- Outdoor movie screen and projector
- Packaged food
- Invitations
- Fold-out seats
- Water bottles
- A family-friendly movie
- Hand sanitizer
- Face masks
If you want to take your outdoor theatre experience to the next level, you can have the kids make cardboard box cars. Each child can use their box, and arts and craft supplies to design a car. Then, when it’s showtime, the cars can begin pulling into the “drive-in” theatre!
Turn Your House Into a Restaurant
Dining out’s fun, but when you have young children or a large family it can be an expensive hassle. Instead of throwing away money on a less than impressive meal, we suggest you transform your home into a restaurant for 1 night!
Get all of the kids together and brainstorm what type of foods your restaurant should serve. For instance, pizza and macaroni and cheese tend to be a big hit no matter what age your kids are.
Next, it’s arts and crafts time. Now that you know the type of cuisine your restaurant offers, have each of your kids create a menu. After the menus are made, the next step is to set up the restaurant!
Using LED candles, Christmas lights, and other decorations, make the dining area sparkle. After the dining area’s set up, you can have your kids help you cook the food. If you’re doing pizza, try going all in and making your pizzas rather than ordering one.
You can check out this recipe here to learn how to make a super easy, kid-sized pizza. Once the food’s made, have your kids decide who wants to be the customers and who wants to work at the restaurant. If everyone wants to work at the restaurant then you’ll be the customer who invites the staff to eat with them once you have your food.
Be creative with the restaurant roles, making sure each kid gets to play a part. For instance, you can have a waitress, chef, hostess, working at the restaurant. The main idea is to have fun pretending that your home is now a restaurant. Whatever you do, don’t forget dessert!
Tabletop Games for All Ages
Moving on, let’s look at how you can find tabletop games your whole family can enjoy. Card games, board games, dice games, are all types of tabletop games, and they come in all different shapes and sizes. You owe it to your family to explore what’s out there on the family entertainment market.
If your kids are ages 8 and up, we suggest you check out a game called “Azul”. Azul is a game that works for 2-4 players, and it’s a visually stunning strategy game. You and your family will get to unleash your creative side as you all use your resin tiles to add to the beauty of the board.
Next, if you’ve ever heard of the game, “Cards Against Humanity”, you’ll be happy to know there’s a kid-friendly version titled, “Kids Against Maturity”. The silly card game takes anywhere from 30-90 minutes and it’s sure to fill your night with laughter.
Make a Time Capsule
Time flies, and before you know it even your smallest child will be all grown up. To capture the essence of who your family is right now in this moment, try making a time capsule. Ask your kids to all pick something that will go in the capsule. Tell your kids to be as creative as they want when they’re picking out items.
While it may seem silly to you the things your kids want to put in the capsule, having the freedom to choose means a lot to them! Next, put in 1 old clothing item from each kid, so you can see how much they’ve grown when you open up the capsule.
Finally, pick a spot in the yard and bury the capsule. In 1 year when you open the capsule up, you’ll have fun going through all the memories!
Sing Your Heart Out
Next on our list of family fun ideas, you can try having your family karaoke night! You can either invest in a simple karaoke machine or just wing it. Pulling up the karaoke version of songs on your television, you can your kids can sing along to your favorite tunes.
You can also have a karaoke contest. However, instead of 1st and last place, you make up your winning categories. For instance, you can have prize categories like “most energy” or “silliest performance”.
Plan Your Family Fun Time
Now you know a few of the best ways to have a family fun night, without ever leaving your home. To include your family in the planning of your special night, we suggest you let them choose what to do. Take a moment today to tell your kids about the fun ideas you’re interested in, and let them pick their favorite one.
Finally, tell your kids what night you’ll be doing the activity on, and enjoy having something to look forward to. For more tips like these, explore the other articles on this site.
