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In today’s fast-paced world, it can be difficult to find the time for family activities, but doing so is important. While you may have a hectic work schedule or lifestyle, it is vital that you make time to connect and have fun with your children.
Studies have suggested that family time can help to boost children’s self-esteem and improve their social development. As well as creating stronger family relationships.
If you struggle to find time to spend with the kids, reserve a few hours a week for family time. If possible, try to put aside a couple of hours after school and a few hours or an entire day on the weekend.
To help you come up with activity ideas your kids will love, we have put together a list of ideas below:
1. Go Geocaching
Geocaching is an outdoor treasure hunt where the aim is to navigate your way to the caches (containers) using your smartphone. Inside the caches are things people have hidden there, when you find a cache the idea is to hide something of your own along with the other treasures. Or, take something out of the cache and swap it for something of yours.
The best thing about geocaching is that the caches can be hidden anywhere – parks, towns, fields. The fact that geocaches could be hidden in any location makes geocaching an incredibly exciting activity for kids, and an excellent way to keep them entertained.
For example, if you fancy going on a family hike, while you are hiking you can also be geocaching. This will keep your children motivated and give them something to focus on.
To find out where your nearest geocaches are hidden, go online and have a look at Geocaching.com.
2. Make a furry friend
For kids arts and crafts activities can be a lot of fun, especially if they are creating something they love. Making a homemade stuffed toy is easy to do, doesn’t cost too much and is the perfect family bonding activity.
For this activity, you will need to set aside a couple of hours to make it and a couple of hours to go shopping for what you need. Before you go shopping, ask your children what animal they would like to make and then choose the appropriate material (can be felt or fake fur). You will also need a piece of A4 card, some soft toy filling or rice, a felt tip marker, a needle, and thread.
You will then need to follow these steps:
Before getting started draw out an outline of your child’s chosen animal onto the piece of card and carefully cut around it.
Using the felt tip marker, get your child to draw around the animal outline of the back of their material – this needs to be done twice.
Once this has been done, you then need to cut the two outlines out on the material.
The next step is to place the two pieces of material back to back, so that the side you want to be showing when completed is on the inside. For example, if you are using fake fur material, the furry sides of the sheet should be back to back.
Small children may struggle to do this, so they may need a little bit of help. Take the needle and thread and carefully sew the two pieces of material, leaving a two inch area open. This is where the soft toy filling or rice will go.
Using the two inch gap, gently pull the furry side of the toy outwards, so that all stitching is hidden on the inside. Then, use the small gap to place toy filling or rice inside the toy and then carefully sew up the remaining hole.
All that’s left to do now is add the eyes and nose and give your new furry friend a name.
3. Go for a teddy bears picnic
Pack a yummy lunch and head off to a local beach, park or the banks of a river for your very own teddy bears picnic. As well as sandwiches, crisps and snacks, don’t forget to pack a picnic blanket and, of course, the teddy bears.
To make your outing more enjoyable, invite other families along with you for a group outing. Make sure to tell everyone invited that it is a teddy bears, so everyone is required to bring a teddy bear along.
To make the picnic more memorable for the kids, pack a mini tea set, play food and an extra blanket for the teddy bears to sit on.
4. Hold a movie and games night
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A family night in is an excellent way to spend time with your little ones, it’s easy to do and won’t cost you much.
Buy or download a new movie that your kids have been wanting to watch and buy or make some snacks. Fresh fruit pieces, popcorn and frozen yogurt are all ideal movie snacks.
Before you put the movie on, spend an hour or so playing games as a family, board games, computer games or card games are all good choices. An excellent family computer game is the logo quiz game gold crown logo, it’s fun, suitable for all ages and best of all, everyone can join in.
Once you have finished playing games, get all the family on the sofa, put the movie on and enjoy.
5. Build an obstacle course
If the weather is warm, your back garden is the perfect place to create an obstacle course.
Using bits and bobs from the house, such as chairs, sheets and play tubes, you can easily create your very own family obstacle course.
Once you have built the course, take turns having a go on the obstacle course and time yourselves. Whoever can complete the course in the quickest time wins. Try out different ways to play, such as in teams – one parent, one child per team, whichever team is fastest wins.
Not only can a back garden obstacle course be a lot of fun, it is also an excellent way to keep fit and exercise.
