HOW TO:

FIND ACTIVITIES FOR THE WHOLE FAMILY

"Wholesome family recreation can help us strengthen our relationship and reduce negative emotional and spiritual consequences" (Hawkins,225). 

The Purpose

"The purpose of this..is to explore how our recreational choices directly influence quality of life for both individuals and families" (Hawkins, 225).

The Change

Family dinners, nights, game nights, and vacations used to be such a common occurrence. Now kids have school all day, activities at night, obligations on weekends and want to invite friends on vacation. The foundation of the family is faltering, and by slowing down and focusing on the family can help solve this problem. Children are over-scheduled and their hours of "free-time has declined by 12 hours per week" and the number of families who eat together has gone down by 33% (Hawkins 228). Families are together less often than they used to be and activities in the family have changed from board games to movies. Our kids have less quantity of time and also less quality time. It is time to make a change. 

We went from this...

to this...

and now...

The Problem

With kids whose ages range from 1 to 10, how can you possibly find an activity that everyone will enjoy? It CAN be done. It may take trial and error and some weeks may focus a little more on one kid than another, but it doesn't really matter what you choose to do, as long as you are together. Kids like attention, they want mom and dad to focus on them and participate in an event. Whether you bake cookies together, go ice skating, or play ball at a park, it doesn't matter; what matters is getting to know your children and showing them that they are your first priority. 

The Challenge

Chuck E Cheese is right when they said, "Fun for everyone, makes a family strong!"(Chuckecheese.com).  In order to have a strong family that can make it through the rough patches of life, you have to spend time together and have fun together. You have to know each other well enough that you feel comfortable turning to them for love and guidance. 

I challenge all of my readers to take a look at their schedules and their children's schedules and try to cut some things out. I can tell you that most things are not as important as spending time as a family.

I also challenge you to make one night family night and find an activity each week for the whole family to do together. Here are some ideas to help you out....

1. bake a treat

2. go for a walk/hike

3. play at a park or beach

4. go ice skating/ rollerskating

5. find a local museum

6. go to a water park

7. bonfire

8. have a picnic

9. play a sport

10. fishing

11. bowling

12. bike ride

13. sports game 

14. volunteer at a shelter/ school/ or neighborhood event

15. movie night

16. play cards or board games

17. BBQ

18. four-wheeling

19. go camping

20. do a relay or a 5k

And this is only the beginning. There are so many great things you can do as a family. Take a night to discuss some things each person wants to do and try to incorporate those into your life. A great way to incorporate all of these ideas is to put your own family ideas into a jar and pull out an event each week or each month and do it together as a family. You could assign each activity a week on the calendar or even take turns letting your kids decide what activity they want to do each week.

And lastly, I challenge you to eat dinner every night as a family. Of course, there are some days that it is not possible, but make it a priority! Dinnertime is a time to socialize, find out about how days went, talk about interesting topics, and laugh together. Dinnertime is a time to be grateful for your family, food, and all  blessings in life. It is a time to shut out the world and be together with your family. 

If we want stronger families, we have to be together. Strong families come from memories shared, times of tears and laughter, and times of just being together. Family is the most important thing we have so please don't let a day go by that you don't cherish your family. 

What We Love To Do

We make special occasions such as birthdays and baby blessings a family affair, but we also enjoy the simple days of going to the park, beach, bonfires, and getting a pizza with the whole family.

                                                     

I am so grateful that my husband and I make time for our whole family so that our children get quantity as well as quality time with us. We want our kids to be friends and enjoy family time. We enjoy going to the beach, eating out, going for drives, playing games on the I Pad, and playing sports together. We look forward to all of the other wonderful activities we can do as our family grows and our kids get bigger.

We know that it doesn't matter what we choose to do, as long as family is our priority.