How much would your week change if you had a designated night just to have fun with your family?
Nothing extravagant or expensive – just laughter, connection & FUN. I would look forward to that all week long and I know for sure my kids would too.
So today, I wanted to share with you my top tips & ideas for family fun!
Hey Ladies! I’m Lacey Busse – a busy, working mom. I’ve got two kids and I created Working Moms Reduce Stress because I love teaching other moms how to alleviate stress. I want to teach you how to slow down, be able to enjoy your time with your family AND carve out time for yourself.
So… If you want to feel less stressed, have more mental energy and just feel that fog be lifted from your brain, make sure you drop your name & email by clicking below. I have so many tips and tricks that you were not going to want to miss. 🙂 I’ll send you a quick little email with the latest stress relief tips!
Scroll Down for a Special Freebie!!!
Ok, so I want to tell you guys right away in the beginning of this post to stay tuned all the way to the end.
In addition to sharing my top 5 ideas for family fun nights, I also have a really cool FREEBIE that you and your kids are going to LOVE! You’re going to have so much fun with it! So don’t skip out on me – stay until the end and I will let you know exactly how to get your hands on that freebie.
IF YOU’RE ON THE RUN, LISTEN TO THE VIDEO!
How will Family Fun Nights help you alleviate stress?
Well… For me, part of my stress and exhaustion comes from the “Supermom Syndrome”. I want to be in all places, all at the same time and excel at everything that I do. But that only leads to me feeling like I’m never actually fully present anywhere and I pretty much suck at everything. Ya feel me on that?!
If you are in that same boat, I really think you are going to get a lot out of this post because one way that I try to combat the Supermom Syndrome is to just SLOW. DOWN.
Related Post: How to Stop Striving for Supermom
One way that I slow down is to actually look in my kids’ eyes when they’re talking to me. I am so guilty of listening to them but not actually looking at them. And when you look at your child’s eyes as they’re talking to you, it feels like time slows down. Like it almost stops for a little bit.
I see the excitement in their eyes or the sadness in their eyes. Whatever they are telling me, I not only hear it, but I can feel it through seeing their emotions in their eyes. I feel so much more connected.
If I don’t slow down, I don’t see that emotion, I don’t feel that connection. When I don’t feel that connection, I don’t feel like I’m excelling as a parent.
I personally need that feeling of connection in order to feel like I’m excelling at being a parent.
Our family fun nights have really helped me to feel more connected with my kids and therefore, I feel like such a better mom!
TOP TIP: Schedule in your Family Fun Nights!
As much fun as they are and as good as they make me feel, I have noticed that if I don’t schedule them in, they don’t happen. Block off that time and make it non-negotiable that you have to stick to it like you would a doctor’s appointment.
How often?
I really encourage you to schedule in one night a week. Whatever night of the week is easiest for you OR it doesn’t even have to be at night. If Saturday morning works the best for you or a Sunday afternoon, that’s awesome! Take this and make it your own. For us, it works the best at night but the most important thing is to pick a time that works for you, block it off on the calendar and make it happen.
My 5 favorite things to do on Family Fun Nights!
#1 – Family Fun Playing Board Games!
My absolute favorite thing to do with my kids is play board games. If your kids are really young, the choice of games can be kind of limiting, but there are definitely some great ones out there that work for your younger kids too.
I remember when I first had kids and I was soooo looking forward to playing games with them because that is where some of my favorite childhood memories come from. I loved sitting around the kitchen table playing games all night long. We played all sorts of different games. Board games, dice games, cards… pretty much anything and it was so fun!
I couldn’t wait until the day that my kids were old enough to play games with them and actually have it be fun. Because, let’s face it… Explaining a game over and over again when they’re not quite ready for it is not fun and it’s definitely not a stress reliever. 😉
Our Favorite Board Games:
Qwirkle – Have you ever played Qwirkle? It is so much fun! If you haven’t, definitely check it out!
It’s even great for younger kids because it’s a game where you can play it very strategically OR you can just match up the colors and shapes and play at a very basic level.
Yahtzee – We actually started with Disney Yahtzee when the kids were younger, so if you are itching to get started with playing games with your kids but they’re not quite old enough to understand regular Yahtzee, then the Disney version is awesome!
Now, my kids are 8 and 5 and we have a great time playing regular Yahtzee. My five-year-old still needs help when we play, but she understands it enough that it’s not frustrating to either of us. Plus it’s helping her learn how to write her numbers!
LIFE – Just recently, we actually hauled out the Game of LIFE out of the game closet. They love it! They understand it well enough and it’s so much fun!
Especially because my daughter loves to play babies, so she puts the little pegs in the back of the van and just has such a blast with it. My son loves counting money and playing games in general, so LIFE is a good fit for our whole family.
Trouble – There’s something about that popper in the middle with the die in it that brings such a fun aspect to it. And of course, sending people back “home” is always fun too! 😉
🙂 Question! 🙂
What is your favorite board game to play with your kids? Comment below with that so that we can share ideas with each other! I love to get new ideas for what to play with my kids. Also include how old your kids are in your comment so that we know what ages that game would work the best for.
#2 – Family Fun with Glow Sticks & Glow Balloons!
My second idea for Family Fun Night… Glow sticks and glow balloons! We seriously had over an hour of fun just playing with them in our living room one night.
We’ve played with glow sticks in the past, but we had a ton of fun with the glow balloons when we discovered them. You pull a tab out of it and blow it up and then the whole balloon lights up!
It’s super fun to grab onto the knot and fling it around in a circle as fast as you can. When it’s all dark in the room, all you see is a really cool circle of light. You can do that same thing with the glow sticks as well.
EXTRA FUN: Awesome photo op! I actually got out my DSLR camera, put it on a slower shutter speed and got some suuuper cool pictures with it.
One part that I love about this idea is that it’s fun for adults too. You all know… Sometimes the stuff that’s fun for the kids is really not all that fun for adults, but we had a really good time with this one!
{Photo by Christian Wiediger on Unsplash}
#3 – Family Fun with a Picnic!
My third idea is to take your supper/dinner outside and have a picnic! Something so simple but also so memorable.
I honestly push off doing this because it’s extra effort. I don’t mean to sound lazy, but we have a whole lot to do as moms & as parents in general. Dragging dinner outside to a picnic blanket really isn’t at the forefront of my mind, but…
It’s Family Fun Night, so why not, right?!
And if you go out there with the best attitude you can muster up, once you’re out there sitting with your husband and kids, seeing the huge smiles on their faces, it’s 100% worth it.
Where to have your picnic? You could have your picnic outside in your own yard, go to the park or wherever it works best for you. No matter where you choose to go, it is definitely a whole lot of fun to mix up the routine with a picnic outside.
#4 – Family Fun Doing Scavenger Hunts!
My number four idea is to do a scavenger hunt with your kids! Oh my goodness, it is so much fun! {Psssst… This is exactly why you have to get the freebie!}
Quick story of why I thought of doing this with my kiddos… For my bachelorette party, we actually did a scavenger hunt during the day and it was a BLAST!
We split up into 3 teams and drove all over the place trying to complete as many tasks from the list as we could. Some of the tasks were milking a cow, driving a race car, jumping over a creek, etc.
Our rules were:
- You could not spend more than $5.
- Your whole team had to be back to my house in 3 hours.
- You had to prove it with pictures.
- In order to prove that you did the task, you had to take a picture of you doing it (which made for some super-fun pictures to look through when we all got back to my house).
So… Now that I’m a mom, I thought,
“My kids would LOVE that!”
Think of how much fun your kids have when they’re playing hide and seek. It’s kind of like that, except nobody’s hiding – they’re just going out and “seeking” things.
I wanted to make this super-easy for you because I know how busy you are, so I created 4 different FREE scavenger hunt printables for you!
You and your family are going to have such a blast with these!
I made the tasks on the printables super simple so you can actually take them and make them harder if you have older kids or make them even easier if you have younger kids.
Plus, in the FREE scavenger hunt printables, I have tasks on there that include finding different colors, shapes and numbers so you’re actually sneaking in teaching them things without them even knowing it. SCORE!!!
#5 – Family Fun with Play-Doh & Kinetic Sand!
I know… You’ve probably played with Play-Doh at some point in your life, right? But have you discovered kinetic sand yet?! It’s so fun to feel it in your hands and see it cling to itself but then squish apart. It’s hard to describe, but you definitely have to check it out!
TOP TIP: Put Ideas in a Bowl!
I’m not a very imaginative, so one really cool tip that I have for you so that you don’t run out of ideas is to:
- Write down things you could make (like a tree, a minion, a heart, etc) on little slips of paper.
- Put all of the ideas in a bowl.
- One person takes a turn to pick a slip of paper out of the bowl.
- You all make whatever it says on the paper out of your Play-Doh or Kinetic Sand.
- After your all done, it’s so fun to see what everybody made!
- Maybe your daughter made the minion who only has one eye
- Maybe your son made a blue minion instead of a yellow one because he was swimming. 🙂
Doing it this way just adds a little bit of structure to your night and helps spark your imagination more too.
🙂 Fun To-Do List 🙂
- Don’t forget to grab your FREE Scavenger Hunt Printables!
- COMMENT on this post with your favorite board game! I can’t wait to read all of your comments of your favorite board games. I love getting new ideas for different games that I can play with my kids.
- Sign up for my EMAIL LIST so you don’t miss any of these tips and tricks!
- SHARE this with a stressed-out mama! Friends who care share, right?! We all could use some help, we could all use a better connection with our family, we could all use more fun night, right?!
Summary
Having a weekly Family Fun Night is something that you and your kids are going to look forward to every week. You are creating memories that will last for the whole rest of your lives!
See you next week! Have a great day!
~ Lacey ~
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