Are you ready for some fun family-friendly day outings? Whether you’re a family of three or ten, there are so many fun-filled ideas and activities that your family will surely enjoy. Dad, mom, sisters, brothers, even grandma, and grandpa, it’s nice to know that there is surely something for everybody.
With homework, school, after class activities, and friends, you can find countless activities that can easily compete for time on your family calendar. However, spending family time can serve as a great escape, especially from the daily deadlines and demands in life.
Family time offers a lot of benefits. It creates a stronger and better emotional bond between the family members, builds confidence, improves communication skills, reduces behavioral issues, develops better school performance for kids, and provides a unique opportunity to create lasting memories built on together, laughter and fun.
There are so many things you can benefit from when you spend time with your family. Here are some of them:
Family Bonding. Religiously spending time with your family doing leisure activities has long been associated with better emotional bonding among family members. Both “core” leisure activities like playing board games, watching Netflix, playing outdoors, or gardening, and “balance” activities that need a greater investment of time and money, like planning for a trip to your nearest amusement park, create a massive impact on the total health of your family.
According to the U.S. National Council on Family Relations, by simply displaying interest in the total well-being of your family members, you are leading each member’s willingness to be open about sharing their problems. This also helps build mutual respect between children and parents.
Better Academic Performance. According to a report released by familyfacts.org, kids whose parents spend ample time with them and get interested in their classes have been proven to do well in school and obtain higher levels of education compared to those children whose parents only spend most of their spare time at home doing their own business.
When parents provide the right guidance to their kids through assisting their homework or helping them study, this can significantly provide children with the positive influence that their emotional well-being needs. Coupled with the right educational games, kids can strive for higher levels of educational success.
Improved Communication Skills. When children observe how their parents communicate with each other, they can interact and behave properly. A family bonding time is a perfect way to mirror expected behaviors. When the whole family spends more time together with their children, this opens and improves the lines of communication. Whether it’s a simple meeting or a movie marathon during the weekends, these family times can help families understand the importance of listening, trusting, and understanding one another.
Lessen Risky Behavior. On average, children who spend more time and communicate with their families regularly tend to exude lower antisocial behavior and fewer levels of aggression than their peers with not-so-involved parents. Further studies also showed that close family relationships are closely linked to reductions in delinquent behaviors, violence, or substance abuse. Spending time together and proper communication with the family can help minimize feelings of anger and anxiety among children, resulting in reduced desire to develop risky behaviors.
Creating Memories. This is probably the most obvious benefit of spending time with your family: you create memories that will surely last for life. Whether you are attending a party, playing a board game, traveling, lounging in your music room, or simply talking and laughing for no reason, these positive memories are beautiful possessions that give each family member that feeling of belongingness. In the long run, these memories can reinforce the importance of having a family.
Whether it is summer, fall, winter, or spring, nighttime, daytime, outdoors, or indoors, a quick weekend break—it’s great to know that there are so many fun and family-friendly day outings that you and your kids will love. Here are the top ten most popular choices.
Backyard Fun for your Family
Your family backyard is an amazing way to have a lot of fun time with your whole family. Your options are practically endless. Everyone gets to enjoy the trees, nooks and crannies, the grass, and whatever lays in your backyard. What’s great about this place is not only can it give you so much room for fun, but this is also very unique. Imagine: you can create rivers and ponds that flow through your backyard and maybe even build a treehouse for your kids! Here are some incredible backyard fun activities that you can enjoy with your family.
1. Hide and Seek.
Depending on your backyard’s size, playing hide and seek with your kids is a perfect way for them to run around and explore but still within the confines and safety of your compound. To make the game even more challenging and interesting, combine it with your home’s indoor games. However, it’s best to set some ground rules in place so that nobody gets hurt or lost during the game.
2. Building a Rock Spot Play Area.
This idea is particularly suitable if you have a little toddler. Did you know that creating your very own sandbox playground is possible? Kids love playing in the sand. Thus, creating a sandbox right inside your background means lesser trips to the beach. But if you are concerned about those tiny little feet getting sand into your house, you can also use gravel.
To do your sandbox play area, take an area of your background, roughly 5×5 feet in length and width, and secure it off with stones, rocks, and pebbles. Inside this area, dump some gravel in between the rocks. You can find buy gravel at your local shop. Make sure you use the pea gravel. And everything is set. You now have that instant play area that’s an alternative for a sandbox, sans the annoyingness of sand. To make it even more interesting, secure wooden planks over some of your border stones. These are great additions in case your toddlers play with figurines and other toys that have wheels.
3. Spinning Swingset.
This is popularly called the Tarzan swing set and is a hit for most kids. Although this requires some skilled handiwork, creating a spinning swing set can be done. Depending on the size of your backyard, this outdoor swing requires a rope connected to two large trees. The rope must be tied securely on both sides. Then you buy a spinning swing that attaches to the rope or makes one of your own by purchasing handlebar grips that you can tie onto the rope.
Make sure, though, that these grips are kid-friendly. Because of the potential hazard, this outdoor activity needs close parental supervision and is suitable for kids no less than 12 years old.
4. Homemade Treehouse.
Just like the spinning swing set, creating a homemade treehouse also entails a set of skilled hands to guarantee the safety of anybody using it. Especially when you have a spacious backyard, your outdoor space is incomplete without an amazing treehouse for your kids where they can hang out and have fun outdoors. As you decide on your treehouse for your kids, know that the best types are those that are windproof, waterproof, and durable. The treehouse has to be extremely safe and secure. While you can do it yourself, it helps to tap the help of a professional builder to assist you with completing your project.
5. Gardening.
Outdoor gardening is one of the most classic but fun family activities where the whole family can enjoy and bond together. You can find several approaches to family gardening, but the first step is to take your kids to your local gardening store (either a plant sale shop or a nursery). Involve your kids during the initial process of gardening. Let them choose the seeds, or pick ready-made plants, and help them pick the right gardening equipment.
After planting the seeds together, encourage your kids to check in on their plants occasionally. Teach them how to remove weeds nearby and how to water their plants correctly. If you do this regularly, your kids will be running in and out of the house to check their outdoor garden.
Family Indoor Activities with your Kids at Home
There are also reasons why keeping your fun indoors with your kids is necessary. Whether it’s the cold, the rain, or any other possible reasons for your wanting to stay indoors, there are still lots of fun and family-friendly indoor activities that your kids will surely love.
6. Apples to Apples (Card Game).
If your family has not yet tried playing Apples and Apples together, then it’s time to gather together and enjoy the program. This very popular game has won several awards; so popular that in 1999, Games Magazine declared this program as the Party Game of the Year.
Apple to Apples is best played with your family members. The idea is for each player to try winning the most rounds by playing a Red Apple card, with each card containing a noun. These red cards are read aloud in response to the Green Apple card displayed by another player for everyone to see, and this card has an adjective or description. The active player will then choose their green apple card, and then whoever’s card is chosen is the winner.
7. Monopoly
Monopoly is a board game played by two up to eight players, making it a perfect option for families. Although the game is time-consuming, this game is fun for kids and parents, and grandparents! Since everybody practically knows how to play this classic board game, let’s spare you the instructions on how to play the game.
Another board game is “Trivial Pursuit” and is suitable for older children who have some basic knowledge about the world and can handle random trivia questions. This challenging but fun board game is an educational and entertaining family-friendly activity that everybody gets to enjoy.
Indoor Planting Activities. Some people have long forgotten the art of planting in one’s office, home, or school. Why? Because most of us assume gardening and planting are only for the outdoors. But that’s not certainly the case because there are a handful of fun indoor planting activities, such as a terrarium, that you can get your kids involved in.
8. Planting a Venus Flytrap.
This is one of the most popular indoor activities for kids. While you can grow this plant indoors, make sure you place it by the window so that the sunlight hits the plant regularly. What’s fun about this is when your kids feed the plant.
This activity is not only fun for kids, but this will teach them also about patience. Witnessing the Venus Flytrap capture bugs, ants, or a fly takes some time, which will test your kids’ patience. Nonetheless, your kids will still have so much fun when you also feed the Venus Flytrap with other goodies like tiny pieces of fruit or chicken.
Gym Activities
Gym activities are the best options for family fun during rainy days or in bad weather. Whether you want your kid to play basketball or just let them run around, you can find so many things to do in the gym. And if you can exclusively rent out some parts of the gym for your family? Then the sky is your limit. There are so many gym-related family-friendly activities that you can let your family experience. Here are some of them.
9. Octopus Dodge Ball.
This classic game involves the usual dodgeball rules. However, when you get hit by a ball, you don’t go off the side but instead, sit in the spot where you were hit. The players sitting can then tag anybody who runs by them, forcing them to sit. After some time, you will have an octopus formed with your family members.
10. Spin and Run.
This is just your basic race and works perfectly between two family members. But why only two? Well, you don’t want to end up everybody running around, dizzy. Start with two of your members. Grab a bat or a ball, let the players hold it above their head, look at the bottom, and spin ten times. After some time, these two players will become very dizzy, just the perfect challenge as they race each other to the finish line. This is fun and expects hilarity along the way!
Other Family-Friendly Day outing Activities for the Family
Certainly, there is plenty of overlap between outdoor and daytime family-friendly activities. But below is a list of some activities suitable for kids that are exclusive to the daytime. After all, this will involve places that you will want to visit during the day: playground, beaches, biking/skating/rollerblading, and campsites.
- Frisbee Golf Activity. Grab your dusty Frisbee and take it for a trip to the beach with the whole family. But instead of just simply tossing and throwing it around, make it more challenging. Put up targets and goals using your other beach gears. Maybe place a pair of flip flops about 30 feet away and a beach towel in its opposite direction. Stand on one end and toss the Frisbee to nail your target. This is even more fun if you include your family dog in the game!
- Tug of War Sandpit. This is also another fun outdoor activity with the family, although this will need some effort. Before tugging the rope, dig a pit in the center of your play area. Secure the rope over this pit before you let the opposing team captain stand across from the pit, making sure they face each other as they hold the rope. Then, let the tug of war game begin! The concept is pretty much simple: the team that falls into the sandpit is the loser. Be cautious, though, that this can be physically risky. Play with extreme caution. Make your sandpit just a few inches deep.
Night Fun Activities for the Family
- Stargazing. Gazing at the night sky is something every family should experience. Whether it’s catching a shooting star or observing an eclipse, the nighttime presents a fun and unique experience for your family. Plus, this is a good time for parents to teach their little one about a thing or two about the more notable stars like Orion’s belt, Rigel, Vega, Betelgeuse, Polaris, Deneb, Pollux, and so much more.
- Movie Night. Although watching TV may not be one of the most productive family activities, it won’t hurt to gather your family around your living area and enjoy a good movie once in a good while. A movie night after a sumptuous weekend dinner is a good family bonding activity. With some popcorn and soda on the side, your kids will surely love watching the latest Disney Pixar movie with the whole family.
Meaningful connections are all about the quality of time. You need to connect with your kids in ways that will make sense of your relationship and lifestyle. Keep it simple but make it memorable. Each connection will have a long and lasting impact and gives your kids the reassurance and support they need.
For more family-friendly day outing ideas, see: The Best Things to Do with Kids in Each State
