Family Games: Fun for Free
Almost everyone has some board games and cards in the house. Even if the board games where Grandma’s they can still provide hours of fun for the family. There are many card games that you can play as a family as well. Depending on the age of your children, you can find card games that are very easy such as Go Fish for the younger ones. You can also get into the more difficult ones such as Spades if your children are older.
Going to the park for a family picnic is a great family experience. The best part about a picnic is that the children can run and play and have a good time while the adults sit back and watch and relax. Grab some lunch meat or peanut butter and jelly, make some sandwiches, grab some drinks and you are on your way. Going for a hike is a great out door activity that does not cost anything and many parks even have a trail just for this activity. Children can take a bag with them and collect rocks and neat stuff along the way on a hike. This makes it last longer and is much more interesting for the kids. Another great outdoor activity is bike riding and most children love those family bike rides through the neighborhood.
Your family can get into role playing together. I know, to many people that may sound strange but it can be a great and educational way to have quality time with the family. You can get into role playing to teach your children about drugs, stranger dangers and much more. Act like you are the stranger or the person offering drugs and have your child act out how they would react to that circumstance. Teach them the right way, if they do not do it right to begin with, and then act it out again.
Have a family slumber party. Get out the sleeping bags, find a good movie to watch, pop some popcorn and everyone pile into the living. Another great thing to do in the middle of the living room floor is go through family pictures and make a scrap book or family photo album together. You can also make up a family song, sing other songs and play speaking games such as Eye Spy.
Find a something that the entire family is interested in and learn it. A different language is a great topic to start with. There are so many different languages to learn that is should not be hard to come up with one that everyone agrees with. Once you decide on one, go to your local library and check out book and start learning. Sign language is an awesome thing for a family to learn together. A couple other suggestions are Morse code and the metric system.
There are a few of those childhood games that parent can play with the kids and have a great time doing it. Hide and seek are one of the favorites and we have all played at one time or another. Go outside and get a piece of chalk or a good rock that writes and play hopscotch. That might be one of those games that your child has not played and you can teach them something new. Dig out all of those blankets from the closet and build a fort, the smaller children love that one. A great game to play with your children that also allows you to get some exercise is Freeze Tag. Any other games that you use to play as a child, your children will love when you play it with them.
