Five Ideas for Family Time

As a homes schooling family, we spend a lot of time together. The little three kiddos are home all day five/six days a week {they spend a few hours once or twice a week with their Dad}, though my eldest is at school five days a week. That time isn’t always quality family time – it’s taken up with homeschool work, various groups and social activities, my work, house stuff, and life.

I find it makes a huge difference to us as a family to schedule in some dedicated ‘family time’ once a week. This doesn’t have to be a big activity or even something that costs money – it is more about making the effort to spend time together, doing something together and connecting with each other.

I acutally prefer it when it is something simple, as it means we are more focused on spending time together, rahter than on the activity we are doing.

1| Family Movie/TV Night

This is something I instigated over a year ago. For us, it usually happens on a Sunday evening, the perfect time to reconnect at the end of the week and set our intentions for the coming week. There have been times we’ve worked our way through a TV series – last year we watched ‘Anne with an E’ and ‘A Series of Unfortunate Events’, other times we’ll take it in turns picking a movie that we can all watch together {we have watched ‘The Greatest Showman’ so many times!!}. It’s also the one night of the week that we eat in the living room – usually we’ll have a ‘picky dinner’ – a buffet-style meal, that I’ll put out in the living room, we’ll all load up our plates, snuggle up to watch a show, chat about our weeks, what’s going on, what we have coming up, sometimes we’ll dig some craft stuff out, or play hairdressers whilst watching!

2| Get Outdoors

Even on a blustery Autumn day, getting everyone outdoors can blow off the cobwebs and shake off any grumpy moods! If we have a Sunday when everyone is home, then we’ll go somewhere. Sometimes it’s to a local National Trust Property, maybe to the river or beach, or even just to the park around the corner for an hour.

3| Family Meal

In the week, it’s rare that everyone eats at the same time. The kiddos all have various groups, so I usually end up feeding everyone in shifts. So when we get the chance, we’ll cook something delicious {or get a takeaway} and all sit around the table together. I put the fairy lights on, light a few candles, and we’ll all sit around for hours and chat.

4| Host a board game evening

My kiddos love playing board games. Even though 9 times out of ten, it ends in a few cross words, it is a fun {and inexpensive} family activity! We try to pick games that everyone can join in on – letting all the kids pick their favourites, and teaming up if a game is too hard for the little ones. Some of our favourites are Truth Bombs, Beat The Parents, Trivial Pursuits, Labyrinth and Frustration.

5| Have a fire

If you have the space in your garden for a fire pit {or even a small chimnea}, there is something magical about sitting around a fire. My kids love those evenings when we are all outdoors with a fire blazing. We’ll grab a packet of marshmallows to toast, create our own mocktails, and often play some funny games – like three truths and a lie, or music guessing games.

What are your favourite family activities?

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