Five Fun Ways to Spend Quality Time with Your Kids
In the hustle of everyday life, it seems like we fall into predictable routines. We pick up our kids from school and get chores and dinner done. Next, we tackle homework, drive them to activities, and start the bedtime routine. While it is possible to have quality moments within these routines, sometimes it is nice to go beyond the usual. To carve out some time on the weekend or on a quieter evening to do something fun together. What are some fun ways that we can spend quality time with our kids, no matter their age?
Spend Quality Time: Get Outside
An amazing way to feel better physically and mentally is to get outdoors with your kids to spend quality time. If you live in the city or urban area, go to a playground. You can take a walk in your neighborhood, or play ball at a local schoolyard. If you have more time, drive to a forest or lake to walk and play in a different environment. Make a day trip out of it. Take your kids swimming, fishing, hiking, camping, or to a local farm in the fall. Pick berries or apples, visit a zoo, treetop adventure, or water park. Play a game of mini-putt, go on a bike ride, or ride scooters.
In the winter, take them tubing, skiing, skating, or on a winter hike. Let your kids just play in your yard or on your property without too much structure. This gives them a chance to use their imaginations to the fullest. Everyone benefits from time spent outdoors. Instilling a love for nature at an early age is the best gift to give your child. It is a gift you can continue to share with them throughout all stages.
Play Games Together
Kids of all ages love to play games with their parents. Young children can play easy board games, and this can increase in complexity the older they get. Card games like Uno, Phase 10, and Rummy are favorites at many different ages. Games like Monopoly, The Game of Life, Snakes and Ladders, Battleship, Jenga, Sorry, and Yahtzee can provide a lot of family fun. Word games for older kids, like Scattergories, Scrabble, or Boggle can be a good challenge.
The new games that come out each year are endless. There should always be something every child or teen can enjoy. Board games are awesome to take time away from screens and sharpen other skills. They can develop problem-solving, collaboration, and thinking skills. However, older teens will also like you to take an interest in their video games. Minecraft, Fortnite, or sports games can be fun for the whole family once in a while.
Watch a TV Series or Have Regular Movie Night to Spend Quality Time
Kids really enjoy family traditions, whether it’s pizza and movie nights on Fridays, or watching a series like Survivor together. They thrive on the stability and familiarity of these routines and will cherish them for years to come. Make it special, by including beverages and snacks that are not normally allowed on an average night. Maybe it’s popcorn and M&M’s, or some other treat. Allow kids to choose the movies on a rotating basis. They will feel like an important part of the process. Watching a movie, show, or sports game regularly is conducive to bonding. These shared interests can lead to conversations later about what you are watching; this will help you to know and understand your children better. There can be opportunities for questions, and learning experiences, based on the content you are viewing. These teachable moments are best done in a safe and supportive environment.
Have Dinner Together Every Night
We have always made family dinners a priority in our house. Additionally, experts have consistently expressed the importance of carving out this time. Robin McClure states, “As schedules get busy and kids get older, sitting down to dinner together becomes more of a challenge. Yet research has consistently shown that having a meal together has a positive impact on kids” https://www.verywellfamily.com/finding-quality-family-time-616982. This is possible if you are willing to adjust your timing.
Sometimes our kids have sports in the early evening, so we just have an earlier dinner, by 4:30 or 5:00. They may need a snack later, but this time allows us to eat together. The alternative is feeding our kids junk on the run or on the way home. This is not a healthy habit to have on a regular basis. If the timing means a game or practice ends around 6, we can alternately move our regular dinner time forward. They can have a snack first, then be ready to eat our main meal together as a family.
The benefits of family dinners are many. You can control what your kids are eating to ensure that they have healthy options. You can have conversations, and find out what happened in their day. Traditions like having each person state one positive and one negative thing that happened that day are effective. Also, have them share funny and entertaining stories. This can give them a great opening for sharing their joys and worries with you. This practice can be especially helpful for older teens who start to have a harder time opening up.
Spend Quality Time: Fun Activities and Learning Experiences
When you have a free chunk of time to plan for some quality time, think of some hands-on and creative activities you can do with your kids. What are some skills you could teach them? What will they enjoy doing? Kids often love messy projects. As much as I dread the clean-up, these activities are necessary to help them make memories. These times are often what will stand out most about their childhood. They want to experiment with playdough and slime or make a tye-dyed shirt. Kids love to make forts with blankets and couch cushions or create a house out of cardboard boxes. Make a lemonade stand with neighborhood kids. Grow a garden, use a hammer or paint something under your supervision and direction.
I am guilty of not doing enough of this, feeling like it will be so much faster to just do it ourselves. Yet indulging them in these creative pursuits and offering your assistance is great for bonding. They will need to learn to cook and bake, sew a button, or change a tire. Different skills at appropriate stages are important for parents to teach and allow for quality time. These moments can help them determine skills or passions that might lead to a future job opportunity. Find out what drives them at a young age by exposing them to all types of learning experiences.
Moments That Matter
Spending quality time with your children should be fun for parents and children alike. What works for some families may not be something you are into. It’s important not to force an activity, but instead expose them to different things to see what they do like. Then spend time doing a variety of these things whenever you are building in quality time outside of the regular routine.
For younger kids, this is easy. They are enthusiastic participants in most things and love spending time with their parents. As they approach the teen years, it can be more of a challenge to find common ground, but it’s more important than ever to keep trying. Taking Care of Our Teens looks a little different. It may be a Starbucks run, a driving lesson, watching videos, going to their games, or shopping together. These little moments will become their happy memories with you. The important thing is that you are there, and spending time with them.
