Information will be posted on this page about family activities that are fun and may also help bring you closer together. Sign up for my monthly newsletter where you will get suggestions for all kinds of things related to parenting teens, including suggestions for family fun.
Updated: 5/29/15
Grundy Forest Day Loop at Fiery Gizzard Trail
Activity: Day Hike with the Family
Tech Free Family Renaissance (A Day Without Electronics)
Technology has taken over our lives in both wonderful and troubling ways. Most of us don’t realize the ways in which our reliance on and responsiveness to technology has filled every moment with some kind of information, entertainment, distraction and noise. What is the longest you have gone without using electronic technology?
Here’s the challenge. Pick a day (sunup to sundown) a month (every week if you are INSANE—or being driven insane). Unplug everything electronic; TV, computers, phones, mp3 players, internet, video games, ebooks. Your kids can have friends over but they are bound by the same rules. The kids stay with the family that day.
You will be shocked (and a little disturbed) at how difficult it is at first. You will be surprised (and pleased) at how you rediscover each other and simpler pleasures there just wasn’t time for before (like, say, home made, hand cranked ice cream!).
Fall Creek Falls or Taking a day trip to a local natural wonder
You know how I am about suggesting families get out of the house and do something together that has the lowest probability of conflict and the highest probability of something memorable (meaning enjoyable) happening. Nature is perfect for this kind of thing. Day trips to public areas are affordable on even the most limited budgets.
Cooking Together As A Family
There are lots of different things you can do as a family. One activity that can be fun while benefiting your kids is cooking together as a family. It can be a risk to put all the family together in small space, light fires and give them knives but the benefits (in most cases) will outweigh the risks. Cooking together is an opportunity for your kids learn more about leading and following. It provides a focused activity that nonetheless promotes camaraderie and cooperation as well as frustration tolerance and compromise. But the main goal is to be together and have fun.
A Walk In The Park
Spring arrives this month but the weather is still unpredictable making walking in real Nature potentially muddy and messy. Luckily, every city has parks where walkways are paved and Nature is corralled in flower beds and tended as well manicured lawns. It is easy to pack everyone up and spend a couple of hours just walking around
Star Gazing
There is something magical about a shooting star that seems to quicken the pulse and fill you with a sense of wonder. Unfortunately, in order to actually see them you have to be up at night. You might be surprised how memorable it is for kids (even teenagers) to lay under the heavens watching for the first telltale trace of a shooting star streaking across the sky.
5K Runs as Family Fun
In the interest of full disclosure, I hate running. I also hate exercise but I especially hate running. Luckily for you, my personal antipathy toward things that are healthy, productive and good for you and your kids doesn’t stop me from recommending them. Every month of the year, there is at least one 5K run in most cities. These events are a great opportunity to get the collective family butt up and moving.
Shooting Stars
Every year in August a dramatic shower of meteors streaks across the sky of the Northern Hemisphere. It is called the Perseid meteor shower (because it appears to originate from the area of the sky where the constellation Perseus is located).
On June 21, Summer officially begins! It is the day of the Summer Solstice. The Longest day of the year. The time when our hemisphere tilts toward the sun bringing longer and brighter days. Wake everyone up to go out and greet the sunrise! Do something special! What better reason could there be to celebrate? (Because every opportunity for a celebration is an opportunity worth taking.)
Performances In The Park
Look around your town to find opportunities to spend an evening watching a play, movie or concert under the stars. It is a fun, inexpensive experience for the whole family. Pack up food and drink, bring blankets and lawn chairs and prepare to spread out on the grass to be entertained outdoors.
Geocaching, 21st Century Style
There is a strange group of people who voluntarily and on their own initiative spend their time hiding weatherproof packages filled with trinkets in cities and wilderness areas all over the world. The challenge is to use a GPS system to locate the coordinates of this secret cache to find these treasures. This is geocaching.
Off The Beaten (Asphalt) Trail (and into the park)
Late spring and early Summer is an ideal time to take the family out for a stroll in the woods. But, just because you don’t want to go to the trouble of packing up everyone and everything to drive out to a national park doesn’t mean you can’t take a country stroll. More and more communities have created parks that include natural walking trails made of dirt. Many metropolitan (and especially more rural) cities have parks with trails that take you off the asphalt path.
Flea Markets
Spring and early Summer is the time for garage sales and flea markets. The sun is out but it’s not too hot. Lots of people are looking to clean out the house and sell off unwanted treasures (and trash) after a long winter. Flea markets and garage sales can make for a fun outing for the whole family.
Corn Maze
November is the perfect time to get out and go walking with the family. The crisp Autumn air is cold enough to make things brisk without it being miserable. If you want to do more than take a walk around the block or stroll through a local park, consider looking for a corn maze in your area
Go Fly A Kite
April is THE month for kite flying. It is the perfect activity for the family to get out and get active when the temperature is too cool to lounge in the sun and it is too windy to throw things to each other. The range of styles can boggle the mind.
Bonding Over Board Games
The weather is turning cold but without the benefit of snow to play in. It is the perfect time for competitive indoor games to bring the family together. There are always classic board games like Monopoly and checkers. But, there are also a whole range of games that are both fun and test your mental skills.
Family Fright Fest (Haunted Houses)
Don’t let October pass the family by without taking advantage of the many ways to scare the crap out of each other. While jumping out of closets and dark spaces wearing a hockey mask can be funny it can also lead to deep emotional scars and difficulty learning to trust loved one later in life.
Winter Wonderland
SNOW! Don’t miss the opportunity to play in the snow with your kids when Jack Frost blankets your yard or neighborhood. Snowmen (snowperson?), snowball fights, sledding; bundle up, get outside and rediscover your childlike innocence (along with the aches and pains that come with advancing age).
Ten Pins
Winter is the perfect season for BOWLING! It is indoors in a climate controlled environment. Anyone can do it.
Bay City Rolling (Roller Skating)
When the weather won’t cooperate, find something active to do indoors — like roller skating! You may not know it but skating rinks are still around. If you have a tween or early teen, it is still one place they can meet up with peers and try to find someone to make out with in a dark corner when the skate Nazi’s aren’t patrolling.