10 Fun and Meaningful Ways to Spend Quality Time with Your Family
Nowadays it’s easier than ever to let time slip by us and neglect spending quality time together as a family. In my household we’re consumed by daily routines, extra activities, too much screen time, endless chores and just an overall busyness that seems to be constant. We’re home with each other all the time but certainly miss the mark when it comes to good quality togetherness.
When I think about quality time I imagine the whole family doing whatever it is that we’re doing together, with smiles on their faces. I believe that in order for the time to be most effective and strengthen the integrity of our relationships as it’s intended to, it’s important for everyone involved to enjoy the experience so it sticks in our memory.
It’s my birthday tomorrow! Which means I’m not getting any younger and the kids just keep growing up so fast! I’ve realized that life is not going to slow down for us no matter how much we wish it would and I need to be more intentional about making sure that we spend more meaningful time together without all the distractions.
So when building this list, I thought what better way to do it than to get my family involved. I asked each of them to share a couple of their favorite things they like to do as a family and here's the list that we came up with to share with you!
1. Cook/bake together - Cooking doesn't have to be only a mother's job (in my house, it's actually daddy that does most of the cooking) and children love to help out in the kitchen! My four year old daughter’s eyes light up when we say yes to letting her assist in preparing meals. Even if all she gets to do is stir, it blesses her to help. My oldest daughter enjoys cooking more than any of us. She does a lot of cooking on her own now that she’s older but it’s always been one of our favorite things to do together ever since she was little.
Not only is cooking a great way to spend time together, but it’s also an opportunity to teach an important life skill. Best of all, being able to eat the meal that everyone played a part in making, makes it that much more enjoyable! Which brings me to #2 on the list…
2. Eat Together - My family loves to eat so this was a top favorite for all of us. Whether we’re eating out or in the comfort of our own dining room (or even the living room sometimes), enjoying our meals as a family always feels really special. My personal favorite meal time experience with my kids is having a picnic. There’s something so wondrous about being outdoors in the fresh air with the people you love, doing your favorite thing.
While we eat I like to use this time to check in with everyone and talk about our "rose and thorns" for the day. Our rose represents something good that happened or something good that we did for someone else. The thorn represents something not so good or something that we would change or do differently if we could. It’s a simple and practical way to stir up conversation and give everyone an opportunity to share how their day was.
Meal times are also a convenient time to take a moment and give yourself grace while the kids are busy stuffing their faces instead of arguing with each other, getting into things and making messes. You accomplished getting food in your family’s tummies. It’s a small win, but a win nonetheless! Cease the moment and celebrate it because you’ll only have a few minutes before the kids realize they’re bored and your moment of peace is gone! Which brings me to #3 on the list.
3. Do a Challenge - This boredom buster is always a lot of fun for our family! With a little bit of creative thinking, challenges can be done anywhere anytime. During meal times, driving in the car, waiting at the doctor’s office, in a long line and any other time someone decides they’re bored to death.
Just the other night, during dinner my four year old asked me to try to say something without letting my lips touch. Before I knew it, the rest of the family was playing along and we all cracked up as we tried to say things like “mommy, pepperoni pizza and apple” just to name a few. You try it! It’s hilarious.
Some other fun ideas that my family enjoys are eating challenges like who can eat the most of something spicy or who can eat something sour without making a face. One of my personal favorites is spelling bee challenges which usually end up being a serious competition between me and my husband LOL.
If you have an ipad or tablet at your exposure, Try Not to Laugh videos on YouTube and playing Kahoot! are always a great time.
I'm sure you get the idea. Challenges are super flexible and don’t require you to use any materials or spend any money. They’re fun, easy, memorable and everyone enjoys them so they make for a super effective way to spend quality time.
4. Watch a Movie - Either in the theater or the luxury of your living room couch, a good movie paired with buttery popcorn is always time well spent with family.
For us, we love to “camp out” on our living room floor with tons of blankets and pillows everywhere and watch a movie series that we can binge. Our go to’s are the Ocean’s movies, Fast and the Furious, and everything Marvel. What I love most about movie time is how it gets everyone talking afterwards. Even if we watched a movie that wasn’t that great. A movie always gets people sharing their thoughts about it and it’s always cool to see the difference in opinions.
5. Take a day trip - My family loves day trips! Who doesn’t? Of course we enjoy a long vacation somewhere far away but sometimes a spontaneous day trip out of town is a necessary hitting of the reset button. Especially living in a small city, during a pandemic, where we get worn out of seeing the same things all the time. The inside of our house, the same people every day at work and school, the same old Walmart, the same old places to eat. *Whomp whomp whommmp*
Day trips have a way of getting us excited about doing something out of the ordinary together. Even if all we do is drive an hour or two to eat somewhere that we don’t have locally. It’s worth the time and the drive to enjoy some mouth-watering food we’ve never tried or haven’t had in a long time with our favorite people.
6. Play Board Games - I don’t know about you but board games have always been a fun and easy way to engage with others. 30 something years later and I still remember playing Hungry Hungry Hippos, Operation and Perfection with family and friends as a kid.
It makes me smile when I think back to my memories of playing board games throughout my life. Even as an adult, playing board games is an experience that is always full of laughter and excitement. Unless of course you’re playing Monopoly and losing (me all the time).
As I’m writing this I feel a little sad as I realize that it’s been months since the last time my family has played a board game together (probably because I kept losing in Monopoly). It’s on this list because it’s one of the things that my children said they love to do as a family! So don’t be like me and neglect to do what makes your children feel happy and loved! There’s an endless amount of games available out there for all ages! So if you’re not doing this already I highly recommend it because playing board games is a quality time activity that will never grow old and your family will thank you!
7. Go for a Walk - This one is my husband’s least favorite on the list so most of the time it’s just me and the kids but even still, we love it. It’s another one of those outdoor experiences like picnics, that feel so peaceful and refreshing.
Depending on everyone's mood and energy level you can either walk quietly and take in the views and the sounds of nature. Or you can turn it into a fun activity to make it more memorable and interesting. We like to point out what shapes the clouds make and play ispy. Some other fun things you can do that the kids really enjoy is take along some chalk and “spread kindness” by writing kind words on the sidewalk for people in your community to be blessed by. You can also create a nature scavenger hunt and have your children search for things like sticks, rocks, leaves, birds in the sky, a baby in a stroller, etc.
8. Get active/Play Sports - We are a family of six so obviously you won’t catch us playing a full blown game of baseball at the neighborhood park but we’ve managed to find other ways to enjoy gross motor activities together.
I’ll admit I’m not entirely into sports but I do love to get into things that my husband and oldest son are into so that we can enjoy doing things together that they really like.
They recently started getting into golf and my dad lived for golf, so I wanted to learn the game so I could spend more time with him. I always enjoyed hitting balls at the driving range occasionally but I never really tried to play the actual game until last year. Now I’m just as obsessed as my dad and my husband! All four of our kids are showing an interest in the sport as well so it’s cool to have something that all of us can play and enjoy together.
Another thing that I love to play with my family is living room basketball (I literally JUST named it that haha). Basically we have long range shooting contests or play H.O.R.S.E with our youngest son’s toddler basketball hoop and ball in our living room. Sounds kinda silly but it’s harder than you might think. It’s also good fun and can get pretty competitive!
Some other activities we enjoy doing together to stay active are bike riding, swimming and bowling.
9. Do a Family Devotional - If you’re not familiar with what a devotional is, it’s basically a reading plan, typically from a book (can also be found online) that encourages spiritual growth. A devotional reading traditionally includes an inspiring quote or bible verse to start off with that relates to the main topic or idea. The scripture is usually followed by a relatable story and/or words of encouragement. Last, there’s almost always a call to action that prompts you to reflect, do an exercise, challenges you to think differently and things like that. The devotional books are usually formatted with a scheduled guideline for reading (ie. daily or weekly).
This quality time activity is my personal favorite from this list because I LOVE me some devotionals. My spirit rejoices when I do them with my family because I know that God plants his seeds of wisdom and faith in each of our hearts. And nothing gives me a greater sense of purpose than to lead my children in the direction of becoming who they are created to be in Christ.
*Look out for a later blog post where I will be sharing a list of my favorite and most effective devotional books that I’ve read so far.
Last on the list, but most definitely not least!
10. Pray together - There is nothing more powerful than coming together with your family to pray. Jesus says, “For where two or three gather together as my followers, I am there among them.” (Matt 18:20 NLT) Do you know what that means? It means the spirit and the power of Jesus joins us in prayer when we pray together as a family!
For some, praying with your family might be a bit intimidating. Especially if you’re new to it. It requires you to be vulnerable and it can feel weird at first, but I challenge you to push through and begin to see how amazing a life of praying together can be.
For my family, I’ve found that it’s easier to go into our prayer time with a plan. For example, start by taking turns giving a prayer request. Once everyone has shared their prayer request then figure out an order. An easy way to do it is to start with yourself praying for the person sitting to the left of you. Then the person that you prayed for will go next and pray for the person to the left of them. Continue going in a counter clockwise direction until everyone has prayed for someone.
It's such a blessing to hear some of the things that God puts on each of our hearts to pray for. Imagine how much it blesses Him that we do it!
That concludes the list of my family’s favorite things to do to spend quality time together! I hope you enjoyed it!
Please share in the comments below:
What are some of the ways that you spend quality time with your family? I’d love to know what your favorite board games are! Are any of the things I’ve shared new to you? Do you think you might try one or two with your family? I'd love to hear from you!
May your family be blessed with an abundance of unhindered quality time!