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I have 2 kids and am looking for any ideas or advice for planning 'family night'. My husband and I both work and I want to make sure to spend enough time with them. I haven't really done this in the past, but they are getting a little older and I would love to find fun things to do with them as a family during the week. Any ideas from personal experience or any cool sites would be great!”

Asked by rbrown1120 on 23rd March 2009 | 14 replies

14 replies so far...

I think a board game night is always fun or a good ole game of Uno. It would matter how old your kids are but that would be fun preceeded by a nice spagetti dinner.

http://TheWorkFromHomeMom.com

Flag as inappropriate Posted by The Work From Home Mom on 21st April 2009
My kids are young but we try to go for a long walk every evening when weather permits; I also bring down a couple of activities that they are only allowed to use during these times; read a substantial story; sometimes enjoy a special family movie or show. When I was a kid, at an older age, we loved board games, card games (especially pinochle), jigsaw puzzles, or watching an old black & white movie classic. I used to read with my younger brother and sister until they were tweens at least, and they loved it. The jigsaw puzzle idea is nice because it's not competitive and you spend the whole time talking about whatever is going on in the world or in everyone's mind. Every imaginable topic from theology to taunting teachers is enjoyed in a leisurely fashion. Nowadays my dad will play an old radio show off the internet while we do puzzles (yeah, we still do them when we get together for a few days).

Flag as inappropriate Posted by SKL on 20th April 2009
We set aside two nights a week, Friday and Saturday, for family time. Friday night we make pizza, watch a kid friendly movie, and then another movie. (The second movie may not be viewable by the young fry). Saturday is game night. We play board games together, like Monopoly (great for teaching money), Carcasonne, or Ticket to Ride.

Flag as inappropriate Posted by LauraEarnest.com on 20th April 2009
Just make it a movie night. Vote on a movie with the family and pick a night to watch it. Grab some popcorn to chow down on and maybe some blankets and pillows to get settled. Whatever you do have fun!!!

Flag as inappropriate Posted by Lindsey on 20th April 2009
We recently went bowling. It was a lot of fun even for our 3 year old.

Flag as inappropriate Posted by Pam on 17th April 2009
I'm the child of two working parents, oldest of 3 kids. Our most treasured tradition growing up was Friday night pizzas. We would all get together in the kitchen and make pizza from scratch - wonderful way to learn about cooking and bond as a family!

Another favorite was the traditional after-dinner walk on Sundays. It was an unwritten rule that Sunday dinner was sacred - we ALWAYS ate it together as a family. After dinner, we'd take the two dogs on a leisurely walk in the neighborhood. So very peaceful.

Flag as inappropriate Posted by EngineerMom on 30th March 2009
oh oh oh mad libs!! lol (Not sure if i spelt that correctly)

http://amothersdevotion.blogspot.com

Flag as inappropriate Posted by Michele on 28th March 2009
Get a board game! Get Disney's Scene it or normal scene it and play as a family. Or Yahtzee, guess who, uno. Maybe if they kids aren't yet into the idea, let them take turns picking the main dish for your dinner too. This week child 1 picks the main dish (while you still put out veggies and what not) and then the next week child 2 picks the dish. (or maybe let them help you prepare that food so it gets them even more involved!) Maybe once a month you guys go out to a new location as well. Like, the first week of the month you go to the movies, or to dinner, or walk in the park, or on a drive to some random location they might be interested in, museum....etc...

Hope that helped!

http://amothersdevotion.blogspot.com

Flag as inappropriate Posted by Michele on 28th March 2009
Find a book that will entertain you all, the longer the better. We are all about animals and pet rescues at our house so we recently read Life of A Stray, it was about 250-300 pages. We sat down one night a week for 30 minutes with TV's, computers, and phones off and we took turns reading, everyone read one chapter. At end of the 30 minutes we finished whatever chapter we were on and picked it up the next week. I would ask the kids if they remembered what happened the week before and one of them would give a quick little review to remind us and we would pick up where left off. By the 3rd week they could hardly wait for our reading night to get here. It helped their reading skills, comprehension and memory plus it was a great way to spend time together.

Flag as inappropriate Posted by Lori_S on 26th March 2009
The kids will only love family night if you pick things BOTH you and they are enthusiastic about , be it a game or a movie. Children seem to know when parents aren't having fun.

If you have an emply table or floor area where you can start--and leave--an age appropriate puzzle, you can all work on it a bit before or after dinner or just on family night. Having a special treat reserved for family night gets eveyone's attention as well: ice cream sodas, waffles and ice cream or frozen yogurt...Taco night as someone suggested is great, too. I have a book that lists hundreds of ideas--Little Things Long Remembered--some of which might just work for you and your children.

Flag as inappropriate Posted by Susan Newman, Ph.D. on 26th March 2009
I have older kids now and they just want to spend time with friends or texting...but when they still wanted to spend time with us we did a couple of fun things that worked well. Believe it or not my girls who are 22,14,17 still talk about Taco Tuesdays...every Tuesday we had Taco...not hard. They talk about it as if it was a gourmet meal...but it brought us together and while my oldest was still at home it was the only night she made sure she was home for dinner. We still try to do this...but they all are so busy with sports, jobs and such it often is just me...eating a taco alone. The other thing that they remember was we would twice month do a family game night. We would pick a game and play it as a family...the loved it...My husband even doned the crown for Pretty Pretty Princess a few times and they still laugh about it. Good times...good luck! Always, Annie

Flag as inappropriate Posted by artsymom3769 on 26th March 2009
I'm always looking for new ideas for family night also.

Here is an article that offers some great family night ideas. http://www.makinglifebetter.com/home-family/article/family-night-ideas

We pulled out all the kids baby pictures last week. We had a blast looking at them.

Flag as inappropriate Posted by jenshinn on 24th March 2009