*This is a collaborative post
During the pandemic, we’ve discovered the true meaning of spending time together as a family, if we weren’t aware of it before. We know just how important this time with each other is, and how much fun it can be, and we don’t want to ever let go of that! We all appreciate each other much more, and we’ve very much had to make the best of a bad situation.
However, the pandemic has also pointed out how easy it is to get bored, especially when young kids are at home with nowhere to go. As an adult, it’s much easier to temper your emotions, and also understand why you can’t go down the park right now, but your children are in a unique boat. They’re having to deal with this situation at such a young age, and the experience could very well stay with them for years to come.
And that’s why it’s so important to make this time as much fun (and safe) as possible. Kids can get bored easily, and with a year and a half of lockdowns and measures under our belt, you’re probably running out of ideas for keeping the kids entertained. Most especially, it’s getting hard in the evenings, when the kids don’t want to go to bed and all you want to do is spend some time on the sofa with ice cream!
But there are many things you can do when the sun is going down and the kids aren’t quite ready for sleep. And with the list below, we’ve made it much easier to pick out something to do as a family.
Pitch a Tent in the Garden
If you’ve got a garden, and it’s got plenty of lawn space, why not set up a tent or two out there and have a night under the stars? The kids will love the freedom and novelty of being able to sleep outside, and even if you don’t have a tent right now, it’s not too expensive to head out and buy one or two small versions.
Make sure you plan an evening like this for a warmer night – temperatures can drop like crazy when you’re camping! It’ll be a lot different to snuggling up in a heated house under a blanket, and you don’t want the kids to end up hating the experience thanks to the cold.
And whilst you’re out there, you can also roast some marshmallows and teach the kids how to make Smores – there’s a lot of fun in combining biscuits and chocolate!
Have a Mini Pizza Party!
Pizza is a very yummy dish, and the kids will love being able to make and eat their own. It’s also a great way to get them active in the kitchen and put their energy to good use when they’re bounding around the house bored out of their mind!
And seeing as you can create a lot of pizzas at once, especially if you make them small and bitesize, you can set up a pizza party.
A pizza party has a lot of different pizzas on offer, with toppings that everyone can enjoy, with some great music in the background. It’s a very simple party to put on, and you can combine this idea with a lot of the other great ideas on this list. It’ll make for a great night in for all ages!
Play Some Games
There’s no shortage of games to be played! And whether you like a simple game of charades, or you want to lay out a board game, or even dwell on what is the oldest game in the world and try to get the kids interested in that, it’ll make for a great night.
Depending on the kinds of games you and the kids like, you could play rotationally. Roll a dice to see which game comes first, and make sure everyone has an equal term with the game they love.
You can even set up a mini competition, and split the family into teams or pairs. Whoever has the best score at the end of the night is the winner, and gets that fresh pint of ice cream to themselves!
Get Plenty of Arts and Crafts Materials Out
Kids love to get creative, thanks to just how wide and rich their imaginations are. And when you’ve all got a spare evening and the little ones are a bit bored, you can break out the scissors and the glue and let them go wild with coloured paper, glitter, pipe cleaners, pompoms, and lollipop sticks.
You can make pictures, dioramas, and even make a few t-shirts of your own if you’ve got some spare in the wardrobe.
And if this family night idea goes down a storm, it’s a good idea to get an art chest together that you can pull materials out of. This’ll save the kids from having to share their favourite materials with their siblings, and it’ll help make these nights much more coordinated in the future!
Set Out Some Puzzles
Whether you’re a fan of jigsaw puzzles, or you’re a fan of following and solving riddles, make sure you have a night with the kids where you put a big jigsaw together or go on your very own Scavenger Hunt. The latter is a great idea for getting the kids to stop moping and have some more fun being indoors!
Plan out a route through the house, and make sure you hide clues in hard to spot places, such as on top of a wardrobe or even in that crack in the door frame – the kids will love the challenge of thinking outside the box!
Have a prize ready to go at the end; this can be as simple as a bar of chocolate, or even a couple more pounds pocket money. As long as the kids will love to find the prize, it’ll be a winner.
A Late Night Picnic
Maybe the kids won’t settle down into bed, or maybe you’re a bit peckish late at night yourself. Either way, every once in a while (but not too often!), why not have a late night or secret Midnight picnic? These are best for the weekend, but as long as they’re an occasional surprise, the novelty won’t wear off and the kids won’t lose too much sleep.
And you can lay out all kinds of food, but make sure it’s yummy and a bit indulgent. Have some cake, or a bit of ice cream, or a chocolatey dessert ready to serve, and empty out crisp packets into bowls so the kids can just pick and choose.
It’ll help to maintain the ‘secrecy’ of the event too, as you won’t be wrestling with loud wrappers and shushing giggles every 5 seconds!
Make Some Costumes
Kids love to play dress up, and as a family, it’s nice to indulge this. So if you’ve all got some time one evening, why not make your own costumes? These can be based on characters they love, such as Batman or Wonder Woman, but they can also be entirely made up characters the kids have thought of themselves.
You can even get a whole narrative saga out of a family night like this and come back to it every now and then!
As long as you’ve got some spare or old clothes, and if you’re a dab hand at sewing, you can help/show the kids how to put a costume together. It’s a lot more manageable than it looks, and it’ll be a fun way to learn a new skill.
Make a Fort and Sleep in it!
Finally, maybe you try the age-old, tried and tested method of getting all the cushions in the house together and making a fort in the living room? Maybe you never got to build one as a kid yourself, or maybe you’d know your own children would love the magic and mystery of it all – either way, building a fort together is a great way to spend some time having fun as a family.
Throw some blankets into the construction, and make sure there’s enough room for you all to get in and watch some TV or play on a console together. You can even sleep in there if the floor is comfortable enough, or if you’ve created multiple levels by putting the whole sofa into the mix, and have another novelty night like you would camping out in the yard.
Ready for a Family Night?
If your kids are getting a bit bored, and have nothing else to do, why not do something together as a family? The evenings are usually the time you all have free, so have a pizza party, make your own costumes and tell a story, put a puzzle together, and even just build a secret fort. As long as you’re all having fun, you’ll make some great memories, and want to spend time together for a long time to come!
