As a parent, you’re responsible for getting everyone where they need to go, from school to extracurricular activities to doctor’s appointments and more.
You have to figure out healthy-ish food that will nourish your child’s growing body and mind, three times a day. Not to mention you’re also overseeing paying the bills on time, doing endless laundry, and keeping your home from looking like a tornado attacked a LEGO factory.
And in between all that, you want to nurture a loving parent-child relationship that will last into the teenage years and beyond. Building a strong bond takes time, so you know you can’t treat it like cramming for a big test the night before.
The time for nurturing that kind of relationship is now, but how exactly are you supposed to fit that in on top of everything else?
Here’s the Solution
In as little as 10 minutes a day, you can connect with your child in a powerful way and build a stronger relationship that will stand the test of time. Because research shows that the quality of time you spend with your child is way more important than the quantity of time you spend.
The secret? Family bonding activities.
To be clear, I’m not talking about planning pricey day-long excursions or tackling elaborate craft projects that call for 42 random supplies you don’t have.
Because the best family bonding activities can be done in between your normal everyday routine—or even while you’re doing something that needs to be done anyway. That way, you’re nurturing a loving relationship with your child without adding anything to your overflowing to-do list.
Why a Strong Family Bond Is So Important
You might have already noticed that when your child feels connected and loved, they tend to cooperate more and engage in fewer power struggles.
But even beyond greasing the wheels of daily parenting struggles, research shows that investing in a strong family bond now will pay off for years to come. Here’s how:
- Kids thrive – Children in families with a strong family bond are much more likely to flourish, which includes feeling a sense of purpose in life, enjoying positive relationships with others, experiencing self-acceptance, possessing an ability for personal growth, and more.
- Kids grow into happy adults – Research shows that nurturing a loving bond with your child shapes your child’s happiness for life and results in life-long positive outcomes for the child. That includes higher self-esteem, better parent-child communication, and fewer psychological and behavioral problems.
- Kids can handle stress better – Parental warmth and strong family bonds act as a buffer for kids to protect them from the negative effects of stress.
- Kids and adults are healthier – Stronger family relationships predict positive health outcomes for both kids and adults. Not only that, when you have a strong family bond, you tend to live longer.
Sounds great, right?
But when you’re an exhausted parent who’s barely keeping up with doing the laundry, helping out with math homework, and getting dinner on the table, you don’t have a lot of extra time to sit around and brainstorm meaningful activities that will make your family feel even closer.
So I decided to put a master list together for all the tired parents of the world, myself included.
The Best 60 Family Bonding Activities That Will Nurture a Loving Bond
Below, you’ll find a list of the best bonding activities for families to bring you and your child closer together.
To put together this list, I read every list of family bonding activities I could get my hands on in books and online, talked to friends and neighbors to hear about their favorite family activities, and surveyed the more than 100,000 readers in this community—then I compiled all the most-loved ideas into one epic list.
But First, a Warning
This list has a wide variety of ideas so that different families can find ideas that will work for them. But you don’t need to do everything in this list! That would be impossible, not to mention you’d be so overwhelmed you’d likely end up choosing nothing.
Instead, keep an eye out for one or two family bonding activities you’d like to try, and make a plan to do them this week. Add them to your calendar or put a reminder in your phone if you need to.
Pro tip: When you try a new family bonding activity, consider giving it a fun or playful name. Some studies suggest that when you label a concept or object, you change how people perceive it, and that framing can influence their preferences and behavior.
Using a short, playful name also helps you quickly communicate what the family bonding activity involves and can conjure up memories of previous experiences with it, giving you and your family warm fuzzies and getting everyone excited to do it again. For example, compare “Let’s all sit on the couch together while I read aloud from this chapter book” to “Family Read-Aloud Time.” Because giving your family activity an official name can elevate its value in these ways, below you’ll find some suggestions for naming each activity. Feel free to use any of those activity names that speak to you, or brainstorm a new name with your family to make it your own.
Everyday Family Bonding Activities
One of the best ways to nurture a strong family bond is by finding ways to connect during regular everyday routines. Because when you do that, you can elevate an ordinary ho-hum routine into a fun family tradition that will delight your kids every day.
Below, you’ll find the family activities that work best when you integrate them into your daily routines for a quick dose of connection.
Related: Be a Close-Knit Family: The Best 35 Family Tradition Examples
1. Pile into bed (but not at bedtime)
After you factor in time for homework, dinner prep and clean-up, and the kids’ bedtime routine plus everything in between, weekday evenings can feel rushed and chaotic. To strengthen your family’s bond after spending the day apart and keep the evening routine free of disconnection-induced speed bumps, start a tradition of stopping to snuggle and connect.
- Make it official: Popular names for this tradition are “Family Cuddle Time” and “Cozy up in Bed Time.”
- How to do it: When you get home on weekdays, call out “Family Cuddle Time!” and encourage everyone to run into your bedroom and pile into the bed. Something about the tight quarters of adults and kids all squished into one bed makes everyone giggle. And then as the giggles fade, deep breaths and sighs take their place. The closeness and shared quiet is one of the best reset buttons you could hope for. For the full details on how this family bonding activity works, head over to The After School Routine for Busy Families That Will Make You Smile.
2. Talk while you eat
If you’re not already sharing one meal a day as a family, this is one of the best family bonding activities to start. Research shows that children who regularly eat meals together with their family are more likely to experience long-term physical and mental health benefits, including lower levels of aggression, oppositional behavior, and delinquency.
- Make it official: A simple “Family Dinner” or “Family Breakfast” gets the point across!
- How to do it: Make a habit of slowing down and coming together as a family for at least one meal a day, whether that’s a quick breakfast shared while standing at the kitchen counter or a sit-down meal at the dinner table.
- Variations: To boost the feelings of love and connection during your shared meals, ask one fun question at every family meal from our special set of Conversation Starters for Kids. The set includes 150 questions, which gives you enough questions for five months of family dinners. When you ask great questions like that, not only will you be teaching your child the art of a good conversation, but you’ll get to peek straight into your child’s heart. What’s important to them, what has them worried, what they’re excited about.
3. Pick a card, any card
Here’s the problem with reading an article like this: After you close your browser tab, the daily grind of parenting will suck you back in, and you’re likely to forget all these fun family bonding activities. To make family bonding a priority even after this post has faded from your memory, pick up our set of Family Connection Cards here.
I created these Family Connection Cards based on the science of what actually works when you want to bond as a family. These cards remove the mental burden of figuring out how to connect with your child so you can just focus on nurturing your bond. At any point during your day, you can pick a card to get a quick and simple idea for connecting. And in just 10 minutes a day, these powerful cards will make your child feel absolutely loved and stop the power struggles caused by disconnection.
- Make it official: In our family, we call this habit our “Fresh Start,” and we do it before the morning routine starts to get hectic so that we start the day off with our tanks of love full to brimming. One family told me they call this their “Come Together Time,” and they kick it off by playing the Beatles song Come Together. Other options include “Connection Time” or “10-Minute Together Time.”
- How to do it: Set aside 10 minutes in your daily routine. If you don’t have 10 minutes, five minutes can work. And if you can’t find five minutes, you can combine this with something else, like while your child eats breakfast. Have your child pick one of our Family Connection Cards, or you can pick one at random, then do what the card says to do. Because the Family Connection Cards are based on the science of what actually works when you want to connect with your child, afterward you’ll both feel loved and connected.
4. Get lost together
Reading aloud to your child every day is a powerful family bonding activity because research shows daily read-aloud time grows your child’s brain (literally), increases your child’s capacity for empathy, and even improves their behavior. And no one is ever too old to be read to! You can read aloud to tweens, teens, and even to your spouse or partner.
- Make it official: Some families call this “Read-Aloud Time” or “Family Bookish Time.”
- How to do it: Pick a time of day when you can read aloud to your child for 10 minutes, like while they eat breakfast, while they’re in the bath, after everyone is in jammies and ready for bed, or when they’re tucked into bed and ready for lights out. For older kids, you can take turns reading aloud from the same book, or you can read a snippet from an interesting magazine or newspaper article. If you need a great book to read aloud, check out The Ultimate List of the Best Picture Books, Endorsed by Kids And Parents and 48 Awesome Chapter Books for Kids Your Child Will Devour.
- Variations: If you’re having trouble finding time to read aloud, turn on an audiobook when you’re driving back and forth to school or running errands, then listen together. You can get audiobooks through your library, from Audible†, or from Libro.fm. (By the way, Libro.fm is the same price as Audible, and you’ll support a locally owned bookstore with every audiobook you choose!)
Related: This 10-Minute Morning Routine for Kids Will Make Your Life Easier
5. Walk it off
In busy family life, it can be difficult to make time for getting enough physical exercise. And yet, exercise is not only good for your child’s physical health, but research suggests that regular exercise will protect your child’s mental health as they get older. Plus, kids who move their bodies every day experience better moods, an increased ability to focus, more confidence, sounder sleep, and better academic outcomes. To increase your child’s physical activity level (and yours!) so that you get all those benefits, start a family habit of taking a quick walk after dinner.
- Make it official: Most families refer to this bonding activity as simply their “Family Walk” or “After-Dinner Walk.”
- How to do it: After dinner, head out for 10 or 15 minutes and walk around your neighborhood. You can talk about your day, make it an informal scavenger hunt and count how many dogs or birds you see, or mix it up by hopping on your bikes for a ride around the block. If it’s already dark out, bring flashlights for an extra dose of fun.
- Variations: As an alternative, if you live in an area that isn’t walkable, you can queue up a yoga video and wind down together while you move through a few yoga poses. Our favorite family yoga video is this fun 17-minute practice:
6. Pitch in as a team
Most people don’t particularly want to spend their free time on household chores, and kids are no exception. But when you tackle chores together as a family, the work gets done faster so you have more time for other fun activities. Plus, research shows that sharing responsibilities as a family makes your family stronger. Not only that, kids who do chores at home tend to be more helpful to others, do better academically, and experience higher life satisfaction.
- Make it official: Say it’s time for your “10-Minute Tidy” or try a call-and-response approach, which my preschooler loves. When I say, “Teamwork makes the…”, he calls back, “…dream work!”
- How to do it: Take 10 to 15 minutes every afternoon or evening and pitch in to get something done together, such as loading or emptying the dishwasher, folding or putting away laundry, tidying up toys and clutter, dusting and vacuuming, and so on. To keep this activity light and fun, queue up a favorite playlist, like our family dance party playlist, and set a timer for 15 minutes. When the timer goes off, everyone stops and celebrates a job well done, such as by enjoying a piece of chocolate or some fresh fruit, playing a quick family-friendly board game or card game, watching funny animal videos, making hot chocolate, or reading a book together.
Related: 101 Heartfelt and Simple Ways to Love Your Child Every Day {Printable}
Weekly or Monthly Activities
Some of the best activities for family bonding require a little more time and planning than a daily routine. But when you make them into a weekly ritual, you give your kids something to look forward to and make the activity even more special. With that said, if you like an idea in this section but weekly feels too frequent to keep up with, many families use a monthly rhythm for these bonding activities, and that works well too.
1. Go head-to-head
Set aside one weekend afternoon or evening (or both!) every week for a family game night. Playing board games and card games is an excellent way to bond as a family. Plus, many family games are educational so your child will be strengthening skills like reading, math, and spatial intelligence without even realizing it because they’re having so much fun.
- Make it official: “Game Night” or “Family Game Night” were the most popular names families gave this bonding activity.
- How to do it: Let your child pick out a game they want to play, prepare a special snack like popcorn or one of these family game night snacks, and have fun playing together! If you find yourself cringing at the games in your closet (I’m looking at you, Candyland), I’ve gotcha covered. My family runs a small game shop, and we stock only the best family games loved by kids and parents. Here are our picks for the best family game night games. Two of our most popular games include Sleeping Queens – a quick and fun card game you can play with a wide range of ages – and My First Carcassonne – a game of strategy that’s fantastic for growing spatial intelligence and also fun for adults.
Black Friday’s back: Get 30% off all games with the code HAPPY30. Plus, free shipping for orders $49+.
Sleeping Queens
“My daughter and I love Sleeping Queens! It teaches them math without them even realizing it – or me, for that matter. I remember my daughter laid down a sequence that was like 1 + 3 + 5 = 9, and I thought ‘How did you know that…?’ Then I realized she just figured it out from doing math in the game. So cool to watch her learn right before my eyes.” – Ann
Related: Forget Candyland! This Is the Best List of Board Games for All Ages
2. Get free books
Set aside one day a week where your family heads to your local library so everyone can pick out a book (or twenty) to check out and take home. When you model regular library use and turn it into a fun family event, you’ll help foster your child’s appreciation for books and set them on the path to becoming a lifelong reader. Research shows that when kids grow up in a home full of books, that gives them a major boost in literacy (and numeracy!) that lasts into the adult years.
- Make it official: If you go the same day every week, you can name your special event by the day, like “Library Thursdays.” Or if the day changes, you can call it “Library Haul Day” or “Free Books Day.”
- How to do it: When you get to the library, let your child pick out whatever they want, even if it’s a Barbie early reader that makes you cringe. If you criticize your child’s choice in books, they could internalize that and become less interested in picking out books, which can dampen their excitement about reading in general. This is a lesson I learned the hard way with my oldest child. After I realized my mistake, I stepped back and encouraged her choices to rebuild her confidence. She’s now a major bookworm, but it took some time to undo the damage of my “helping.”
- Variations: Go through your owned books to decide whether you have any you’re ready to send to a new home. Then find a Little Free Library in your area, add your books, and pick out a few new-to-you books to take home with you.
3. Spin some tunes
Kick off the weekend with a family dance party every Friday afternoon. Research shows that listening to music together strengthens your bond and builds positive memories. Plus, studies show that young children especially get a big dose of happy when moving their bodies to a rhythmic beat, and that goes for adults too.
- Make it official: If you decide on a standard day for your dance party every week, you can name it with the day, like “Friday Dance Party.” Otherwise, “Family Dance Party” will do the trick!
- How to do it: When everyone gets home on Friday, queue up a few of your family’s favorite upbeat songs. If you have a young child, scoop them up and start dancing. For older kids, challenge them to show off their best (or silliest) dance moves. Show your kids the dance moves that were popular when you were a kid, and ask them to teach you the dance moves popular now. (My teenager trying to teach me to floss always results in giggles for the whole family!) If you need some ideas for your family dance party playlist, check out our playlist of the best kids’ dance songs with clean lyrics.
4. Cozy up on the couch
Many families told me their favorite family bonding activity is movie night every Friday or Saturday night. As long as you accommodate younger kids when picking which movies to watch together, movies create a fun shared experience for the whole family. As an added bonus, research shows that when you watch something with your child and chat about what you’re watching together – known as “co-viewing” – you increase your child’s literacy skills, boost empathy, and even mitigate the negative effects of certain kinds of screen time like violent scenes in movies and TV.
- Make it official: You can’t go wrong with just a simple “Movie Night” or “Family Movie Night”!
- How to do it: Take turns every week picking which movie to watch and cozy up on the couch together for a shared experience. To make this bonding experience extra special, add in a fun treat. You can watch new releases, share your childhood favorites, or rewatch one of your family’s all-time faves – the ones you have memorized. To help your child get the most out of the experience of co-viewing a movie, try pointing out interesting details, commenting on similarities between what you’re watching and something in your child’s own life, and pausing the movie after a complicated or potentially confusing scene to talk about what just happened.
- Variations: When the weather warms up, turn your weekly movie night into a backyard movie night. All you need is a projector and a white sheet or a screen to project on, plus blankets to spread in the grass or outdoor chairs. Bonus points if you roast marshmallows over a backyard fire pit. By the way, this is the outdoor projector I got for my husband one year for Father’s Day, and we use it every week during the summer for our Backyard Movie Nights!
5. Celebrate the full moon
Every night of a full moon, get the whole family outside for a nighttime walk to experience the magic of the night. When you cultivate these moments of awe and wonder for your child, it benefits their physical, mental, and emotional well-being, plus it makes them kinder and more generous.
- Make it official: Many families call these walks “Full Moon Walks.”
- How to do it: You can automatically add the phases of the moon to your Google Calendar. Then on those evenings, plan for a quick dinner so you can head out for a Full Moon Walk afterwards. Listen for the sounds of nighttime, and point out any wildlife or plants you happen to notice.
6. Move dinner outside
Sharing a daily meal can be a powerful family bonding activity, but depending on your work schedule and your child’s extracurricular activities, having a meal together every day may not be feasible. In that situation, you can set aside one day every weekend to pack a picnic to enjoy as a family, whether it’s breakfast, lunch, or dinner. Not only will your whole family get a healthy dose of fresh air, you’ll also foster the long-term physical and mental health benefits for children who regularly eat meals together with their family, including lower levels of aggression, oppositional behavior, and delinquency.
- Make it official: The most common name for this bonding activity is just “Family Picnic,” but I also heard from one family that called this their “Eat Outside Day.”
- How to do it: Grab a blanket that can fit everyone – this is my family’s favorite picnic blanket because nothing soaks through, and it’s easy to clean off – and pack a meal to share. For a special treat, pack something fun your child doesn’t usually get, like a piece of candy or a juice box. You can set up your picnic in your backyard or front yard, at a neighborhood park, along the bank of a stream, river, or lake, in a clearing in a nearby wooded area, or even just on your living room floor. A picnic basket is absolutely not necessary, but if you find that your family enjoys this experience, you can add this lovely picnic basket to your wish list for future birthdays and holidays. We gifted that one to one of my kids, so every time we get geared up for a family picnic, she loves taking charge of getting the basket packed up.
- Variations: Bring a frisbee, a soccer ball, or an outdoor game you can play together after you eat. Or for younger kids, bring a kite or a bottle of no-spill bubbles.
7. Set a date
Head to your neighborhood coffee shop, then treat yourselves to a fancy drink – coffee for adults, hot chocolate or juice for kids. When you turn a weekly coffee date into a family bonding activity, you’ll foster relaxed conversations where you take turns talking, which can boost your child’s vocabulary and nurture your child’s storytelling skills, which improves their reading comprehension down the road.
Many families also find that they naturally reminisce during these weekly coffee dates, sharing recent memories or even stories from their family’s history. When you engage in that kind of storytelling with your child on a regular basis, you improve your child’s self-esteem and give them the gift of higher resilience in the face of adversity.
- Make it official: Try “Family Coffee Date.”
- How to do it: Pick a time for your weekly family coffee date and add it to your calendar as a recurring event. To get the conversation going, ask one fun question from our special set of Conversation Starters for Kids. These conversation starters are designed to boost your connection as a family, plus they’ll help you teach your child the art of a good conversation, unlocking all the powerful benefits listed above. Some families also like to bring along a favorite board or card game to play while they enjoy their drinks. Here’s a list of our all-time favorite family board games for all ages, many of which we sell in our family-owned shop here. Among the games we stock, the best portable games for bringing along to a coffee shop are Sleeping Queens, Love Letter, Spot It!, Rat-a-Tat Cat, and Quiddler Junior.
Love Letter
“My teen and tween love this quick little card game. To win, you need to rely on your deductive reasoning skills, plus a bit of luck. You can play a whole game in 20 minutes, but if you’re short on time, you can play one round in 5-7 minutes. But warning: Even when we set out to play ‘just one round,’ we always end up playing several!” – Tyler
8. Make a group effort
No matter if you’re the chef of the family or if you have a partner who usually does the cooking, pick a night every week when you can make dinner together as a family. When you show commitment to sharing responsibilities as a family – like making a meal to share – research shows that makes your family stronger. Plus, you’ll get help in the kitchen instead of everything resting on your shoulders.
Feel free to let the rest of your family take the lead while you take a step back and serve as more of an advisor and pinch hitter when they need help. Bonus tip: If you have trouble with this in general (I know I do!), try brewing yourself a coffee or tea or pouring another favorite beverage to sip on and keep your hands busy.
- Make it official: You might call this bonding time your “Teamwork Dinner,” “All Hands on Deck Dinner,” or “Calling All Chefs Night.”
- How to do it: Let your child decide what to make for dinner, then involve them in the work of making it. As an added benefit, they’ll be much more likely to eat a dinner they helped make! Keep in mind that especially when you have younger kids, you can expect the process to take a little longer than usual. Mistakes mean they’re learning. If your kid makes a mess, take a deep breath and try saying something like, “That’s okay, we can clean up when we’re done.”
Related: Want Your Family to Share the Load? Here’s the Best Way to Set Family Goals {Printable}
9. Batch your kindness
You might have heard before that regularly helping others is an important factor in living a long, happy life. Research shows that even very young children are happier when helping others. But starting a daily “random acts of kindness” routine can make the experience feel meaningless. To keep the experience meaningful and enjoyable for the whole family, pick one day a month where you intentionally perform five small acts of kindness together. One study found that people who performed five giving acts all in a single day increased happiness.
- Make it official: You might call this your “Family Kindness Day,” “Random Acts of Kindness Day,” or “Family Kindness Marathon.”
- How to do it: Set aside one day a month for your Family Kindness Day, brainstorm small things your family can do for others, and execute on five of them. To help you brainstorm, check out our list of The Best Acts of Kindness for Kids That Will Teach Compassion. For example:
- Bake fresh cookies and hand them out to your neighbors.
- Write a thank-you note to someone.
- Go through toys and pick some to donate to charity.
- Collect non-perishable food in your neighborhood and donate it to a local food pantry.
- If you have an elderly neighbor, help them out by mowing their lawn or weeding their garden.
- Run a lemonade stand and donate the proceeds to your favorite charity.
- Surprise a worker with a big tip, like a restaurant server, delivery driver, or your neighborhood coffee shop’s barista.
- Go through your books to find those you can part with, then find a nearby Little Free Library and restock it.
10. Play in the dirt
Get everybody outside once a week to tend to a family vegetable garden, such as watering soil, pulling weeds, and picking ripe veggies. If you don’t have a garden yet, consider starting one, even if it’s just one container to begin with. Research shows that when kids get hands-on with a vegetable garden, they develop an increased preference for snacking on fruits and vegetables. Plus, gardening decreases stress hormones and boosts your mood. So if you can’t make a veggie garden work, you could also pick a spot to plant some pretty flowers in your yard or in a container on your porch.
- Make it official: Give this weekly bonding activity a playful name like “Green Thumb Time” or “Digging Hour,” or call it your family’s weekly “Garden Party” and make a batch of lemonade and fun snacks to keep you fueled as you work together.
- How to do it: To get started, here’s a quick guide to starting a container garden with your child. Then set aside a regular time every week for this family activity where everyone tends to be available, such as a weekend morning or afternoon. For younger kids, make sure to have kid-sized gardening gloves and garden tools, plus a small watering can available so they can help out. You can also use your time together to work on garden-adjacent projects, like painting rocks to use as labels in the garden, making or filling bird feeders, or putting up barriers to keep critters from eating your crops.
11. Schedule a break
While everyone experiences anxious feelings from time to time, research shows that anxiety disorders are on the rise with children. To help protect your child from the harmful effects of stress plus give yourself a break from the daily grind, consider setting aside one day a month as a mental health day.
On your family’s mental health day, you can take a regular weekday off from work and school—or if that’s not feasible, pick your child up early from school. Studies consistently show that rest is essential for dealing with stress, and in fact rest makes you more persistent and productive by working with your brain instead of against it.
- Make it official: The most common name for this bonding activity is “Mental Health Day,” but I heard from a couple families who call it “Get out of Jail Free Day” in reference to the Monopoly card!
- How to do it: To get the most out of your family’s mental health day, think of something special you can do together. If you all retreat to your favorite form of screen time, that won’t actually help your brain get the rest it truly needs. Research shows that the single most efficient strategy for dealing with stress is physical activity, so find a fun way to move your bodies together, like going on a hike, walking or biking around your neighborhood, taking a basketball or tennis rackets to a nearby park for a quick game, popping in a yoga DVD to do together, or kicking off your day with a family dance party. After that, do something to connect because connection with loved ones is necessary for overcoming stress as well. For example, you could play a fun new board game, read aloud to your child, or make art or color in a coloring book together. As another option, you can grab our Family Connection Cards, then pick one at random to do on your mental health day. The Family Connection Cards are based on the science of what actually works when you need to connect with your child, so no matter what card you pick, you’ll be helping your child (and you!) recharge their batteries.
12. Drink words
One of my family’s favorite bonding activities is our monthly Family Read-a-Thon. Once a month, we set aside a weekend morning or afternoon, grab a stack of books, and cuddle up on the couch to read. A Family Read-a-Thon gives everyone a fun break from the hustle and bustle of a busy weekend. Plus, studies show that reading aloud grows your child’s brain, builds their empathy for others, and improves their behavior. Remember: No one is ever too old to be read to! You can read aloud to tweens, teens, and even to your spouse or partner.
- Make it official: My personal favorite name for this bonding activity is “Family Read-a-Thon,” but I also heard one family call it their “Family Reading Spree.”
- How to do it: We have a wide range of ages in our family, so we will typically read a handful of picture books and a couple chapters from chapter books. For chapter books, you can start a new book to be your family read-aloud book – and then make it a daily family activity to read a little bit each day – or you can get a stack of chapter books and read the first five pages of each one for what we call a “book flight,” which just means to sample a handful of books to see which one grabs you most. After that, my kids will often get hooked on their favorite story from our book flight and continue to read that independently after our Read-a-Thon. If you need book recommendations, check out The Ultimate List of the Best Picture Books, Endorsed by Kids And Parents and 48 Awesome Chapter Books for Kids Your Child Will Devour.
- Variations: Another option is to start an audiobook you can all listen to together while you do something else, like color in a parent-child coloring book, build with LEGOs or Magna-Tiles, or fold that mountain of laundry that’s been accumulating during the week. You can get audiobooks through your library, from Audible, or from Libro.fm. (By the way, Libro.fm is the same price as Audible, and you’ll support a locally owned bookstore with every audiobook you choose!)
13. Reminisce
On the last day of every month, pick your top 10 favorite photos from all the photos you’ve taken on your phone and/or camera that month. Then pop them into a slideshow to share with your family before, during, or after a meal. Reflecting back on those moments as a family will spark your loved ones to share stories of those memories, plus make everyone feel all the feels.
- Make it official: You might call this your “Family Slideshow” or “Family Photo Round-Up.”
- How to do it: If you have a partner or spouse or an older child who also takes photos, ask them to send their favorites to you to include in the photo slideshow. To create the slideshow, you can use a free tool like Google Slides.
- Variations: To take this a step further, you can devote a wall in your home to displaying prints of your favorite family photos, then get your favorites printed every month, quarter, or year to swap them out. You can DIY this yourself or get a ready-made photo wall display like this. Some families also use these monthly “best of” photos to create a family yearbook. After you pick out your favorites photos, you can make a scrapbook or have them printed into a hardcover book at Shutterfly.
14. Throw your list away
If a monthly mental health day isn’t doable for your family, consider instituting a Do Nothing Day on the weekend where you all spend the day together. Similar to a mental health day, a Do Nothing Day gives you and your child a break from the daily stress of family life, which is important for helping you survive the harmful effects of stress.
- Make it official: Most families call this “Do Nothing Day,” but some alternatives are “Together Day” and “No To-Do-List Day.”
- How to do it: For one weekend day a month, forget the errands you’ve been meaning to run and throw your to-do list out the window. Then as a family, brainstorm one or two fun things you might do together. Keep in mind that TV, video games, or mindless surfing aren’t restorative, but aside from that, go with whatever sounds fun. You can bust out a jigsaw puzzle for the whole family to solve together, bake something yummy for breakfast, or build an epic fort with your kids using cardboard boxes, sheets, and Christmas lights. Some families use our Family Connection Cards on their Do Nothing Days and pick one random card to do as a family. Whatever you decide to do as a family, take your time and enjoy being together because this isn’t about marking something off your to-do list.
15. Stretch your brains together
Challenge your family to learn something new together once in a while, just for fun. Playfully testing out a new hobby or activity will open new neural pathways in your child’s brain, plus regularly learning something new is one of the best steps you can take to keep your own brain healthy as you age. A few months ago, we decided as a family that it would be fun to learn how to talk in a British accent, so we took a weekend morning to watch a few videos about how to do it, then challenged ourselves to talk that way the rest of the day. Our accents were horrible, but we had a blast, and the kids still talk about that day, months later.
- Make it official: A couple names to consider are “Family Curiosity Day” or “Be Curious Day.”
- How to do it: In a central location, you can keep a running list of things that sound fun to learn and encourage everyone in the family to add to it whenever inspiration strikes. Some families have a special notebook they keep on the coffee table or on the kitchen counter, and they call it their “curiosity journal.” Then once a month or whatever frequency works for your family, set aside a morning or afternoon to pick something to learn together. You can watch videos together, check out books from the library ahead of time, look for apps focused on whatever you want to learn, or ask someone you know to give you an in-person lesson. To kick off your curiosity journal, here are a few ideas: learn a new language, go bird-watching, pick up knitting or crocheting, practice yoga, tackle something new in the kitchen like baking bread from scratch, make origami, learn magic tricks, take your photography skills to the next level, try geocaching, make candles or soap, or take up astronomy.
16. Round up change
Challenge your family to collect any spare change they come across, then once a month count it up together and decide on a charity where you can donate it. You’ll be teaching your child the importance of giving back, plus research shows that helping others is an important factor in living a long, happy life.
- Make it official: In my family, we call this “The Great Change Round-Up,” but I heard from one family that called it their “Spare Change Drive.”
- How to do it: Set up a jar for collecting spare change and keep it in an easily accessible location. (Important: If you have young children who still put things in their mouths, be sure to keep this jar out of their reach! One of my kids once swallowed a coin and ended up in the hospital, so I learned the hard way that you can never be too careful.) Tell your child any time they come across a coin on the ground, they can pick it up to add to your spare change jar. You can also plant some seeds about where else they can find spare change, like in the nooks and crannies of your vehicle, in pants pockets in the laundry hamper, under couch cushions (side benefit: my kids will regularly pull them out and clean up everything under the cushions, looking for spare change!), and so on. Kids tend to get excited by the challenge of seeing how much they can find, and you might even catch them asking neighbors and relatives if they have any spare change to donate to charity.
- Variations: In our family, we also set up a “matching” program where however much the kids scrounged up, we match that penny for penny to double the donation and make an even bigger impact.
17. Ride it out
For a weekly activity that’s good for the whole family, make it a habit to go for a family bike ride or on a family hike. Spending more time outdoors has been shown to improve mental health well-being for kids, to decrease stress, and even to boost academic performance. Plus, exercise boosts your child’s physical health (and yours!), and research suggests that regular exercise will protect your child’s mental health as they get older. Kids who move their bodies every day also experience better moods, an increased ability to focus, more confidence, sounder sleep, and better academic outcomes.
- Make it official: If you opt for a weekly bike ride, try “Weekend Cruise” or plan a route to pick up breakfast tacos or donuts and call it “The Breakfast Club.” For a weekly hike, go for “Explorer Hour,” “Trailblazing Time,” or simply “Family Hike.”
- How to do it: If you don’t have an area in your neighborhood that’s appropriate for bike rides or hikes, research areas nearby that could work by searching Google for “best bike rides in xyz” and replace “xyz” with your city’s name. For hikes, search “best hikes in xyz.” Then carve out time on the weekend or another time everyone’s available so you can go exploring together as a family. Bring plenty of water and fun snacks to keep everyone fueled for the group exercise, or pack fixings for a picnic so you can break halfway to share a meal outdoors.
Once-in-a-While Activities
Some bonding activities for families might require more time or planning than a daily routine or a weekly ritual, and yet they can bring about some of the most meaningful moments for your family. The family bonding ideas in this section work best when you make them happen once in a while, whether that means once a quarter, once a year, or on a spontaneous basis.
Often, these activities create lifelong memories for your child and become part of your family’s lore, prompting out-of-the-blue reminiscing that starts off, “Remember that time we…”
- Build an epic fort. Gather the supplies you’ll need, such as sheets, tablecloths, or curtains; command hooks and string to attach blankets to the wall; and pillows, blankets, or rugs to make it cozy. Then when it’s done, you can all pile in to play a fun family board game or read together. At nighttime, you can string some Christmas lights or fairy lights and keep the fun going with a slumber party in the fort.
- Light a candle. Make something special for dinner, then turn out all the lights and have dinner by candlelight. To make the experience even more memorable, get everyone to wear their nicest outfit and pretend you’re at a fancy restaurant.
- Kick off a spontaneous game. Start a classic childhood game with your family, like hide-and-seek, duck duck goose, Simon says, and so on.
- Have afternoon tea. Make your favorite warm beverage and a cup of caffeine-free herbal tea for your child, and sit down to enjoy it together. To make this activity extra special, turn it into a tea party with snacks like fruit, cookies, or sandwiches cut into fun shapes with a cookie cutter. To get the conversation going, ask one fun question from our special set of Conversation Starters for Kids.
- Go on a scavenger hunt. My personal favorite style is a photo scavenger hunt because the photos will help you remember the experience. When you find something on your list, snap a photo with the item and whomever found it or with the whole family. You can find free printable scavenger hunts online like this simple printable and this one for tweens and teens.
- Make an obstacle course. Turn your yard or your living room into an obstacle course for your whole family. If you’re indoors, you can use couch cushions, step stools, chairs to crawl under or climb over, and so on. For outdoors, try scrap wood for balance beams, a hula hoop, a jump rope, and anything else you can get creative with.
- Puzzle it out. Tackle a big jigsaw puzzle as a family and celebrate when you get it done.
- Roughhouse. Research shows this kind of play helps kids manage their emotions and feel connected to their parents. Try starting a pillow fight, a game of chase, or a round of “Squish Squash” while lying in bed together. (Check out this Bluey episode for an explanation of Squish Squash.)
- Sing karaoke. You don’t need a fancy karaoke machine to bust out some tunes together. Look for a karaoke app on your mobile device, or search Youtube for kid-friendly karaoke songs.
- Be a tourist in your town. Plan a special outing to see one of the sights in your area, such as a trip to the zoo or aquarium, a kid-friendly museum, or the biggest playground within driving distance.
- Give time together. Make a plan to volunteer at a local food bank, animal shelter, nursing home, community garden, and so on. If you can’t find a kid-friendly volunteer opportunity in your area, grab a trash bag and rubber gloves and visit a local creek or park to pick up litter. Not only will it feel good to help, research shows that kids who volunteer experience a boost in self-esteem, higher levels of positive emotions, improved ability to regulate emotions, and even better physical health.
- Build together. Break out the LEGO or Magna-Tiles and join your kids in building something epic together.
- Play putt-putt or go bowling. Find a miniature golf course or bowling alley in your area and set aside an hour or two to play together.
- Have a contest. Challenge your family to a contest, like hula hooping, jump roping, or limbo. Winner gets to pick their favorite meal for dinner, an extra piece of candy after dinner, or just bragging rights.
- Go camping—or try stay-camping. Even if you just camp in your backyard or set up a tent in your living room, the fresh air and quality time (and s’mores) will be an experience your family will remember. If you don’t have a tent yet, here’s the 4-person tent we got for our living room camping adventures. It’s affordable, has great reviews, and unlike most tents doesn’t drive my husband bonkers trying to set it up and take it down.
- Visit an arcade. Take your family to a classic video game arcade where you can play pinball, skee-ball, Pac-Man, and more.
- Make up stories. Go around the table and take turns adding a sentence to a story. For example, the first person might start with, “Once upon a time, a girl decided to go on an adventure in the forest.” The next person might add, “What the girl didn’t realize is that the magical creatures of the forest were currently engaged in an epic battle.” You’ll love hearing what your kids come up with! If you’d like more structure with this activity, pick up a set of these gorgeous Create a Story cards in our family-owned game shop.
Create a Story Cards
“This little game is quick, easy, and fun! You pick a card, say “Once upon a time…”, and let your child fill in the details. Then you can ask follow-up questions like “and then what happened?” until they peter out. I love that this requires minimal brainpower from me when I’m tired (which is always) and my daughter LOVES coming up with the stories. Great for her imagination!” – Fiona
- Take a day trip. Find a fun destination that’s within driving distance and head there together to explore. Research shows taking a trip with your child becomes a “happiness anchor” for them. In other words, vacations stick in kids’ brains as vivid memories, and later on as adults those memories can even help them get through tough times. (Don’t forget to crank up a family dance party playlist and sing aloud at the top of your lungs!)
- Strap on skates. Go skating together as a family. You can try a roller skating or ice skating rink, or if you have rollerblades you can gear up for a turn around the neighborhood.
- Turn on the sprinklers. When the weather’s warm, set out a sprinkler everyone can run through. For an extra dose of family bonding, have a water soaker fight.
- Make s’mores. Even if you don’t have a fire pit or grill, you can make them in the microwave. The deliciously gooey mess will make smiles and memories.
- Catch the sunset or sunrise. Find out when the sunrise or sunset will be in your area, then set an alarm on your phone to remind you to catch the event together. Awe is a powerful emotion, and the shared experience of awe will bring you closer as a family.
- Give a room a makeover. If you’ve been meaning to tackle a home improvement project, make it a group effort. For example, you can paint your child’s room the color of their choice, hang wall art, or just reorganize the furniture for a fresh look.
- Go birdwatching. Get everyone outside and see how many different birds you can spot. You can even find a birdwatching app and take photos to submit to the app. Many families told me they’ve made this an annual tradition with the Great Backyard Bird Count.
- Do a science experiment. We have this book of 10-minute science experiments for kids, and my kids love it!
- Make money. Work together to put on a garage sale, bake sale, or lemonade stand in your neighborhood. Some families boost their bonding even more by deciding to donate the proceeds then voting on which charity to donate to.
- Play an outside game. Get some fresh air while you play together. Try frisbee, disc golf, badminton, tennis, or just kick a soccer ball around your yard.
- Get creative. Make art together, like sidewalk chalk art or origami, or grab a coloring book and some crayons or colored pencils to color together.
- Go swimming. When the weather’s warm, visit a local pool and enjoy cooling off in the water together.
- Make dough or slime. Look for a play dough or slime recipe online, make it as a team, then play with it together.
- Listen to a podcast. Find a family-friendly podcast and listen together. This works well in the car, or you can pair it with making art or a chore like folding laundry to keep your hands busy. Some of our favorites are Brains On, But Why, Stories Podcast, Tumble, and Wow in the World. For tweens and teens, we also enjoy Book Club for Kids, Stuff You Should Know, and This American Life.
- Wash the car. Grab a bucket, a sponge, soap, and the hose, then work together to get your vehicle looking spiffy.
- Count stars. Stay up late together and lie in your yard after dark, counting stars and picking out constellations.
- See a show. Visit a movie theater or catch a live concert, play, or other kind of performance.
- Build a time capsule. Pull together a few mementos and seal it all up for at least a year. Then set a reminder on your calendar so you remember to open it together when the time comes. Some families love this bonding activity as a New Year’s tradition.
- Create a haven for wildlife. Turn your backyard into a wildlife habitat to help reverse some of the human-caused habitat destruction that hurts wildlife, especially the pollinators we need to grow food. The National Wildlife Federation has a program where you can get your backyard certified as a wildlife habitat.
- Host a comedy special. Challenge everyone in the family to learn a handful of jokes, then come together for your very own comedy show. Take turns telling jokes, and enjoy the shared giggles!
Your Turn
What are your all-time favorite family bonding activities? Share in a comment below!
