I’m BORED! As a parent, those two words you’ve probably heard so many times at this point. And for many parents, they consider hearing those words as part of the duty of raising a child.
The problem though is what happens afterwards. Many parents decide instead of spending time with their children, they tell them to watch TV or play video games. It’s understandable, but constant reliance on technology results in a distant relationship between parent and child.
I believe we can all be more creative than that.
To start, I barred that phrase from my house. Whenever someone said they were bored, I gave them two options:
First, there is always work that can be done. Secondly, find some fun things to do at home.
There are always creative and fun things to do with family. You just need to put some thought and imagination into your day. Whether it’s raining, snowing, or sunny, there are tonnes of options to consider.
The list of enjoyable things you can do is inexhaustible when you look at it. For now though, here are 30 fun activities to do at home. Some of the family activities at home are best done at appropriate times of the year too. Enjoy!
30 Fun Things To Do At Home With Family
1. Have a Costume Night
Generally, the only time we can get away with putting on costumes is on Halloween. But just because costumes are fitting during that time doesn’t mean you can only wear costumes for that one night. After all, thinking of a costume design, designing it and wearing it is a lot of fun!
With that in mind, having a costume party can be thrilling to have.
Host an evening where everyone has to dress up in a costume. (Some costume ideas here!) Eat your dinner that evening all dressed up too. Afterwards, play games and just have a party. You can even make it a “themed” costume party by choosing a time-era or stick with movie characters. Shape it to meet your interests and needs.
2. Throw an Indoor Picnic
One of the most fun indoor activities at home is having a picnic at home.
Set out a picnic blanket and basket of food and eat your dinner (or lunch) as though you were having a picnic. Just having variety in your family life brings you closer together as a family unit. Events like this are often the catalyst for a fun-filled evening or afternoon.
3. Have a Christmas Party (*In the Summer)
There is Christmas in July so it’s still very fitting. Set up some Christmas decorations and have a Christmas celebration during the summer. This can also be one of the fun things to do at home with family and friends!
There are several avenues you can go about this event.
One way is to use this time to give back. Buy some items with the intention of donating them to an organization that accepts donations for families in need. From there, you can use this time during the summer to wrap them up and donate them once December rolls back around. During the wrapping, you can use this opportunity to be thinking of the joy your purchase will bring to a little girl or boy.
Overall, this serves to make your family mindful of others. Everyone in the family will be excited when Christmas comes and they can donate the gifts that you wrapped in the summer.
Another angle is to consider the hundreds of Christmas movies available. Whether you’re with someone or by yourself, it still is one of those fun things to do by yourself (or with others) at home that can make you smile. Find some of the Christmas movies you like online, and set up a simple playlist for a Christmas movie marathon. From there, you just need to get a nice warm cup of hot chocolate and sit back and enjoy.
4. Host an International Dinner Night
This is one of the activities I do with my family a lot. The idea is simple. Pick out a country you would like to learn more about and are interested in and do some research on it. Find cuisine that is unique to that country, and maybe find some music from a band in that country too. For example, you could choose Mexico. You could then serve tacos, enchiladas, and Arroz con Pollo and set the mood with some Mexican music. The idea is to create an environment where it feels like you’re dining in that country you’re interested in.
With that in mind, anything to make it feel more like you’re there will help. The family can look for clothing that is worn in the country and wear it to dinner. Going off the Mexican idea, family members could wear sombreros or if you’re lucky you could find huipils or charros.
To ensure everyone is doing their own research, each family member would be responsible to bring one fact about the country to share at dinner time too. You can also look into what sort of decorations are being used to make your house atmospheric for the area too.
Overall, this is bound to bring some fun things at home.
5. Film a “Newscast”
The technology that exists today is awesome and allows people to do a number of fun ideas at home. Case and point, smartphones come equipped to make videos and that can be used to film a “newscast”.
Set up and make a newscast of events that are going on locally or events that are taking place in your family circle. The idea is to keep it simple and memorable for everyone.
Once everyone is prepared to share what they know on a certain topic, begin filming. Even though these events are things you may already be aware of, this particular activity is fun and will also help everyone learn to speak in public.
Doing this at home is an unusual way to interact as a family, but it allows everyone’s voice to be heard and to have open communication. It’s a quirky way to being closer as a family unit.
6. Have an Indoor/Outdoor Scavenger Hunt
Everyone loves hunting for hidden things and thus another one of those fun ideas for home is born. Type up a list of things that need to be found and give everyone a list. The things can be inside your home or even outdoors around the yard. Put a time limit on how long they have to locate the articles.
Be creative with this as well. You can put some things in the form of clues, so everyone has to figure out what the object is. This is on top of hiding the objects as well. To provide some incentive – and competition – have a small prize for the winner.
7. Learn to Do Nail Art
What are the fun things to do at home you may be asking? How about nail art? Nail art is the “in” thing right now. You see people with their fancy nails everywhere. Some even post their results on social media.
With some patience, you can learn to do this at home and reach that same skill level. Spend time practicing this. You can find kits and tools for this at department stores and drug stores so it’s cheap to get into this.
The overall process is relaxing as well. After all, you’re just sitting around painting nails and compare the outcomes. Plus the paint is easy to wash off so if you’re not keen on the results, or you don’t want to walk around with painted nails in public, you can clean them up easily.
8. Plant Seedlings
Ever wanted to have a garden in your own home or outside? This activity is perfect for making those desires a reality. Planting seedlings and watching their growth is rewarding, as well as educational. You would need to do a bit of research as to what would be the best time to plant but from there you can let the fun begin.
The time frame fluctuates between various types of plants as well. Most plants take 3-15 weeks to mature to a level to be transplanted into a garden. You would want to know what type of plants you are planting and the time needed as well. The whole process of preparing a garden, getting the materials, and planting the seedlings is joyous and rewarding in multiple ways.
It brings great joy to watch them develop and bloom once they are transplanted into a garden for one. The other is the fact if you’re planting vegetables or beans, you can harvest them and enjoy them in a home-grown meal! Even flowers can be appealing and their aromas can be a delight to smell and experience.
9. Host a Themed Movie Night
You have thousands of movies to pick from amongst your collection of DVDs, Blu Rays, and through streaming services. Pick a genre that your family would enjoy and pick out a variety of movies from that where you can sit and binge. Plan for a whole evening of back-to-back viewing of the movies.
Once that’s all sorted, make sure you have plenty of popcorn and snacks on hand! If you want to be really creative, find props that go with the movie and set them out as well. You can even make a dessert that matches the movie theme.
10. Play Games
Board games are an excellent way to have fun at home and over the past few decades, they’ve exploded. While you still have childhood classics like Monopoly, Mouse Trap, Trouble, Sorry, and Clue, there are many others. Some of our personal favorites include Ticket to Ride, Catan, Sequence, and Risk. These provide hours of entertainment
These are just a few of the many varieties out there too. Go to a local game store and see what appeals to the taste of your family. The great thing about board games is that you are able to interact with everyone while playing. Let the games begin!
11. Film a Cooking Show
Have you ever watched cooking shows on TV? Cooking is a hot topic as well as helpful skill to have regardless of age. In fact, cooking shows are so popular these days that there are networks that only broadcast shows about cooking.
Pick out a recipe you would like to try out that would take a while to do. From cakes to pies, casseroles, and breads, there are a lot of options. Pretend you are hosting your own cooking show and video it. Make sure the whole family participates, in one way or another too. You are certain to have a lot of laughs while watching your family episode.
Alternatively, you can always follow one of those cooking shows and cook alongside them. Of course, they’re going to have certain dishes prepared in advance, but it can still be a delight to cook with them mostly or all the way depending on what the host is making.
12. Make Christmas (Or Sentimental) Cards
Homemade Christmas cards are unique and special as they often come from the heart. By extension, making cards that are generally sentimental can be valuable as well. Craft stores and department stores sell all kinds of supplies that you can purchase to make beautiful cards. Use your creative skills and have an evening where you all come together and make cards revolving around gratitude and thankfullness to send to your family and friends.
13. Make a Scarecrow
Autumn is never complete without the fun of making a scarecrow. Rustling in the fallen leaves and stuffing them into old clothing brings out the kid in everyone.
One time while visiting my grandfather, I thought it would be fun to make him a scarecrow for his yard. I never imagined that he would come out and start making it with me. He was well into his 80s, and yet the joy in his eyes when we made that scarecrow together was a memory I will always cherish.
For those who like to be different, you can always make an indoor scarecrow at any time of year, using newspaper or paper towels as stuffing.
14. Have a Karaoke Night
Plan an evening of karaoke.
This is a great way to spend family time together. PlayStation and Wii have several options to pick from. And if you don’t have those particular games or consoles, you can always find plenty of them on Youtube. From experience, this is an evening of lots of laughter and joy! Everyone loves to sing…even those who might not have a singing voice like to bust out at karaoke.
15. Do a Puzzle
Puzzle-making is a calming way to spend time together at home. Hours can be spent finding just the right pieces to add to the puzzle provided that it’s a challenging one. The best part is when you see the finished product.
What’s also nice about some of the bigger and elaborate puzzles is the fact they’re not a one-night activity. If it’s big enough, don’t be afraid to set it aside so that the puzzle can be undisturbed.
You can find mats that roll your puzzle up when you aren’t working on it as well. If you have a spare table that isn’t used daily, you could have it there on display and readily available to continue on as well.
16. Play with Lego
Lego is one of those companies that provides toys you should never sell. Lego is timeless as even kids can enjoy the Legos that you grew up with.
I am sure you have seen some amazing pieces of art made with Lego. Of course, not everyone has talent enough to make huge projects with Lego. Fortunately, the pleasure isn’t limited to your ability to build great things. Regardless of what you build, simply be creative and let the kid in you come out.
Alternatively, if you still kept the instruction manuals for some of the models, you can always work to rebuild those old models from the ground up. Nevertheless, Lego continues to provide products to this day so you can always pick up more latest models to build.
17. Make Jewelry
Learning to make jewelry isn’t that difficult. You can find many links on the internet that will teach you how to make earrings and necklaces.
Visit your local craft store or department store and purchase some tools and supplies. Take your time and visualize what you want the finished product to look like. The jewelry you make can also be presents to give away or even sold if the quality is good. That is, of course, if you can bear to part with what you made.
18. Host an English Tea Party
Some of us can remember being a little girl and having tea parties, chatting with our imaginary friends and sipping tea (imaginary or not). Now that you are older, why not have a real tea party?
Have the family dress up in their best outfits and host an English Tea Party. There are guidelines, recipes, and even games to play that you can easily find on the internet. Do a bit of exploring and planning, then host the perfect tea party at home for your family.
19. Plant Bulbs
There are two times in a year that bulbs can be planted. In the fall, you can plant spring bulbs such as tulips and daffodils. The second time is in the early spring where you can plant alliums, agapanthus, cannas and some other summer bulbs. Set aside an appropriate time and plant bulbs in your yard. You will reap rewards when you see the sprouts starting to come up. Your yard will look lovely with the flowers blooming.
20. Read a Book
The art of reading aloud has lost its popularity. Pick out a book that would interest your family and have an evening each week that you read the story aloud. Just like in high school English class, take turns reading out loud and stopping after a handful of pages. Interact about what is going on in the storyline. This can be your own family book club.
You can even come up with voices for the characters you’re voicing.
Looking for books to read next? Here’re some self-help books to read, and here’re some great books for fiction lovers. There are a tonne of options.
Another option to consider when encouraging reading is to have your kids read books you’ve read before, have them create book reports and present them to the family. You can reward them by giving them a bit of money for every book report. This would encourage them to read more while also improving public speaking.
21. Have a Water Balloon Fight
This activity is best done outdoors in warm weather.
This is an “action” activity that brings out the youthfulness in all of us. Depending on the size of your family, you can have teams for this. Fill up as many balloons as you like with water. Go outside and aim for your target. Run, laugh and have fun!
22. Learn Yoga
Yoga is so beneficial for every age group. As a family unit, learn yoga. Once again, there are many learning tools for this. You can find videos at your local library. This is a refreshing way to enjoy healthy interaction as a family.
23. Invent a Writing Code
Invent your own code and write messages to each other. Take the alphabet and transform it into symbols and signs to represent each letter. It’s exciting to come up with your code. Once it is created, give everyone a copy of the code, and begin writing messages to one another. It will be interesting to translate words into the special code you made.
24. Have a Photo Shoot
Gather together some props and outfits and take family pictures.
Make sure each member has individual shots as well. Acting as a professional photographer, be creative in the photos you take.
Take funny pictures. Take serious pictures. Take candid shots.
The joy of digital photography is that you can take as many photos as you like and delete what doesn’t work. Make sure you add props to make it interesting!
25. Learn Calligraphy
Learning a new technique is always interesting.
Calligraphy is a well-known type of writing with special pens. Craft stores and department stores have kits designed to assist you in the learning process. Write out poetry or some of your favorite quotes. You never know, you might acquire a talent and be able to frame some of your work.
26. Have a BBQ
It’s always enjoyable to have a barbecue.
You can cook up your food and eat outside. After you are finished, have a campfire and tell scary stories. Remember how fun it is to sit around a campfire telling stories. Make this happen in your yard. Enjoy the night sky. Most of all, enjoy each other!
27. Invent Your Own Board Game
Discuss what type of game you want to make. Design the board together. Make the rules that will need to be followed. Make the game pieces that you will need. Play the game that you invented. Coming up with the game and the rules you want to make is an awesome time of interaction with one another. The results of your collaboration will be so exciting to view and play.
28. Have a Spa Night
Plan an evening where you can do an at-home spa night. Light candles, put on relaxing music, and make your atmosphere resemble a spa. You can do facials, manicures, and pedicures. You also can have bubble baths. Schedule it so that each person is doing a different thing and rotate the process. Your family will enjoy this time of pampering and relaxing.
29. Play Charades
This game has existed for such a long time and yet it never grows old. You can buy charade games already packaged. However, feel free to make up your own.
Each family member can contribute by writing down charades on index cards. Watching your family members act out the charade while the others are guessing is guaranteed to be a night full of fun and laughter.
30. Make a Family Scrapbook
Choose an assortment of family pictures taken during different events. Compile these photos into groups and begin to make a scrapbook. Perhaps you want to focus on a special trip your family took or another meaningful event you wish to document. The ideas for creating your family scrapbook are endless. Personalize this and make it your own; after all, this is your story!
Final Thought
I hope that out of this list you will find some new things that you want to try at home. We have already done most of the things on this list as a family, and we look forward to doing the few that are left. Have fun and make some unique family memories that will be remembered for years to come.
