Are you looking to get out of the house and get active with your family? You can find creative ways to get active with your family and you don’t have to break the bank. From tree trimming to carpet cleaning, you can involve your kids and make it a fun experience and one that they won’t forget.
Go on a Nature Walk
Children really love to play and there is no doubt that a forest is an ideal environment to do so. It provides creative ways to get active with your family. For this reason, we recommend playing games in nature. A great possibility is that adults organize a fun game and then the children, with their self-confidence and imagination, develop the playful action. For example, you can play as a family and try to find a treasure hidden in a forest by giving some clues (a chest with jewelry can be perfect) or pose another challenge to the children. Let them find a collection of natural objects from the environment (flowers, leaves, seeds, caterpillars, snails, etc.). Another option is to go to one of the large urban parks that many cities have and enjoy a long and rewarding walk, or sign up for an organized activity. Many of these parks organize guided tours, organized children’s games, or observation of harmless animals roaming about. Do not forget to bring paper and crayons on your outings so that, if they feel like it, the children can draw the plants and animals they see. Many natural elements such as leaves, earth, branches, and stones can be used to make beautiful works of art, paintings, and sculptures.
Visit natural or protected parks near your home and explain what animals and plants live there. If the place you visit has an environmental center, find out if there is a guide tour service. Both the elderly and the little ones will learn that near your home there are natural paradises that must be cared for and preserved. When you are going on local park excursions with the children, organize a picnic or snack.
Invest in a Horseback Riding Lesson
A variant of the routes through nature on foot is to do them on horseback and is one of the creative ways to get active with your family. An excursion of this type has everything to truly enjoy as a family: the contact with nature, being able to interact with an animal as beautiful and noble as the horse, and the touch of adventure and freedom that trotting on the back of such an animal gives. In addition, there are also many farms for children so that they can interact with the animals, which is a great experience.
Look for Tadpoles
If you travel near a river, stream, lagoon, or pond, especially in the rainy season, it is likely that you will find tadpoles. The kids love to observe the magic of the transformations of these animals. All you need is a net and a container full of pond or rainwater. In addition to small freshwater algae, tadpoles feed on cooked lettuce, fish food, worms, and minced meat. Once their cycle is complete, set the young frogs free in the same pond where you collected them.
Complete a Family Gardening Project
A gardening project can provide enriching experiences for both children and adults. It is one of the creative ways to get active with your family. Therefore, the entire family can become involved in this. The end results will show it was worth it. Keep in mind that gardening has math-related activities such as measuring, sorting, counting, and forecasting. This will be important when you involve your child in helping to put up the metal garden gates. Remember that preschoolers can discuss science-related early learning parameters as they learn about gardening tools, life cycles, uses of plants, the effects of climate on plants, and the cycle of plants. Plan to give children opportunities to record and share information about the garden by drawing, writing, and discussing what they learn. Be attentive and notice the ways in which children express curiosity and initiative as they learn to solve problems cooperatively. Bring tools and other supplies that will be needed, especially, if you will be initialing tree trimming as part of your home garden project. Help the children learn more about the plants. Which ones smell nice? Which ones can you eat? Which ones attract little birds or butterflies?
Apply a Fresh Coat of Paint
Another of the creative ways to get active with your family is to give your walls a special finish with the Venetian stucco technique. The beautiful texture makes it one of the most used by decorators when it comes to giving a different touch. Include the entire family in this neat project. With stucco painting, it is best to prepare the surface. When the surface is ready, encourage your kids to mix the stucco and the color, which would normally be earth or reddish tones. Remember that the quantities in the mixture vary depending on the measurements of the space to be painted. Once the stucco has been applied, assign the little ones to get involved, scrubbing constantly for a higher shine with the use of a 10-inch iron.
Hold a Cleaning Contest
If you hold a cleaning contest, you might get your entire family to participate. Of course, your children will not want to cooperate just because you ask them to. Instead, use a point system to get them more interested. First, make a table with the names of your children, the tasks that correspond to them, and how many times they have to do that task in the week. Every time they complete one of their tasks such as carpet cleaning or more intense home cleaning service, you put a star next to their name in the box corresponding to the task. At the end of the week, you would count all the stars, and the winner gets a special prize. Normally, prizes can be things that you can enjoy as a family. The winner chooses a special dessert that you will make together for that week. They could choose a movie that you would see as a family or a restaurant where you would all go to dinner.
Plan a Fishing Trip
Want more creative ways to get active with your family? Most children love to fish, and they become intensely interested from the age of four or five. Fishing is an ecological and relaxing activity, as well as representing a real challenge. Outdoors, in the middle of nature, rain or shine, allows us to see and feel the beauty of the environment. Children learn quickly and do not usually need much explanation. If you live near the sea and you want to catch fish or fresh seafood, you can include the family. You can also think about exploring the rocks. It can be an exciting adventure. Some educators have observed that fishing develops patience, tenacity, and the ability to set goals.
Work Together on Home Repairs
It is common that we have some pending repairs in our homes. Work and daily routine could mean that you do not have enough time to fix some of the problems that may arise in the home. These days, the situation is leading parents to be frustrated that they cannot get around to the home repairs. Has the cistern stopped working? Does the faucet in the dishwasher have a leak? Does the garage door screen need fixing? Are the curtains or blinds at the windows falling down? These are DIY problems that you can fix yourself with the right tools. The perfect opportunity presents itself for you to get down working and facing those repairs that you have postponed. You can make it a family activity, not only to keep the kids busy, but to finally get things done. In so doing, the kids will learn the names and use of each tool and the steps to take in completing each home repair.
Perform Car Maintenance Together
One of the creative ways to get active with your family is to have them involved in your car maintenance. Have your kids learn how to check and adjust the fluid levels. This includes knowing which product is the brake fluid, coolant, and engine oil. You could also show your kids how you clean the engine parts and lubricate them. Open the bonnet of the vehicle and show your kids how you would check the battery terminal. Show them how the electrical system works in the vehicle. Make it more interesting by taking them along with you to the auto salvage yard where you buy used parts for installing in the vehicle. Explain the process and have them do little tasks so they can better understand the intricacies of car maintenance and identifying specific parts.
Play Creative Games
At home, you can play very easy to prepare games with your family. For this, you will need a few materials to consider creative ways to get active with your family. You will need an object to throw and another to shoot down. Let’s get into some ideas for these games that will be super entertaining.
- Throw the ball (if you don’t have one, you can make one out of aluminum foil, for example) to a certain object.
- Hitting the ball with an object (racket, paddle, bat, or some homemade object that you can use for that task) and knock down a certain object.
- Throw or hit the ball with or without an object (for example, in a bin, in the closet, or in a river if you have one).
There are several very popular games that are very easy to develop at home since you need few materials (and little space is needed. Many of these games can incorporate household material. It might not necessary to buy or have it. Here are some ideas:
- Twister
- Tic-tac-toe
- Sack races
- Rope pulls
Not all fun has to be through very dynamic games. Quiet games can still be listed as creative ways to get active with your family. You can introduce games that also require more ingenuity, creativity, and cooperation, such as the conductor game. In this game, a group is formed and one of its members will have to leave the room. The rest of the group will have to choose a leader who is the one to make “music” like an orchestra director with their hands or feet and the rest of the group members will have to imitate them. The colleague who left would come back in once notified and will have to guess who is the Orchestra Director directing the music. There will be three attempts to guess.
You can find other creative ways to get active with your family. It is best that you all sit down and listen to the suggestions of one another. Once there is an activity that excites someone, make a list of it and put them up on the refrigerator or wall so that you can plan to execute each one as a group and enjoy the activity that is a favorite for each family member. This is a great way to validate and respect each other’s opinions.
