1.Watch a show as a family
Personally, I find watching a show as a family to be more fun than having movie nights because you can follow along with the story and make predictions about what’s going to happen. In my house, we watch a lot of “Jeopardy.” Even though there isn’t a storyline to keep up with, it’s still super fun to make a leaderboard and keep track of points. Another really fun show to watch as a family is “Night on Earth.” Again, there isn’t a suspenseful storyline, but it’s really cool and beautifully filmed, and perfect for families with kids of all ages. Some shows that are more fast paced and conventionally entertaining are “F.R.I.E.N.D.S” and “House M.D.” Both are classics, and the former follows a group of six friends in their 20s living in New York City, whereas the latter is about a gruff genius doctor who takes on seemingly impossible cases. Neither of these shows are very family-friendly, but are perfect for families with older kids.
2. Game night
Game night is always an intense time in my household. Our go-to games are Scattergories, Bananagrams, and Clue. We also love telestrations, but find that it’s more fun with bigger groups of people, and my family of four doesn’t suffice. Scattergories is a game in which you have to think of a list of words that all start with the same letter and fall under certain categories. The twist is that you only get points for a word if no one else writes it. Bananagrams is essentially Scrabble, but there is no board and no points; rather, it’s simply a race to see who can use their 21 tiles fastest. Clue is a classic murder mystery game in which the first person to find out whodunnit wins. If you want to take these games a step further, you can turn it into a “quarantine tournament” where for each game you win, you get a point, and the person who has the most points at the end of quarantine, or summer, wins a grand prize.
3. Driveway chalk art contest
This one is one of my personal favorites. I’m sure it sounds kind of childish, but honestly these are so fun. There are so many ways to have chalk art contests, so I will just explain two. The first way to do this is to set a 10 minute timer and see what you come up with. To decide who wins, you can text pictures to a third party judge (a grandparent maybe), or ask neighbors who are walking by what they think. Another way to do this is to have specific categories, such as “things you find on the beach” or “things you find in the fridge.” The judging process can be the same as in the first way. These are not only fun and super funny, but they also provide something fun and bright for your neighbors to look at.
4. Zoom with your extended family
My family and I did one of these for my cousin who celebrated his 11th birthday in quarantine. These can be super fun, and if you have a lot of family abroad, like me, being at home provides more time to connect virtually with your family. Since everyone is working from home and doing school from home, it’s much easier to coordinate time zones. During that Zoom, we sang happy birthday, and shared what we were doing that day, which is always an easy way to get people talking. My family also has a working spreadsheet, in which everyone can specify the times that work for them. Each person has their own column and you can see what times work for you and what time that is in other people’s time zones, to make sure that it’s reasonable for everyone.
5. Family exercise
This can take shape in many different ways, whether it’s going on family runs, or doing Chloe Ting workouts together. I’m going to share two ways to workout with your family that I think are fun and interesting. One idea is a family walk…with a twist. One of my favorite games to play is caterpillar. I learned this at summer camp, so it’s probably more fun with younger kids, but I think older kids and parents can have fun with this. Basically, you walk in a single file line, and while you’re walking everyone is counting down from three and guessing a number between one and four (or however many people you have in your family). When everyone says the same number, the person at the back of the line moves to the front. It sounds boring, but for some reason it gets pretty intense and everyone wants to be at the front. Another idea is to follow yoga videos. This can be really funny, and quite entertaining if your family isn’t very well-versed in yoga.
