If I have learned anything about “family time” the last few years, it’s that it doesn’t just happen. It is much too easy to get wrapped up in our daily lives and push family activities further and further into the future. “Some day,” “next week,” and “when I have time” become our mantras, and before we know it, weeks, seasons, and even years have passed us by.
No, family time requires intention, planning, and even sacrifice at times, and that’s why I am choosing to focus on making it a high priority for us this month.
If you caught my post last week about how I’m going to draw our family closer this month, you know that one of my goals is to do at least one fun family activity every week. I briefly listed a few ideas of activities we could do in the remaining few weeks of summer.
Today I want to go further and share with you a list of over 100 fun activities for your family to enjoy, broken down by the four seasons of the year. These activities will fill your children’s “love banks,” create hours of memories, and become building blocks for the close family bonds that we all desire.
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100+ Fun Family Activities For Every Season
Summer Family Activities
- Roast marshmallows (these telescoping s’mores skewers are perfect for that!)
- Go swimming at the pool, pond, or lake
- Ride bikes together (we love our Thule trailer for the little ones!)
- Play with water toys
- Play in the sprinkler
- Visit local town parades & fairs
- Shop at a farmers market
(Bonus: for older children, challenge them to a $5 farmer’s market challenge – give them each $5 to shop and prepare a dinner for the whole family with their purchases) - Make your own sidewalk paint
- Pick berries and other produce at a U-Pick farm
- Camp in the backyard (Here are some good tent options)
- Go on an A-Z scavenger hunt (find items that start with each letter of the alphabet)
- Cook over a fire (We love our Lodge deep camp dutch oven)
- Have a picnic
- Cook a homemade pizza on the grill
- Go for a walk and make a nature collage
- Try this squirt gun painting activity
- Make a giant slip and slide
- Paint with squeeze bottles
- Attend outdoor festivals and concerts in your area
- Play yard games
- Create a giant hopscotch or outdoor Twister board
- Go stargazing (bonus: download star maps and make a checklist of constellations to find)
- Make smoothies or homemade popsicles (This is the blender we have)
- Catch fireflies
- Participate in your local public library’s summer reading program
- Have a water balloon or squirt gun fight
- Get a badminton or volleyball set
- Make ice cream in a bag
- Make an outdoor obstacle course
Related Post: 10 Summer Essentials for Moms & Kids
Fall Family Activities
- Go to an apple orchard and/or pumpkin patch
- Pick your own apples
- Make applesauce (Here is THE easiest and simplest way!)
- Hike through a state park
- Get lost in a corn maze
- Make a pinecone owl
- Carve pumpkins
- Roast pumpkin seeds
- Make leaf crafts
- Go on a hayrack ride
- Jump in leaf piles
- Attend a football game
- Play frisbee or touch football
- Run a 5k together
- Go for a drive to look at the leaves
- Have a picnic
- Make caramel apples
- Make a pine cone bird feeder
- Bake a pie
- Go on a special back-to-school shopping trip
- Drink apple cider outside
- Make your favorite pumpkin treats (Here are some of mine!)
- Knit or crochet a simple project
- Have a bonfire party with other families (These skewers are perfect for bonfires!)
- Make a front door wreath
- Create a thankfulness craft or activity (here’s a really simple but fun gratitude game!)
Winter Family Activities
- Go sledding
- Make a snow fort
- Build a snowman
- Drink hot chocolate
- Have a movie night
- Make a gingerbread house
- Make paper snowflakes
- Go caroling (if you don’t live in a great neighborhood for this, consider going to a nursing home – the residents would love it!)
- Make homemade Christmas cards for family and friends (or soldiers stationed overseas)
- Donate toys and gifts to a local toy drive/Giving Tree/Operation Christmas Child/etc.
- Cook your favorite soup (Here are some of our favorites!)
- Make snow cream
- Go ice skating
- Cuddle and read a family story
- Bake Christmas cookies
- Drive around and look at lights
- Draw squirt bottle pictures in the snow – fill condiment bottles with water and a dash of food coloring
- Bake cinnamon rolls
- Read the Christmas story
- Do the Star From Afar or other advent activity
- “Camp” in the living room
- Do a puzzle
- Make a no-sew blanket
- Serve at a food kitchen or homeless shelter
- Make homemade ornaments
Spring Family Activities
- Plant a garden
- Fly kites
- Put on a play
- Go through toys and clothes and donate or hold a yard sale
- Plant a butterfly garden
- Build a birdhouse or birdfeeder
- Go geocaching
- Ride bikes (again, we love our Thule trailer!)
- Make mud pies
- Have a paper airplane contest
- Go to the park
- Pick strawberries at a U-Pick farm
- Try a science experiment
- Take pictures
- Make your own rainbow soap foam
- Run a 5k
- Play in the rain
- Go fishing
- Look for tadpoles
- Have a family game night
- Have a picnic
- Spend a day at the zoo
- Learn to skip rocks at the lake
- Make flower jewelry
- Have an Easter egg hunt (Here are some non-candy filler ideas!)
Family time requires time and sacrifice, but the rewards are well worth it! The time, money, energy, and opportunity costs that it requires pay off dividends in strong bonds and overflowing love banks.
Try to incorporate some of these year-round activities, and watch for the changes that it makes in your relationships and atmosphere of your home. I know I’m looking forward to it!
Tell me – what is your favorite activity from these lists? What activities would you add? Share with us in the comments below!
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Unstoppable ideas and great for any season! Cheers to family fun.
Thank you, Rhonda!
This is such a great bucket list of things to do with your family. It would be so fun to take pictures of all the ones you mark off and create a scrapbook of the year! What memories!
That is a great idea, Brittany! I love that! I am a terrible scrapbooker, but I make a mean Shutterfly photobook! 😉
I’ve got one of these on my site too if you ever want more ideas! Looks like you’ve got time of great ones though! I love how you split it up into seasons… Pinned
Thanks Allie!
Sooooo many ideas! Love the $5 farmers market challenge, I remember doing something similar as a kid. 🙂
I did it once as a college student, and we had a great time with it!
This is full of such wonderful ideas that are fun and affordable! I think the rainbow soap foam looks like something I would love to do with my son.
I thought it looked like a blast, too!