Even More Free Family Fun

Because money can be so tight at times, I have to get creative with my children and family time. Having three kids to support on one income leaves little time and even more importantly little money for entertainment. The age gap is also a challenge in our house. There is a three, eight and sixteen year old to try to get interested in the same activity.

One of our favorite family nights starts out with us all meeting in the kitchen to make snacks. The kids love digging through the cupboards and deciding what we can make and have. I let them for the most part choose whatever they want to make. Sometimes it's more fun when they choose something that requires alot of time, like a cake or pizzas from scratch. Sometimes we never get past this stage of family night! If they choose something like cut out cookies and we spend the evening rolling, cutting, baking and decorating cookies, that's a fun filled evening for us. It also leaves snacks in the house for a few days.

Any time of the year is perfect for making cards. We pull out or box of crayons, paper, glitter and so on. We all make cards for any holiday or occasion we like and keep our box of assorted cards on hand for the year.

After Halloween is a great time to play a few gambling games. We'll play dice or card games, betting with the candies that they would like to trade. I will pull out the change jar for my bets, so they win some money along with the goodies.

Youtube has provided hours of family fun. We will take turns searching funniest home videos and animal videos. I enjoy this one as much as the kids.

Looking through boxes of old family photos is a great time too. We have boxes and boxes of unsorted pictures. We all grab a pile and "look at this one" "remember this time" is all you hear all night.

The dictionary game is a family favorite too. We take turns opening the dictionary and choosing a word. The reader will give us the word and we have to guess what the definition is. Some of the kids' definitions ar too funny. I really enjoy hearing them using their imaginations.

Good old fashioned video game wars is a great way to spend time with your kids. It gives them your undivided attention and puts you right in the middle of their world. The three year old likes that she gets to finnally touch the controllers. We give her an extra one on her turn and don't actually plug it in. She thinks she's playing against one of us and everyone is included.

The story game is also great fun. Start out with the first line of a story. "Once upon a time there was a boy" pass the next line on to someone else to make up and so on. The story combinations are endless and the more far fetched and crazy the better. I always end up feeling like a kid again by the end of this game.

Hide and seek, red light green light, tag, all of these games are great stand bys. Some times we'll write them all down and put them in a bowl and just keep picking till we're too tired to play anymore. (or mommy is anyway)

Animal mix ups is alot of fun too. We write down the names of a bunch of animals and put them in a bowl. Someone chooses two and we all make drawings and names up of our mixed up animals by combining the two animals into one. Rhineleophant and chickaroo are examples of past creations. The drawings are esspecially fun in this game. Sometimes we go as far as describing the sounds they would make and the lifestyles these creatures would have. My 16 year old and I really get into this game.

I have boxes and boxes of board games. I almost never pass them up at garage sales. Twister has been one of our recent favorites.

Having a good time with your family does not have to cost much if anything at all. All your kids really want is you complete and undivided attention for a little while. All you want is to be with them and of course for them to be getting along (even if it is for only a little while).