There's Nothing Good on TV - What Else a Family Can Do?

I am not the type of person to say that you should set limits to how much time of TV your kids should watch. Reason being is because if you set too many boundaries or limits on someone, they tend to push away and want to rebel. Instead, a healthy lifestyle where things are done in moderation not just to set limits, but to have other fun things to do is a good way to go about it.

So what are some other things your family can do together, or even just the kids together?

Decorate the Refrigerator or Cupboards

My little sister and I did this all the time. My mom would get out a pile of construction paper, scissors, tape, and glue and we would make decorations based on the season of the year. We made Halloween, Christmas, Valentine, and other types of decorations for the kitchen. You may not be up for wanting kids' art all over your expensive cabinetry, but you can also have it just set for setting it up on your freezer.

Buy Them Books with Construction or Craft Ideas

My mom always bought us tons of books that had ideas of woodworking projects, crafts, sewing, art, and other sorts of creative ideas. We would look at these books and find all sorts of junk around the house and build things out of it. There are even a lot of "How to Draw" books out there that teach you how to make characters from Winnie the Pooh all the way to your favorite anime character (for the older kids).

Enroll them in a Club

Every summer was 4-H. Since I was an independent clubber, we did not attend meetings, but we did have to fill out forms where we wrote about projects we wanted to make for the fair. Then we would work hard all summer making projects for the fair that gave us a couple of dollars per project depending on what ribbon we got. My sister always made more money than me, but it was a great learning experience.

We would have to go talk to judges and they would ask us questions about why we did what we did with our project. It is a great way to teach kids about what a job interview is like, because talking to a 4-H judge reminded me of it.

There are other nice clubs out there like Boy Scouts or Girl Scouts, but I never got into either of these. They all can be a great way of teaching your kids skills for growing up.

Board Games

There are still great board games out there for everyone to play. I have known some families to have what is called, "Family Night" where each week for one night they did something together. And for that one week, one person got to pick the board game they played together. You could buy half a dozen games for the family to play. Believe it or not, I played the game Life with my 4 year old nephew. I had to handle the money, and explain to him a lot of things, but he loved the concept of getting paid, and picking a job and a house. Other classic games that are fun are Uno, Scrabble, and Trivia Pursuit. Trivia Pursuit has a lot of editions, and some editions will have specific type of questions.

Go Outdoors

This won't always be an option, but there are lots of things you can do outside. You can plant some vegetables, play baseball, Frisbee, run in the sprinklers, wash a car, read a book, or go biking.

Plan a Family Trip

You may think this is just for a one time weekend thing, but you can extend this to be a longer and more rewarding experience. If you plan on making a trip far away, suggest to your kids to make a list of things they want to do. Or even for your older kids, give them the challenge to research new cities and what there is to do. They could look in the encyclopedia or with you online.

Cook Together - Eat Together

You can do this as much as every day, or at least once a week. Kids who participate in the kitchen will have a better chance of eating the healthy food if they were part of the preparation.

Some day when they get old enough to be left home alone during the summer while you're at work, it is good to teach them how to make simple meals. Maybe it's just grilled cheese sandwiches and spaghetti. But cooking can not only take time out of your day away from the TV, but also a great learning experience.

If you go further and bake cookies or cakes together, you can even teach them a little about math and fractions since cooking will deal with all sorts of measuring methods.

Eating together at the supper table is also a good way to keep away from the TV for a little while. It also will help you get to know your kids better, instead of them just being another mouth to feed.

Photography

If you have a digital camera you trust them with, this can be a lot of fun. Have them go around taking pictures and learning about lighting, centering, and interesting angles. If you don't trust them with your expensive digital camera, there are disposable ones and also ones made for kids.

There are many other fun things to do besides watch TV. If you take television in moderation, it won't always seem like there's nothing on, because you don't watch it as much. When I go a long time without watching TV, and then watch it again, I feel like there's so much to catch up on. But eventually watching it every day you see repeats of the same thing.

If you show your children other fun activities besides TV, it will be less of a struggle to get them off then to shut it off and force them to find something to do. These are just only a few ideas to get the creative juices flowing. But after doing all these fun activities, eventually it's nice to just sit down together as a family, and watch a movie.