As we are spending more time with our family at home, it would be understandable if your family starts to feel ‘bored’ or ‘sick of’ the same routine and space! Plus if you’re working and schooling at home… chances are the dinner table may be enjoying many new uses!
Without the luxury of escaping for family dinners at your favourite restaurant, it’s time to think of new ways to bring together “family weekend night’ or as we like to call it ‘Sunday Funday’.
Here are some of our ideas and things we’re doing at home to help our family feel connected and entertained!
Picnic in the lounge room
This probably takes the least amount of effort in our opinion - with a high fun rating! Here’s what we did:
- Grab a clean sheet to use as the ‘magic carpet’ where the family can sit in a circle together. Reserve this area as the picnic area where no food leaves the circumference!
- Give your children the task to set up the plates, cutlery and napkins themselves. The sense of achievement they will feel (even for a small and simple task) will go through the roof!
- Place the food in the middle as well as a hat. The hat will allow the person wearing it to speak without interruption! Take turns wearing the hat to answer funny questions like, “if you could be a superhero, what would your name be? Why?” or “what do you think is a funny pet to have?”
Build a fort for dinner
There are so many ways to build a fort and it really depends on what you already have at home! Don’t let this challenge add any stress, here are some some easy ideas that could work for you:
Once the fort is created, again give the task of the picnic set up to the children and ask them to bring 1 item that acts as a microphone to allow one person to speak at a time.
Moroccan themed indoor picnic party
If you already own a persian rug, perfect! Grab all the cushions you have and create a beautiful Moroccan themed indoor picnic. Why not complete the whole experience by dressing up as your favourite disney character? Maybe even go for a full Aladdin theme for the indoor picnic party.
If you have a secure outdoor area such as your backyard, this would be perfect!
The perfect food for this theme would have to be a tagine!
These ideas are really fun for the kids but we also think it's important for us as parents to continue to feel engaged and excited for dinner time.
There are countless research papers that show the importance of regular family dinners especially if there are engaging conversations taking place. We understand that the daily ‘how was your day’ and ‘what was the favourite part of your day today’ can become boring and predictable. So changing it up physically can feel like such a fun adventure and experience for your children!
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