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Why Spend Time with Family?

Build Fond Memories

All of us have one chance at living our lives. Relationships will develop and break, friends will come and go, colleagues will meet and leave. Family, however, stays forever. Memories made with family are, thus, some of the most valuable things that people are left with after their beloved ones die. Spending family time will assist you in building the splendid memories that you will treasure till the very end of your life.

Our personalities are massively developed as kids. We learn a lot in our childhood. The sense of belongingness that our parents and family develop in us as a child stays with us for the rest of our lives. This sense of belonging equates to a happier child which later on equates to a happier adult. Therefore, making happy memories with your loved ones is crucial for it shapes them in ways we couldn’t have possibly imagined. Another significant advantage of spending time with family is that we learn to care about people that lead to kindness in coming future.

Strengthens Family Bond

The most significant advantage of spending time with loved ones and indulging with them in leisure activities is that it improves the connection. This applies to all kinds of activities. Not always fancy and expensive exercises are needed for this purpose. Low-cost, home based activities like playing with a football, gardening, or playing a board game creates a major influence in shaping the family relationships.

These activities bring family members closer and create an emotional connection between them as well. These usual daily exercises are called a family's 'core' exercises, whereas those activities that need more money, time, and preparation like special functions, holidays are known as 'balance' activities. Both activities are directly linked to a family's capacity to better adjust to the alteration in life. The family time also helps significantly in improving bonds between family members, no matter what the reason for the gap between them.

Conflict Resolution

Conflicts take place in all relationships. Each and every family experiences some kind of disputes among them. It’s funny how sometimes it seems like siblings are just born to fight with each other. Sometimes parents intentionally do not resolve the issues between their offsprings. Because it is for their benefit, as this way, they'd be able to open up to their emotions and feelings, and would be able to express them in better. At times, whenever they need help constructively progressing through the argument, good parents always try to be there for them to negotiate and assist them in determining how to solve problems on their own.

A family has always got your back, and it is complicated just to overlook them or neglect them, so you have to learn always to stay together, to let each others' little mistakes slide, and to say sorry when you need to and move on. Dispute resolution is an essential part of everyone’s life, and one of the main advantages you get by spending time with family is that all members assist you in different ways in solving issues and tell you how to face the challenges of life.

10 Best Things to do With Family at Home

Watch Movies Together

Spending time with your little kids on the sofa, having snacks, and cuddling with each other is one of the best ways to enjoy some private family time. But here comes the most challenging part, picking a film that everyone likes and is interested in watching. Try to go for votes or watch the reviews or simply opt for an old movie that brings back some nostalgic memories. Turn off the lights, get the popcorn ready, and have fun. Some of the best movie recommendations are given at the end of this article.

Here’s another idea. You could also transform old family clips to digital and organize a movie night to see years' worth of family celebrations, holidays, anniversaries, and events. Everybody in the family will appreciate remembering old recollections and smiling at old outfits and hairdos.

Organize a Fun Scavenger Hunt

Play hide and seek with family. Try to come up with new games. You may even try and hide a thing of your choice and make cards with hints of where is it located and then distribute these cards among the family members and friends and give a small reward to the one who finds it first.

One hint should give an idea of where the next one is with the final clue hinting towards the location of the hidden item. For these clue cards, you may pick up lines from movies or songs or rhymes to notch things up a bit. Everybody likes searching for hidden objects. Also, we assure you that no one hates winning a prize at the end of the hunt! You can also put a time limit on the scavenger hunt to increase the level of excitement.

Play Games Together

Dive into a game of scrabble, monopoly, chess, puzzles, or any other games that are mostly liked by all the family members. Try to find such a game that is appropriate for people of all ages so that everybody can play. Spending time with each other while playing games helps strengthen the bond between family members and also creates a friendly environment. These games also entail a lot of health benefits for they boost your energy, increase your processing skills, improve your conflict resolution skills, and enhance your memory. Even though things may get rowdy in the beginning, we assure you that everyone will laugh at these memories in the long run.

Playing board games kill time in a more fun way. There are so many options to choose from. Some of our favorite games are Axis and Allies to Ride, Catan, Qwirkle, and Risk.

Cook Together

Do you ever watch the cooking shows when you are free? They are quite popular nowadays as many people like to try new recipes and enjoy them with their families. In fact, they are so renowned that there are complete channels that only telecast cooking shows. You can also try a new and delicious dish with your family and pretend as if you are the host of a cooking show and record it to laugh about it in the years to come. Do make your all family participate by making them do one chore or the other.

Pick up a recipe with the vote of all family members and start cooking. Try to select a dish that requires ingredients that are accessible in the market and are budget-friendly as well. Some of the apps that deliver free recipes are BBC Good Food, Tasty, and BigOven.

Read Books Together

Book reading has lost its popularity over the years. However, it still has more benefits than one can imagine. For instance, it has proven to make a person smarter and to reduce his stress levels while killing time. It also serves to make a person more innovative and imaginative, improving his vocabulary and reading skills and allows him to view the life from different perspectives. For these reasons, you should plan a book reading night during which you would select a book, parts of which are to be read out aloud by each member.

In the end, you may have a discussion of what the story was or what your family members learned from it. You can even have some refreshments like a cup of tea or snacks to make your night more interesting. If you want to improve your listening skills, opt for listening to audiobooks.

Home Clean Up Sessions

Many of us plan on sorting their cabinets, organizing their essentials, and enumerating their valuables throughout the year but never get the time to do so. Use this opportunity to indulge your whole family in this fun activity while getting the advantage of a clean home at the same time. You can start by assigning duties to everyone; to begin with, assign one area of the house to one person and the other to another one. You could tune in music to get things going. For that, opt for a CD player or simply switch on Spotify. The tidy environment is good for health as well. Some other chores that you can a lot to your family members include vacuum, laundry, and the cleaning of dishes.

You can make things interesting for your family members by turning this into a race. Whoever cleans their assigned area in the shortest period of time wins! It’s that simple.

Have Fun Family Meetings

Another great activity to be carried out with your family members is to have family meetings in which the family discusses important matters, plans or simply memories that bring about a laugh. You might find some resistance in this from the grumpy members of the family. Nevertheless, you could try to make these gatherings delightful by giving out incentives such as gifts.

We do not suggest that you only have serious conversations with your family members that allow you to know each other even better; in fact, you must have light discussions with your family members. Remember that the whole purpose of these meetings is to strengthen the bond between family members. Usually, family meetings are a good way to talk of varied topics including talking about concerns that may get swept under the carpet under daily routine. Try to add some fun element to these meetings by adding a singing competition at the end of it or simply sharing jokes. The entertainer of the day will simply be awarded a cash prize.

Go Through Old Albums Together

This is a fun activity that is incredibly simple. You can execute it by collecting all your older family albums of the time of your wedding, childhood, anniversaries, special events, or any other photos that you have. Then, gather your family in the lounge. Try to keep a cozy environment by adding refreshments to this session. Then, go through these albums; you will have grits and laughs about the different pictures that will ultimately bring you and your family members closer. This is a great way to spend your time at home with your family.

Old albums bring back the flashbacks of the exciting, adventurous, as well as other memorable moments of your life while helping you bond further. They remind you of all the good and bad times that have all led to this moment of happiness. This strengthens the belief that regardless of what life throws at you, you will always stay together.

Working Out Together

Are you worried about you and your family members losing fitness and health? Well, if you cannot leave your house, it does not mean that you can't take good care of your health. All you need is a few yoga mats; if you do not have and want to go through the struggle of going out and buying them, you can always use regular floor mats of your choice and get the sweat running. This is an excellent way of getting your endorphins going. Try to warm up first and then do some sets of exercise with your family.

Through this activity, you can regain your health and have a good time with your family at the same time. However, do not push your family members too hard for they might get annoyed by this activity; try to make this light and enjoyable for them.

Role Plays to Bring Out Your Inner Child

The last activity is definitely not the least. You can try and have role-played with your family; these role plays can be from your favourite book, movie, or TV series in which each one of your family members will be given a role to play. These plays can be of different types: you can have mimicries, ask your kids to act as the parent and vice versa, or whatever else you like. You may even plan a whole evening in which you prepare snacks together, set up the ambiance, and let the action begin.

To indulge your family members more in the role play, you may announce a small gift for the one who portrays his or her character the best. This way, you will be able to have lovely family time as well as discover the hidden talents of your family members.

Three Recommendations - Good Family Movies

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001)

Source harrypotter.fandom.com

Who isn’t a Potterhead here? We’ve all obsessed over JK Rowling’s excellent Harry Potter Series at one point of our lives or another. In this part of the series, Harry Potter takes his viewers into a magical realm that is full of fantasies, excitement, and thrilling stories. You just cannot get over this one. In the movie, we learn that Harry Potter is an orphan who lives with his aunt and uncle but is treated horribly. Once he discovers that he is a wizard and has to attend Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry, his life changes completely. We won’t give any more spoilers. Watch the movie to entertain your kids endlessly.

Star Wars (1977)

Source www.cnet.com

This movie isn’t just for kids. You just need to have a desire for extraordinary adventures to watch this movie. You will enjoy this old fashioned tale of Lucas’ adventure to outer space without a doubt. In this movie, Lucas admits that he was making an effort to recapture the thrill that he had as a child who watched Saturday afternoon matinees; however, the actual target audience for this extraordinary cultural totem is 7-10-year-olds who witness the transition of the hero from boyhood to manhood for the very first time. No more spoilers, grab some popcorn and gather your family for this thrilling movie!

Frozen (2013)

Source www.pinterest.com

There’s no way you haven’t heard about this extraordinary tale of two sisters who turned the entire world of Disney princesses upside down. Let’s grasp the gist of the story. Anna and Elsa live in Arendelle and we soon find out that Elsa has a unique gift; she can turn anything into ice. Soon the native land of the princesses gets stuck in an endless winter. Elsa leaves her hometown out of guilt to which Anna responds by setting on a voyage with her friends to find her sister. Will she be able to find her sister? Will Elsa be able to accept her magic powers? Watch this amazing Disneyland story that, for once, focuses on two sisters instead of lovers. We assure you that you’ll love it!

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Quality Time with Family

Though this is a tough time for everyone, you can take this as a chance to build deeper, meaningful relationships with the members of your family. Play games, exchange stories, plan activities that include everyone in the house and watch movies together. Make sure everyone is enjoying and having a good time. Happy family time!