Year-Round Family Relationship Building Activities
Have you been trying to find new ways to bond with your family? Why not commit to trying out a few different family relationship building activities this year? Think of it as a challenge to work at over the next year rather than a one time thing. Choosing multiple family relationship building activities to work on ensures that you guys are working together and growing closer to each other all year long! If the idea still seems a little abstract to you, don’t worry–I’m going to share tons of ideas!
Godly Family Relationship Building Activities
First and foremost, we grow closer to each other through closeness with Christ. Our family relationships are definitely affected when we stray away from God both as individuals and as a family unit. What could be better than choosing one of these family relationship building activities that will nourish the spiritual needs of the entire family?! Strengthening your relationships with God will allow your relationships to be blessed and strengthened as well. Here are some ideas:
Devotionals
Choose a weekly family devotional to complete together. There are plenty of pre-printed materials, or you could come up with something completely on your own. It usually consists of a short reading, a scripture passage, prayer, and discussion. You will learn together and get to know each other on a deeper level!
Bible Plan
Commit to reading a Bible plan together, and discuss as you finish to hold each other accountable. The best way I could see this working in my family is by doing topical readings, that way we could include our toddler by reading a story from one of his children’s Bibles. I’d say start with a story already available to the youngest member of the family, and then you and your partner can read the actual scripture verses that covers that specific story (Noah’s Ark & Daniel and the Lions Den are two of my son’s favorites).
Children’s Bible Study
Another awesome way to grow closer to God is to commit to creating a study with your partner to teach your children. Include relevant real life stories, arts & crafts, toys, or whatever else you are led to add! This will edify the adults because you will have to read and understand the scripture well enough to break it down for children, and the little ones will have fun learning about something so important. You’ll also be setting an amazing example for your children by prioritizing and teaching God’s word.
Health Related Family Relationship Building Activities
Are you an active family? Getting healthy, eating and cooking together, holding each other accountable–these all have great benefits! There are so many different options to choose from if your family is mostly health-focused:
Meal Planning
This is something that we have taken on! I hope to bring everyone in our family into healthier eating and better nutrition this year. This one is tricky for including my toddler, but he is actually the main drive for it, as well as a huge contributor to meal ideas! He especially loves tacos. I see him being a big help in picking recipes and helping me with my binder!
Prep & Cooking
If you don’t like people all up in your kitchen space, this may not be the family challenge you’d pick! I, however, love cooking with others and think this is a great way to get all hands on deck and cut down meal prep time to make the week go even more smoothly. Sure, it can get really frustrating or more time consuming with a little one around, so if it comes down to it “all hands on deck” can mean one of the parents takes the little one and keeps them busy.
Get Active
Commit to getting outside together for a certain amount of time each week, join a family gym (one that offers childcare or family fitness classes), go for walks or hikes, make a point to play more active games together at home. Mom and dad will get some extra exercise, and the little ones will get tired out for bedtime! This is a great way to instill a lifelong love of fitness and healthy habits for your children (and even yourselves!)–it can be fun rather than a chore.
Togetherness Family Relationship Building Activities
Spend more time together! I think the obviousness of this one kind of speaks for itself. Life can really get in the way sometimes and the family time that we do have can become very monotonous and unintentional. A great way to be more intentional about family time is to plan it out in advance or set a regular routine so that everyone knows what to expect. That will help make sure that everyone is available, present, and focused on each other rather than something else. For a bonus challenge, don’t touch your phones! Some fun ideas to work into your routine:
Family Night
There are tons of fun things you can do for family night! You can commit to weekly, monthly, or whatever else you choose so that it works for your family’s schedule. Considering having a game night, creating a DIY spa, a living room picnic for dinner, a dessert bar and a movie… You can stick to the same thing or switch it up as you please. I think that this would be an awesome family challenge if you are interested in spending more meaningful time together and creating new memories and traditions.
Meals Together
Commit to eating one meal together every single day. This could be breakfast before anyone leaves in the morning, lunch if it is possible to get everyone together, or dinner once everyone is finally home and settled. This not only gives you guys a chance to sit down together and grow closer through conversation, but family mealtimes are a great environment for little ones to learn and develop many different developmental skills!
Family Outings
This doesn’t have to be extravagant. Pick one night a week or month to go out and do something together as a family. This could be as simple as the rare occasion your little one has both parents with him/her at the park! You can go as big or small as you want. Planning and committing to an outing together helps everyone keep family prioritized and provides something that you can all look forward to doing together!
Helping Others Family Relationship Building Activities
This is the perfect way to get your family thinking about others. Everyone feels better after helping others, and those feel-good hormones being released are actually the same ones that help strengthen relationships! Not to mention that we are called to love on others and will be so fulfilled spiritually. Some ways you can get in on those benefits, while benefiting others:
Random Acts of Kindness
This can come in many different forms. You can set up particular things to do ahead of time and complete them as a family, or come up with a list together and complete it on your own throughout the week (obviously, the younger ones will need some assistance!). You could choose small things to do often, or larger gestures to completely weekly or monthly. There are tons of ideas on Pinterest within a variety of categories: free, cheap, costly, quick, extravagant, child-friendly… And there are so many different kinds of people who need encouragement or kindness: the homeless, elderly, shut-ins, depressed, hospitalized, imprisoned, soldiers overseas, service workers… This is an up close look at how your family can impact the lives of strangers while also changing your own lives for the better!
Deliberate Acts of Kindness
This is just like the last point, except you will focus on people you know rather than strangers. Write a letter to someone who has impacted your life positively, make something (like a craft) for a family member for no reason, pray for and call a friend who is going through something… Deliberate acts of kindness provide a great channel for your children to practice empathy and nurturing relationships. You will all learn to be better friends, neighbors, family members, and people!
Service Project
Choose one large service project to complete for your family challenge this year. There are many companies out there willing to work with you (like Alex’s Lemonade Stand), or you can create your own cause! Organize and provide a meal train for a friend in need (new mom, someone suffering a loss…), host a fundraiser, collect and distribute items for the homeless, the opportunities are endless! Make sure that you come up with ways to include each member of the family so that everyone has their own special job! Check out these 20 ways to connect with your neighbors for some more inspiration!
Choose Your Challenge!
Remember, it doesn’t have to be something specific I’ve listed here. These are just ideas to get you started! You know what the best fit would be for your family. I’d love to hear all about your experience if you have already done something like this! What did you do and how did it go? If you have any ideas, suggestions, feedback, or questions, drop a comment below!
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These are SO amazing!!!! Thank you, I am always looking for ideas for our family, I can’t wait to try more than 1 of these! 🙂
Thank you, good luck! I would love to hear how it goes!!
I love this idea to bring the family together to achieve a family goal. Definitely something to try this year!
Thank you!!
Such a great idea! I love the Godly Family challenge idea. I think we will try this one.
I would love to know how it goes!