Suggested Family Activities
Fun and Creative Ideas for Your Family to Do at Home. New posts weekly.
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Suggested Family Activities
Fun and Creative Ideas for Your Family to Do at Home
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Suggested Family Activity 💐 May Day
May Day is an ancient custom that celebrates the arrival of spring. Traditionally, children and teens have danced around a May pole, weaving ribbons together. Community members also leave flowers and gifts in cone shaped baskets to surprise their neighbors. Today, try making a traditional May Day basket or just a small flower arrangement for someone. More modern ideas for celebrating today include planting flowers in your yard or garden, making a flower crown to wear or give away, and having a dance party with your friends and family. -
Suggested Family 🤥 Activity Two Truths and a Lie
To play Two Truths and a Lie, take turns saying two true things and one that isn’t true. The rest of your group votes which one is the lie. Everyone who guesses correctly gets a point but if no one guess correctly, the person who made up the lie gets a point. Play as many rounds as you want and whoever has the most points wins. -
Suggested Family Activity 🧲 Fridge Magnets
It is very easy to make your own refrigerator magnets. Reuse magnetized things you receive in the mail or as promotional items, such as expired calendars or lists of phone numbers. Or you can purchase sheets of thin magnet paper from dollar stores that you can cut apart. Raid your craft supplies for small embellishments that you can glue to the magnet or cut apart old greeting cards or magazines to find pretty illustrations. You can even draw your own designs on stiff paper, such as card stock, and glue a magnet onto the back. -
Suggested Family Activity 🌎 Earth Day is April 22
Celebrate Earth Day on Monday, April 22 by thinking of small things that you and your family can do every day to help the Earth. Some ideas include: Recycle everything you can, either by turning recyclable trash into a recycling center, repurposing an item into something else to continue using it, or passing it along to someone else if you do not need it anymore. Shop at secondhand stores, thrift stores, yard sales, and similar places instead of buying new items. When buying new items, look for things that have very little packaging that needs to be thrown away. Turn lights off when you leave a room. Plant trees to produce more oxygen or plants that will attract bees and butterflies. Don’t let the water run when you are brushing your teeth. Combine your errands into one trip so that you get several things done at one time instead of making individual trips out daily, which uses more gas. -
Suggested Family Activity • HomeMade Gak
To make your own homemade gak, all you need is water, cornstarch, and food coloring (if you want to color it). Combine the water and cornstarch in a bowl and mix it together until smooth. Stir in drops of food coloring a few at a time until you reach the color you want. And that’s it! Just store it in an air-tight container if you want to keep it. -
Suggested Family Activity 🏙 City Scene Craft
For play time today, grab a roll of paper and cover a table or put some down on the floor. Then turn your kids loose to draw a long network of roads for their cars, trucks, and other small toys. They can make a whole city scene, complete with buildings, trees, water features, and roadways by incorporating any play items they have. If cars and trucks are not their ‘thing’, they can draw a jungle landscape for their animal or dinosaur figures to romp in, an ocean scene for underwear creatures, the levels of a doll house for their dolls to play in, or a superhero hideout for their action figures. -
Suggested Family Activity ✏ Encourage A Young Writer
Encourage your youngest family members to be a writer today. Maybe we’ll see their names in our library’s collection one day! All you need is paper and a pencil to get them started. Young children can even use crayons or markers to draw their story if they cannot write yet. If they want to make it several pages long, an adult can write down what is happening in the story, either on the back of the piece of paper or on a separate piece of paper. (It will probably help to number the pages, so they do not get out of order.) In honor of National Library Week, try this writing prompt to get their creative juices flowing: Have them write the silliest version they can come up for “Why My Library Book is Overdue”. -
Suggested Family Activity 🥚 Egg Drop Contest
Got leftover Easter eggs and don’t know what to do with them? Try having an egg drop contest. Have each of your family members design and make a protective casing for an egg using recycled materials they find around the house. You can let everyone have several days to brainstorm and make their coverings or put a time limit on the activity, such as one hour, for everyone to get their entry put together. After your eggs are all covered, perform an experiment on which types of coverings protect the eggs the best by dropping the eggs from somewhere high. You can use a ladder, a step stool, or just roll them off a counter. -
Suggested Family Activity 🌪 Weather Emergencies
Spring in the South means tornados so now is a good time to go over what to do in case of a weather emergency: Make sure everyone knows the difference between a tornado watch and a tornado warning. Explain how to determine a building’s safe space. (Hint: It’s a place away from windows or a wall to the outside and is usually a closet.) Decide where your house’s safest place is. Stock up on flashlights, candles, and battery-operated lanterns in case the power goes out, as well as a battery powered radio to listen to weather reports. Arrange a place to meet outside your home (like a nearby neighbor’s house) should a tornado or other emergency force you to leave it unexpectedly. For more information, check out www.ready.gov. -
Suggested Family Activity 🥚 and 🥄 Race
Egg and Spoon Race 🏁 Have you ever competed in an Egg and Spoon race? This classic outdoors game dates to the late 1800s. To introduce this fun activity to your family, all you need are eggs and wooden or metal spoons. The traditional game used raw eggs but for less mess when they fall (and they will fall!), you can substitute hard-boiled eggs instead or even plastic eggs. Kids can do this activity by themselves to see how fast they can go without dropping the egg or you can have a family race to see who wins. If you have enough participants, you can even increase the difficulty by having the race relay-style, where you team up with a partner and try to hand off the egg to the other person part-way through the race. -
Suggested Family Activity 🐣 Easter Chic Craft
With Easter coming up this weekend, make this cute Easter chick craft project from a simple loop of paper that has been curled around and taped together. You’ll need: Yellow paper Scissors Glue 3 yellow feathers 1 orange pipe cleaner Markers or crayons (black & orange) To turn these supplies into your Easter chick, follow these simple instructions: Cut a 2” x 6” strip of yellow paper. Glue the short ends together to make a loop. Cut the pipe cleaner in half, then cut 2” off both pieces. Twist one short piece around the end of one long piece. Repeat with the other pieces to make two feet. Glue to the bottom of the paper loop. Draw on the eyes and a beak. Glue a feather on the inside of each side of the loop. Glue the last one to the back as a tail feather. If you do not have any feathers or a pipe cleaner, you can draw those pieces on paper and cut them out to use. Or look around your house (and even outside) to see what kind of things you can substitute. A drinking straw or a small stick could make your chick’s feet, while you can make feathers out of paper, cloth, or even thin pieces of recycled plastic. -
Suggested Family Activity 📺 It’s Mr. Rogers’ Birthday
Celebrate beloved children’s TV host Mr. Rogers’ birthday today with Won’t You Be My Neighbor Day. For tips and suggestions for ways your family can spread love and kindness to your neighbors and to let everyone know how you are celebrating, check out their website at https://wontyoubemyneighborday.com/. You’ll find a sign to download and decorate, a video demonstrating how to do fun sidewalk chalk art, and a free family activity kit. -
Suggested Family Activity 🧽 Spring Cleaning
The approaching arrival of spring also means it is time for Spring Cleaning! Make it into a fun family activity by turning it into a game. Set timers to see who can clean an area the fastest or create a chart that lists all the areas in your house that need cleaning. Create a prize or family activity that will reward everyone when all the cleaning is finished, such as a Pizza Night, a special dessert, or Family Movie Night. -
Suggested Family Activity ✂ National Children’s Craft Day
Today is National Children’s Craft Day, a day set aside each year to encourage crafting with children. Crafting as an activity is a great way for children to explore their creativity and imagination. It also encourages them to learn something new and to explore what inspires them. You can purchase pre-made kits at most dollar stores or you can challenge your children to take everyday household items to use for their crafting projects. Popular items include toilet paper and paper towel rolls, cardboard recycled from packing boxes, dried beans and pasta, empty water bottles … whatever they can find! -
Suggested Family Activity 🪁 Fly a Kite!
The windy days of March are a great time to fly a kite! To decide if it is windy enough, ask your family some questions: Do you feel anything blowing on you face? Are your clothes moving around? What about any tress or bushes – what are they doing? Are they still or are they moving around? If you do not have a kite at home, you can make your own. The PBS website at https://www.pbs.org/parents/crafts-and-experiments/take-flight-with-a-diy-kite has simple directions for how to make a kite using just string, sticks, and paper. The PBS contributor used newspaper for their kite, but you could use other large pieces of paper instead such as tissue paper, drawing paper or brown packing paper. Don’t forget to have fun decorating your kite by coloring designs on the paper, painting on the newsprint, and tying ribbons or streamers on the ends. -
Suggested Family Activity • Learn with Easter Eggs
Plastic Easter eggs make great learning tools for young children. In addition to using them to identify colors, if your young ones are just learning the letters of the alphabet, print an upper-case letter on one piece of an egg and a lower-case on the other piece. Mix all the pieces up and then help children find the matching pairs. Another fun idea is to put a letter on one piece of an egg and a sticker with a picture of something that starts with that letter on the other piece, such as “B” for bunny. Yet another fun learning idea is to write several letters on one piece of an egg, such as “b”, “c” and “m”. On the other piece of the egg, write other letter sound combinations such as “at”, “an”, etc. Then rotate the pieces of the egg to show children how to make words, such as “bat”, “cat”, “man”, etc., using the letter and sound combinations. -
Suggested Family Activity • Dinosaur Tag
Play a game of dinosaur tag today. Whoever is ‘it’ has must scrunch up their arms insides their shirt to make their arms short like a T-rex and try to tag the others. And bonus points for making T-rex noises as you run around! The variations on this game are endless. Whoever is ‘it’ could pretend to be an elephant and try to catch others with one arm swinging like an elephant’s trunk or ‘it’ could act like a crocodile or an alligator and use their arms to make chopping motions to catch the others. -
Suggested Family Activity 🌨 Snow Globe Craft
Make your own snow globes today by grabbing an empty jar, such as a baby food jar, a mason jar or even an empty peanut butter jar. Fill it with anything sparkly you have - tiny beads, small plastic spangles, or glitter are all great ideas to use. Add water to the jar, tighten the lid securely, and have fun shaking the jar to watch all the glitzy stuff swirl around. You can also glue small toys to the underside of the lid to make a creative scene. If you happen to have some glycerin or clear liquid glue at home, you can add a small bit to the water to slow the movement of the glittery things through the water. -
Suggested Family Activity 🧚♀️ National Fairy Tale Day
Today is National Tell a Fairy Tale Day so celebrate by sharing fairy tales with your family. Tell a familiar story, such as one about Snow White and the Seven Dwarves or Rumpelstiltskin or make up one of your own. Family members can also pick their favorite fairy tale and retell it as if they were the main character. What would they do differently? Would it still take place in the same setting, such as a castle or would they set the story at their own house or apartment? Is it still set in an older time, or is it set now? -
Suggested Family Activity 📃 Create a Move Jar
Create a “move jar” today for your family. Fill it with slips of paper that you have written phrases (or drawings for little ones who cannot read) of movements such as hopping on one foot, walking like an elephant, or doing a mummy walk. Children can take turns picking a slip for the whole family to act out. -
Suggested Family Activity ❄ Snowball Letter Game
To make an indoor snowball letter game for young children: Write out the letters of the alphabet on paper and then tape it to a wall or door in your home. Give your children crumpled up pieces of scrap paper to be ‘snowballs’ that they throw at the letter when you call it out. For an additional twist on this game, tape pictures you have torn out of old magazines of items and have your children throw their ‘snowball’ at the picture that starts with the first letter of the image. This is a fun learning activity that also helps work on their coordination and gets them up and moving around. (Oh, and don’t forget to get their help picking up all the ‘snowballs’ to throw away afterwards!) -
Suggested Family Activity 😊 Random Acts of Kindness Day
National Random Acts of Kindness Day is today so try to do something totally unexpected to be nice to someone today. Maybe you can make a special care package for someone or make them a simple card to say, “Thinking of You.” You could also drop off donations of food and other items to local food banks, homeless shelters, or animal shelters. Random acts of kindness do not require money though. Just saying “Hello” to a stranger or smiling could brighten their day and is a fun and easy way to spread kindness. You could also help someone by offering to babysit so they can run errands or doing some minor housekeeping or yardwork for someone who is not able to do it for themselves. -
Suggested Family Activity ✋ Handprint Card
Valentine’s Day is this month! Turn your child’s handprint into a Valentine card by folding a piece of paper in half and tracing the child’s hand along the fold. Next, cut it out, except for the part that is on the fold line. When you open the hand, it becomes a heart made of two hands! Kids can practice their best handwriting by writing a personalized message on their palms or you can glue the hand to a larger piece of paper to give them more room for extra decorations and Valentine’s wishes. -
Suggested Family Activity 🎳 Indoor Bowling
Play a little indoor bowling today. Challenge your family to come up with creative things around the house to use for the bowling pins and balls. Think lightweight blocks, plastic cups, plastic bowls, stuffed animals, and so on. -
Suggested Family Activity • Send A Card to A Friend Day
Today is National Send a Card to a Friend Day so take some time to pick out a card and send some good cheer through the mail. You can use cards you purchase from a store, or make your own with paper, crayons, markers, and stickers. With Valentine’s Day just around the corner, why not make a Valentine themed card? You can use white, pink, or red paper and decorate it with hearts, sweet messages such as “Thinking of You,” and anything else that speaks to your heart. -
Suggested Family Activity ❄ Snowflake Craft
Try these easy ways to make snowflakes today: One way is with white coffee filters – just fold the filter in half a total of four times. Then cut a design on each side of the filter, using either regular or craft scissors. When you unfold it, your snowflake will be revealed. You can also cut snowflakes out of plain white copy paper and then follow the same instructions above. -
Suggested Family Activity 📝 Writing Prompts
Try out these fun writing prompts today: Young children can draw a picture of a snowman ⛄ and then make up a story about it. Did they make the snowman during a Snow Day from school? Does it talk or walk around? Older kids and adults can try out a different prompt: What if you were being followed down the street by a snowman that came to life? Would people believe you? What would happen? -
Suggested Family Activity 📚 Library Sheflie Day!
Today is Library Shelfie Day! What is Library Shelfie Day, you ask? It is a day set aside in January each year to give book lovers and book collectors a chance to share their personal libraries. Whether you collect first editions or equally love and treasure every dog-eared book you have ever owned, we would love to see pictures of your libraries! But if you don’t have many books at home, no problem! Visit one of our NERL branches and take a picture there. Share them with us at photos@nereg.lib.ms.us. -
Suggested Family Activity 🐦Pinecone Bird Feeder
Winter weather is tough on area wildlife, particularly birds. To give them a nice treat during this dreary weather, make a Pinecone Bird Feeder. All you need is a pinecone, peanut butter, and twine, yarn, or string. To begin, tie your string around the top of the pinecone. Next, pour out birdseed in a bowl that is deep enough for the pinecone to fit. Spread peanut butter all over the pinecone and roll it in the birdseed. Tie it outside for the birds to find, hopefully near a window so that you can watch them enjoy their treat! -
Suggested Family Activity ⭐ Stargazing
Stargazing, or looking up at the stars and constellations, is a fun family activity at any time, even during the winter. It is worth the trouble of bundling up in coats, hats, scarves, and mittens to experience the crisp and clear view of the night sky while it is not obstructed by the haziness caused by summer humidity. Plus, because the Earth has rotated, different planets are visible now than during the summer. NASA’s Night Sky Network offers plenty of tips for winter stargazing, including dressing in layers, wearing waterproof boots, and bringing along a hot drink. To view more of their tips, visit https://nightsky.jpl.nasa.gov. #NerlSFA #NERLibrary #stargazing
Suggested Family Activities
Fun and Creative Ideas for Your Family to Do at Home.
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