In a way, there is a huge sigh of relief on a Friday night – glass of wine in hand, take away ordered and no home schooling for two days! But at the same time there is that bit of dread – What do we do this half term? With the message still to firmly stay home, stay local, and with the good old Yorkshire weather what it is, even the long walks we enjoyed in previous lockdown aren’t happening as much!
So how do we go about making the weekend a bit special, and differentiate it a little from the rest of the week? I asked around and got some brilliant ideas from friends and family! Here are our top 5 ideas on how to make family time at home fun!
Themed Restaurant night – Kate and her family have started doing this every Saturday night – it gives the whole family something to look forward to and focus on during the week. Each week they pick a different theme for their restaurant. This week they went for Tapas. They get the kids to choose the theme and what goes on the menu. It’s then on a full on family mission! The kids make the menus, Dad organises the decorations (which either come from the fancy dress box or good old Amazon). Everyone helps with the cooking too and the kids all love playing waiter! Its a great way to punctuate the weekend and also takes a lot of our time up in the week organising and planning – which makes the days go a bit quicker!
Games Night – We’ve started doing this on a Saturday afternoon. Its a great chilled out activity and no screen time which is a bonus. My daughter loves it, and so do us parents. She’s only four so it’s pretty much Snakes and Ladders and lots of orchard games! But still really enjoyable – and helps them with counting and what not! If you’re children are a bit older there are endless possibilities: Trivial Pursuit, Monopoly, Pictionary etc! There are also brilliant games such as Chess or Dominos you could teach your kids. Or even get creative and make your own! In fact, all us adults are doing it – why not do a quiz night, just a little more kiddy friendly! Do it over zoom and it’s a great way to keep in touch with family members we can’t see in person at the moment!
Movie Club – The best thing we bought in lockdown hands down has to be Disney+!! Sunday afternoons are for Movie Club in our house. We take it in turns to pick a movie, and go all out and serve popcorn, milkshake, crisps and sweets! A real treat, although I’m not sure how many more times I can sit through Frozen! Here’s a list of some of our favourite family films.
Disco – I love our impromptu discos! We’ve got a record player and my daughter loves the whole process of putting the records on and watching them spin round! We’re also big fans (probably me more so – god i miss a good rave!) Big Fish Little Fish who broadcast a live family rave every Sunday. I’ve also been told Sophie Ellis Bexter holds a good Kitchen Disco Party every Friday! My friend Hazel held a glow in the dark disco for her kids – they absolutely loved it! Attach loads of glow sticks to your body, turn the music up and the light off and away you go!
Put on a show! This was my Mum’s idea – it’s something me and my little cousins use to do all the time when we were kids! We loved deciding what we were going to do and then performing in front of the rest of the family. Dressing up as ballerinas, clowns and singing in front of the upright hoover were always favourites of mine. We’ve got one planned for next weekend – and we’re doing over Zoom with my brother and his family and the Grandparents are the VIP guests! I can hear my daughter practicing her dance routine as I type!
