Life often gets in the way of living, and loving, and having fun with loved ones. When that happens, here are a few ideas to add oodles of fun into your day.
- Create a paracosm (new word learned this week). Wikipedia says ‘A paracosm is a detailed imaginary world. Paracosms are thought generally to originate in childhood and to have one or numerous creators. ….which may incorporate real-world or imaginary characters and conventions. ……having its own geography, history, and language, …….. that can last into adulthood.’
- Building a detailed, imaginary world with your loved ones makes it a unique bonding experience and might help you discover something about them you did not know before! I know that having the
kids tell stories or even retell stories I made up for them has made me marvel at how they viewed the story I told them. - You could then draw and illustrate the imaginary worlds you come up with and have fun activity #2 below! Some famous examples of paracosms – Narnia, Middle Earth, Wonderland, and so many more.
- Building a detailed, imaginary world with your loved ones makes it a unique bonding experience and might help you discover something about them you did not know before! I know that having the
- Pick up a pencil and lay it down to paper: Let your imagination loose and draw your ideas – you can doodle, zentangle, or illustrate your dreams (keeping a dream diary will aid this!). You can find other cool ideas for drawing with imagination in this wonderful book – Keys to Drawing with Imagination by Bert Dodson -I am totally in love with this book currently (and need to renew it once more). Or you could simply
color in one of the many available coloring books that are the rage today.- How to make this a family activity?
Each of you could color in the same page (print copies of the page) and see how each one turns out – not a competition but more to see the differences! Or let your imagination loose together! - Below are zentangles made by me and my daughter sometime back.
- How to make this a family activity?
- Step outside –
- You could take a hike together – at different times of the day maybe, a new moon night without a torch (have one just in case) and let your eyes adjust to the darkness – it will be fun (we enjoyed it when we did it a while ago!);
- You could play hopscotch together – have the kids teach you their versions and teach them your childhood versions of hopscotch;
- Play some other outdoor games or go to the neighborhood park and play there (when was the last time you climbed on the play structure or went down a slide)
- Create new traditions – I started watching Seinfeld when I moved to the US, and Kramer was pretty soon my favorite character. His over the top goofiness seems just, well, normal and when I saw the first episode where Festivus was mentioned, I immediately thought – that is truly cool!
- So go ahead and create your own Festivus – new traditions that are attached to something important to your family, or even to random events (maybe do a specific thing everytime a specific event occurs, regardless of when it does -eg: great success for anyone in the family – grades/work/contests etc – have a
picnic with food choices from all in the family); and name that tradition to make it more fun!
- So go ahead and create your own Festivus – new traditions that are attached to something important to your family, or even to random events (maybe do a specific thing everytime a specific event occurs, regardless of when it does -eg: great success for anyone in the family – grades/work/contests etc – have a
- You name it and we will do it – Have any one person (maybe the birthday boy or girl/or pick randomly) suggest an activity they would love to do and do it together (minus any devices if possible). Whenever I
ask my DD, we will invariably end up with a new dish (most likely, some baked goodies) after an hour or so! And with my son, we might end up reading a book together or building some new DIY thingama jigger he is building. If left to me, we might wind up with paper and pencil, or on our feet – dancing.Dance to fun songs while singing them out loud (I wonder how stars perform on stage while singing and dancing… doing
both together has definitely left me breathless halfway through itself! and I am not even performing, just doing some random moves following JustDance or exercise dance videos on YouTube)
What are some unique ways you have fun with family/friends/loved ones? Do let me know – always looking for new fun things to do…
I have a "mommy date" with each of my boys each month. They're 12 and 9. Last month we did a family date and went to the beach. The month before was an amusement park. Tonight is my date with my 12 year old. We are going to Barnes and Noble. He's going to buy a book. Then we'll go to the cafe and hang out. We'll have a snack and a drink. We'll chat for a while and then we might work on something together. This upcoming week, my date with my 9 year old is going out to dinner at a restaurant of his choice. I cannot wait to see where he decides to go.
We also have fun without going out- fire pit in the backyard, family board game night, hosting friends for dinner, walks in the woods, giving the kids the camera and asking them to take pictures of the local area.
Thank you for your visit and love your suggestions too.. we do some of them as well.. and some I need to start on