Need to find some ways to spend quality time with your family? This has become increasingly more difficult in recent years and we all have the infamous generation gap to thank for it. Teenagers of this decade have been raised with different hobbies than their grandparents or even parents. What’s left to do, then? To try and find some fun hobbies that can bring all the generations together. Preferably, they should also represent new and interesting experiences for all sides. Is such a thing even possible? We think it is, as proven by these 10 Fun Hobbies To Share With Your Family.
#1 Gardening
When you’re talking about gardening, you’re talking about a practice that has many branches you can explore. Whether you choose to include all of them in your activities or be slightly selective about it, in the end, the thing that truly matters is that you’re managing to create something with your own two hands. As a hobby, gardening is an ideal family activity – it gets all of you outdoors, you never stray too far away from your house, and it’s a good lesson in responsibility and patience for the little ones.
#2 Read and Make Stories
Children love stories because they represent an environment through which they can channel their imagination and creativity. You can go through the traditional approach and tuck your little ones underneath a blanket when their bedtime kicks in and read a story. Alternatively, make it an activity that the whole family can contribute to by making the stories interactive. Claim roles and reenact the tale. Create stories yourself by continuing each other’s sentences. Even better, combine both of those and reenact the created story. Fun for the whole family, especially when you consider that it’s a way through which adults can unleash their inner child once again.
#3 Start Collections
Depending on what you’re choosing to collect, you can start a hobby that can provide a lot of knowledge and interesting, educational facts to children. For example, by collecting rocks, stones, and pebbles, they can learn several geology facts. Another idea is to collect antiquities or objects that have gone out of fashion in recent years. Surely it makes us feel a bit old when we think about it, but little kids these days probably have no idea what a dial phone or cassette tapes are. You don’t need to travel centuries into the past to gather interesting objects – unless you really want to do it, obviously.
#4 Travel
Travel to nearby locations, travel to your neighborhood park every weekend, travel to a foreign country once every six months. Whatever kind of traveling it is, making it a habitual activity is one of the best decisions you could possibly make. It’s hard to find someone who doesn’t enjoy exploring and discovering new places. If you have little kids, simple trips to the park every Sunday are a relaxing way of ensuring that at least one day of the week is reserved for family time. Likewise, trips over the border are basically incursions into new cultures, making this hobby both fun and educational.
#5 Play Games
Video games, board games, or traditional social games, they have always served one purpose – entertainment. The generation gap can be closed by bringing in adults into the world of video games. There are plenty of PC and console games that require cooperation and that allow for up to five players at once. On the other hand, you can dust off your Monopoly, puzzles, and other board games and sit your children down to do some bonding over the dices and pieces. Just make sure that you’re prepared for the unavoidable rage that comes with Monopoly.
#6 Volunteer
This might sound like an odd way to spend evenings together in the family, but it’s pretty much the most productive thing you can do. Sign up your family at a local pet shelter, which is definitely the best environment to please everyone regardless of age. You can spend time with the animals, care for them, and form some bonds that might develop even further into a possible adoption. Yes, this is definitely a risk that you need to be aware of when signing up for an activity like this. Are you really prepared to say no to your child when he pleads to take home that dog he’d grown so fond of?
#7 Explore Nature
This is another form of traveling, except it focuses a lot more on the “nature” aspect of the trip. Go camping, hiking, or simply take a stroll through the woods. If you’re fortunate enough to live next to a green spot that offers possibilities of exploration, that’s all the more better. True, some people may not be very fond of the prospect of spending a night in the heart of nature and sleeping under the starry sky, but you know what they say about always trying something before deciding it’s not for you.
#8 Build Things
If you have a workshop or a woodwork table, then you can spend some quality time with your children by teaching them how to make basic things. This doesn’t necessarily mean having them hammer nails into planks of wood, something you might be reluctant of (for understandable reasons). You can do everything from crafting airplanes and car models to pottery or sculpting. Nothing boosts up a child’s confidence than knowing they created something.
#9 Treasure Hunts
Teach your children that nothing good and valuable is earned without a little bit of effort. This isn’t really the reason, we admit, but it’s one of the reasons why you should do it. Rather than casually handing over a cookie from that jar once you give in to your child’s pleas, you can try hiding the cookie jar in a place, lending them a map, and joining in the fun by pretending you have no idea what is going on. Blame it on the gnomes or fairies, it seems to always work.
#10 Dance
Not necessarily professional dancing, but dancing is an excellent way to relieve negative emotions and stress. For adults, it represents just that, as well as a way to disconnect from routine and the concerns of everyday life. For children, it means a way they can burn out all of their energy and have fun while doing it. Not buying it? All you need to do is give a quick look in the direction of all the adorable YouTube videos featuring parents and their children having tons of fun while swaying to the beats of their favorite songs.
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