1. Take a bicycle trip.
2. Make homemade ice cream or visit an ice cream parlor.
3. Bake a double batch of cookies and deliver one to a needy family.
4. Visit an airport and watch the planes take off and land, or go to a lake and watch the boats, while you have a picnic.
5. Go on a breakfast picnic.
6. Go to a park and hike or climb trees.
7. Make popcorn, maybe even caramel corn.
8. Enjoy the snow together by building a snowman, snow bears, a huge turtle or other animals, making a snow fort or throwing snowballs. How about making snow ice cream?
9. Go swimming or water skiing.
10. Plan a scavenger hunt for outside. Or plan one for in the house using every letter of the alphabet.
11. Bake plain sugar cookies and let each member of the family take part in decorating them.
12. Make playdoh and sculpt objects or people (even from Bible stories).
13. Read a good book aloud. (C.S. Lewis' "Tales of Narnia" appeals to children and adults alike.
14. Look through photo albums or view family slides, movies, or videos.
15. Play miniature golf or croquet.
16. Make a tape recording of the most recent news and send it to a close friend or relative whom you seldom see.
17. Make a "birthday flag" for the next upcoming birthday.
18. Go fishing.
19. Play a board game that all can enjoy---Monopoly, Sorry, Scrabble.
20. Work on a jigsaw puzzle.
21. Go roller skating or ice skating.
22. Make family silhouettes. Use a slide projector or a bright lamp to project the head profile on a blank wall. Hold paper against the wall and trace the silhouette. Cut out and glue it on a contrasting sheet of paper or poster board.
23. Have a candy treasure hunt.
24. Work on a crossword puzzle.
25. Play "Start a Story." One person starts the story and talks for three minutes (use timer). The next person must continue the story, and so on. After going around the family circle two or three times, the youngest child gets to end the tale.
26. Provide old magazines, scissors and glue. Pick a theme for your collage (families, God's creations, things to be thankful for, etc.). Everyone cuts out pictures and glues them onto a large piece of paper or poster board.
27. Go to the flea market or bright and early one Saturday morning visit ten garage sales and see who can come home with the best bargain for a dollar.
28. Sing favorite choruses, hymns or nursery rhymes around the piano or guitar. You could even use a tape or CD to follow along.
29. Make plaster of Paris hand prints. Put name, year and age on the back.
30. Make a family banner. The banner should be made of felt or the flag fabric found in fabric stores. Decorate with pictures that illustrate interests of family members.
31. Go to the zoo.
32. Go bowling.
33. Make your own homemade pizza. Add mushrooms, peppers, onions, black olives and crushed pineapple to the pizza sauce and cheese.
34. Invite another family over for a game of charades or "Guesstures."
35. Listen to recordings of your favorite music.
36. One sunny Saturday morning, get out the gardening tools and find someone (a shut-in, perhaps) who could use some free yard work. Everyone can pitch in and help.
37. Make a collage using seeds, rice, cereal, old buttons and sewing scraps.
38. Catch fireflies together, put them in a jar and watch them light up. Let them go.
39. Do needlework: cross-stitch, crewel, candle wicking, rug-hooking, smocking.
40. String popcorn and place on a tree for the birds.
41. Write the words and music to a chorus together.
42. Make puppets out of lunch bags, old socks, felt, wooden clothespins. Put on a puppet show.
43. Have a bonfire outdoors or in your fireplace and roast hot dogs and marshmallows.
44. Go to your nearest hospital and look at the babies in the maternity nursery. (Visiting hours only).
45. Visit a shut-in or an elderly friend or relative in a nursing home.
46. Pick wild flowers and press some of them to save.
47. Read a Psalm together. Then write a psalm of praise for your own family.
48. Play "I think you're nice because..." Someone thinks of a quality he likes in the person who's "it." Other family members try to guess by asking, "Does it begin with an "A?" and so forth.
49. Listen to a tape of a Bible story. You can tape good stories from Christian radio stations.
50. Share prayer requests that affect and concern the whole family, then pray about them.
51. Make a mobile. Gather special treasures (shells, nature objects, hollow, decorated eggs, valentines). Tie thread or yarn of varying lengths to the end of each and attach to a hanger.
52. Ask your children about their greatest fear, and talk about them.
53. Encourage little ones to color a picture to send to grandparents.
54. Make a list together of all the things in your house that use electricity. You might do this when you lose power sometime.
55. Build a village using blocks, Lincoln logs or Leggos. Get out the matchbox cars!
56. Enjoy a shopping trip for something little, but fun---a jar of bubbles, stickers, paper dolls, a matchbox car.
57. Play "20 Questions." One person chooses a Bible character or object to be guessed. The other members of the family take turns guessing what the secret object or person might be. No more than 20 questions can be asked and each one must be able to be answered with a simple yes or no. Whoever guesses first becomes "It" for the next round. Good for car trips too.
58. Visit a farm. Milk a cow, help to feed the animals. Take pictures.
59. Play badminton, volleyball, tennis, Frisbee, yard darts or ping pong.
60. Take the kids on a tour of where Dad works.
61. Play hide-and-seek (inside or outside).
62. Play "Bible Verse Scramble." One person chooses a favorite Bible verse and writes each word on a separate piece of paper. Scramble the order of the words and challenge each member of the family to see who can put it together the fastest. It could be one the family has memorized together.
63. Go camping in the backyard. Cook breakfast on the grill.
64. Draw a family tree on paper and complete it as a family. Add old photographs if available.
65. Go jogging or take a walk together.
66. Give each person a large piece of paper and take turns tracing the outlines of their bodies on it. Color in the outlines to look like you.
67. Using white shelf paper or the inside of brown grocery bags, design your own wrapping paper with crayons, magic markers or paints--even potato prints.
68. Go to the library. Check out books, records, tapes and art reproductions. Check out books showing how to make crafts with children. Fun!
69. Gather a variety of leaves and identify them.
70. Write a letter to a missionary family. Your children could write to a missionary's child his own age.
71. If you have a computer, create a family newspaper. Each child can write a story, Dad and Mom can write a column, and an older child or parent can edit and type. Send copies to the grandparents.
72. Make candy or caramel apples.
73. Fly a kite!
74. Jump rope.
75. Take pictures of all the houses in your neighborhood, then arrange the houses on a large poster board and identify the people living in the houses. Write their addresses and phone numbers at each house too.
76. Visit a friend.
77. Dig out a flower bed and give each family member his own "plot." Plant seeds, bedding plants, vegetables or bulbs and watch God's creations grow!
78. Read favorite poems aloud.
79. Put together a scrapbook describing a favorite vacation or any special event (pictures, writing, souvenirs).
80. Rake up a big pile of leaves to jump and play in. If it's warm outside, turn on the water sprinkler and run through it.
81. Write and act out a play centered on a specific holiday, a Bible story or a character quality. Mom, Dad or one child could be the production manager.
82. Pick apples and make apple sauce together.
83. Gather seashells. Mount and identify.
84. Make snowflakes out of lightweight white paper and hang from the ceiling with thread.
85. Create a traveling friendship basket. Fill an inexpensive basket with baked goodies, crafts, coupons, and so forth. Pass it on to a friend. Leave a note in the basket, directing it to be passed on (within the week) to someone else who could use some cheer.
86. Go to a ball game or play one---football, kickball, softball, baseball, basketball, soccer.
87. Finger paint on glazed paper (shelf paper, freezer paper) with chocolate pudding.
88. Go sledding.
89. Go skiing.
90. Take a trip to an amusement park, a museum or a planetarium.
91. Use fabric crayons to design individual T-shirts.
92. Set a Bible verse to a familiar tune and learn both the verse and song as a family.
93. Write and record an interview with a Bible character.
94. Build a tree house or fort.
95. Go horseback riding.
96. Write and illustrate a short story about an imaginary animal.
97. Build a robot out of empty boxes of all shapes and sizes. Oatmeal and salt boxes work well.
98. Work together on a model kit.
99. Work on a stamp collection together.
100. Play with sand toys and trucks in a sandbox.