Spending time together as a family is key to creating and sustaining a strong, loving family bond.
Whether you’re a family of two, five, or more, here are six activities you can do to start strengthening your family bond.
1. Start a new family tradition.
Family traditions build lifelong memories while strengthening your family. You could continue family traditions from your family or your spouse’s family, or have your kids come up with new ones. Some family traditions you could try are:
- Family movie and pizza night every Friday
- Saturday morning waffle breakfast
- Family service day once a month
- Pumpkin carving contest before Halloween
- Opening one gift on Christmas Eve
2. Work on family history.
For some, family history and fun don’t go together—but they can. Working on your genealogy is a great way to grow closer to your family here on earth, while also growing closer to your ancestors. And there are numerous ways to make family history a fun hobby for your family. You could learn a heritage craft, like woodworking, that an ancestor did. If you are a musical family, you could write and play songs together about an ancestor’s life.
3. Hold a weekly family awards night.
Choose one night at the end of the week, like Saturday or Sunday, to recognize each family member for two or three positive things they did during the week, such as completing all their chores, not fighting with siblings, or getting an A on a test. It’s also fun to give awards along with verbally recognizing everyone. This activity works best with younger kids because it helps reinforce positive behavior.
4. Try something new.
Another family strengthening activity is getting out of your comfort zones and trying something new together. Your whole family could attend a cooking class, try your hand at a pottery class, or go to an indoor rock-climbing wall. You can either try something new that no one in the family has ever done or let each person teach one of their hobbies to the rest of the family.
5. Turn household chores into a game.
Yard work, after-dinner cleanup, dusting—no matter what chore it is, no one really likes doing it. But if you tackle the chores together and turn them into a game, doing chores goes from being a boring struggle to a fun family bonding activity. Use a stopwatch and let everyone race to clean their room the fastest, or practice your basketball skills by shooting dirty clothes into a hamper from different angles and distances.
6. Pray daily together.
In a general conference talk, Elder Robert D. Hales said, “The key to strengthening our families is having the Spirit of the Lord come into our homes.” One of the best ways to invite the Spirit is with family prayer. Pray daily with your family, morning and night, and also encourage your kids to say their personal prayers.
What family strengthening activities do you enjoy doing with your family?