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Making memories with your kids is one of the most important things you can do as a parent. It doesn’t matter how old they are, making memories will last a lifetime.
Before we started on our debt free journey, we would overspend almost every weekend on expensive outings with our kids. Now that we are on a tight budget, we still have just as many memorable outings, we just have to be a little more creative and intentional about how we spend our time.
These 100 fun ways to make memories with your kids will help you find new and exciting ways to have fun together, without busting your budget!
Grab this free printable list to hang on your fridge where you and your family can see it!
Making Memories With Your Children
Why are family memories important?
Using family time together to create positive memories will become a tool your child can use throughout their lives. Whether it’s making a snowman, going to Disneyland, or just making dinner with your family every night – making good memories with your kids is one of the most important things you can do as a parent.
By creating positive memories with your child you are giving them a layer of security as they explore life and grow into adulthood.
Good and bad memories will happen throughout our lives – this is just a part of being human.
However, good memories can help us endure difficult times and counteract bad memories. When life is stressful, positive childhood memories will help your child remember that things aren’t always challenging or hard.
Ideas for Making Family Memories
Be present
When making memories with your kids, it’s important to be present in each moment. When parents are distracted by something else or their own thoughts they might miss out on a special experience that could make a great memory for their child. This is why it’s so vital to turn off screens and put the work away while trying new activities with them!
Read Together
Pick out your favorite book and read it together. Talk about what you think will happen next, or how you would make this story different if you were the author! If you need help picking out age appropriate books for kids we found some awesome tips over at Parenting Chaos!
Take a Road Trip
Road trips are one of the best ways to make memories with your kids. You can explore new places and see different things while making it a family time that you’ll never forget.
Read: Cheap & Easy Road Trip Snacks
Have a Family Game Night
Need some inspiration? We have a list of our favorite board games for family night here!
Make Dinner Together
Sometimes it may be hard to make the time for this, but making memories with your kids is more important than anything else
Create a Memory Jar or Box
Decorate a jar or box together as a family and then fill it up with items that make you think of your family – postcards from places you’ve travelled together or pictures everyone drew themselves. You could even make this a yearly time capsule tradition that you fill throughout the year like this memory jar from Messy Little Monster.
Go for a Scavenger Hunt Walk
Family scavenger hunts are a fun and easy way to make memories with your kids. You can do them indoors or outdoors making it an exciting day of exploration that they’ll never forget!
Read: Printable Fall Scavenger Hunts
Make up a Family Song
Get into teams and take turns coming up with verses until someone has come up with an entire song (it’ll be so much fun and you will have a song that only your family gets to sing!)
Go on a Picnic
Going on a picnic is an easy way to make memories with your kids. It doesn’t have to be perfect or fancy and you can do it anywhere making for a memorable time full of laughter!
Take a Class Together
Pick out something that’s fun for everyone in the family like ice skating or pottery classes. When it comes down to it, these are activities all ages enjoy so making sure there’s something on this list that everyone likes means more opportunities for making lasting memories 🙂
Make a Family Bucket List
This can be made by everyone in the family and each person gets to add one item they want to do together as a family. Make sure there are fun things that both kids and adults enjoy so every member of the family has something they’re looking forward to doing soon.
You’ll love these bucket list ideas:
Make Dinner Love Notes
Have each person in your family write down one thing they love about their family members on note cards. Put them all into an empty bag and then pull some out each night at dinner time. This is a fun way to fill dinner time with jokes, stories, anecdotes, and laughter!
Learn About Your Family History
Sharing stories about their great-grandparents or making a scrapbook that explores your family history is a simple yet fun thing you can do as a family that will create lasting memories while giving your child a deeper understanding of their family.
Create Holiday Traditions
Create new family traditions during the holidays. Looking for a way to not only make memories but create some that will last? Try making up your own holiday tradition and making it an annual event where everyone can look forward to what’s coming next year!
Creating traditions does not need to be elaborate or expensive. Some simple ideas for creating family traditions are things like making gingerbread houses at Christmas or cooking special birthday dinners together.
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♬ santa tell me.. ariana grande – everything christmas!
Volunteer
Get involved in your community, volunteer at the food bank or homeless shelter and really make an impact while making memories with your kids!
Build a Fort
Forts are a classic way to make memories with kids. Whether you build them in the living room or go out and find some trees, making forts is one of those activities that will be remembered forever!
Have a No Electronics Day
No Electronics Day is a day to turn off the screens and make memories. You can do this on any day, but making it an annual event will help you create family traditions that are fun for everyone!
Make a Craft
You can spend an afternoon making a family collage or making glitter slime for them to enjoy!
Try one of these:
Have a Dance Party
Making memories with your kids doesn’t have to be expensive or take a lot of time. You can turn on some music and dance in the kitchen making it one of those moments that will give them an idea that they don’t always have to do something fancy for everything to be fun!
Make a Family Memory Book
You can make a family book with your kids to show off all the memories you’ve created together. This is something that they will cherish forever and possibly pass down when they have children so making this today will help create even more memories!
Be Silly Together
Being silly together is one of the easiest ways to create family memories. Laughing, making faces at each other and playing games like “I Spy” are great ways to spend quality time as parents while making them laugh their heads off in hilarity! Some more ideas include: making funny noises, doing impressions (of people or animals), singing songs without any words – all these will help add joy into your lives!
Making memories with your kids is one of the most important things you can do as a parent. Memories help make us who we are so if you’re looking to create new traditions in your home that will bring laughter and joy into your lives year after year then take these 100 ideas on how to spend more quality time making memories together!
More Ideas for Creating Family Fun Time Memories!
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hi! I'm shannon
I’m a wife, mom of three, doctor, and blogger! In 2018, I decided to turn my mom blog, into a personal finance blog so others could follow along on our journey to pay off over HALF a MILLION dollars in student loan and practice start up debt. I hope you enjoy following along, and maybe even find some inspiration along the way.
