No products in the basket.
Want to spend more time doing fun family things this year? We certainly do, but one thing that holds us back is thinking of things to do or often overthinking things and then not doing them.
That’s why this year we’ve made a ‘jar of fun things to do’. It’s a pretty simple idea, we wrote down a bunch of different play ideas, days out and even a few mini-breaks, all on different coloured notepaper. These got folded up and put into a jar.
Our plan is to dip into the jar every time we’re after some inspiration for something to do. We’ll also be picking out bigger days out and mini-breaks a few months in advance so that we give ourselves some time to make all the necessary arrangements.
Here are all the ideas we’ve added to our jar so far (sorry some are location specific):
At home:
- Obstacle course – weigh down a blanket as a net to scramble under, line up chairs to crawl through, throw bean bags into a basket, leap over a stack of toilet rolls
- Hideout – make a den in the garden using blankets and sheets
- Games marathon – get all the games together and have a good old fashioned game day
- Picnic time – make lots of yummy food for our indoor picnic
- Dress up – each member of the family must find or make something to dress in that makes them look like a pirate
- Bowling – gather up some similar-sized, unbreakable things from around the house and make a bowling alley
- Story time – make a book using a punch and some string, then write and draw a story
- Family tree – get hand/paw prints from each member of the family and create a family tree
- Puzzle – chop up an old cereal box to make your own puzzle
- Supersize game – make a life-sized board game using masking tape
- Ball run – using whatever you can find, make the biggest ball run you can
- Toy story – create your own stop motion film using your favourite toys
- Make music – using homemade musical instruments
- Fairy garden – use a big pot and things you can find in the garden to create a magical area for fairies
- Pressed flower prints – pick some pretty flowers then place them between two pieces of paper and pile some heavy books on top
- Smelling of roses – create a perfume from essential oils, flowers, herbs and other smelly things you can find (not Dad’s socks)
- Memory box – decorate a box and add trinkets and photos throughout 2022
Days out:
- Visit a playground we’ve never been to before
- Fly a kite
- Picnic in the park
- Go on a nature hunt
- Go Geocaching
- Graffiti spotting (we’ve got some incredible murals around Cardiff)
- Go on a boat (boating lake or boat to down the river)
- Walk to the top of a big hill or mountain
- Visit a castle
- Visit a farm
- Go to the beach and hunt for different shaped shells
- Go to a museum
- Go on a double-decker bus somewhere (this is something Lottie’s been nagging to do for months)
- Explore a local country park
- Take the walkway over the Newport transporter bridge
- Go to a soft play or similar
- Go on a bike ride
- Go ten-pin bowling
- Have a picnic at a waterfall (Neath Waterfalls are close to us)
Mini-breaks & things that require a bit more planning:
- Cycle from Bath to Bristol along the canal path (minimal roads, pretty and flat most the way)
- Go camping
- Get the train to London for the weekend
- Go on the Snowdon railway
- Visit the Eden Project
- Go on The Waverly Paddle Steamer
- Go on a Gruffalo trail
- Go to Weston-Super-Mare on the train
- Visit Longleat Safari Park
Some ideas are more weather-dependent than others and who knows if some will be possible at all, but it’s not a strict system, it’s just a jar of fun ideas to inspire us and give us things to look forward to throughout the year.