Activities for Families, Adults, and Kids

In-A-Day Activities

Our Activities offer creative ideas that you can do with your family or modify for a unique date idea. When you add a little imagination to activities you create memories that last a lifetime.

A new In-a-day are posted a few times a year. Check back or enjoy browsing our extensive archives for other great ideas.

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Gofundme a website with a heart

12/1/2014

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If you are looking for an indoor activity to do with your kids that also can help them realize all the blessings in their life, there is a website filled with people that can really use your help. Gofundme.com is a website for people in need. People that need financial assistance with medical expenses, surgeries, treatment, care, and much more.

Spend an hour or two on the site with a budget in mind for every child in your group. Even if it is $5 or $10, any amount will help. They can search through those in need and split up their budget or donate to one. No, this is not a "whoo hooo, let's have fun" activity, but rather one that is heartfelt and hopefully helps not only the children but yourself feel as though you are helping someone relieve pressure off of their illness from a monetary standpoint.

Since some of the illnesses are things your kids may have never heard of, look them up. Knowledge can build compassion. Look at what happened when someone developed the ALS ice bucket challenge, a disease very close to my own heart. So many people now realize what that disease is. The research from the monies raised can really bring about a difference to a cause.

Want to step it up? Instead of giving them an amount to donate, have them sell one of their favorite toys and use that money to donate. You can do it on your social media outlet by auction style.

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Host a Teen Tailgate Party

10/30/2014

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Teens love social gatherings, regardless of the activity. They just enjoy being around their friends, eating some food, and having something to do. A mock tailgate party hits all three! No, it does not have to be football season. A mock tailgate party at your home or even at a local park (if you have Wi-Fi that allows you to stream a game from an outside location) can be for ANY sporting event. Skateboard competitions, tennis matches, soccer, they really do not care as long as they are all together. They may even learn to enjoy watching a new sport. Set up folding chairs, a portable table for the food, have balls to throw around during commercial breaks, and you have a party.

They may balk at, lets say, a figure skating event, but once you tell them you are throwing in food and allowing a get together, they will have fun. Make it theme-based depending on the sporting event occurring that week. Teens do not require as much hand-holding in terms of activities, most of the time they simply prefer to just be left alone hanging out with their peers.

Don't be surprised by a lot of eye rolling at the suggestion or even at the event, it is their nature, but they will want another tailgate party. Yes, they will still roll their eyes and maybe even proclaim how lame it is at the next one as well.

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Cake decorating contests

10/16/2014

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Cake decorating is an art form that I have never acquired the skill for, but I still enjoy trying. Having a cake decorating contest or party can be a fun day project. Yes, you can use cookies or cupcakes, but I find that, since cakes have a much larger surface to create on, they can be more fun.

You can start from scratch or you can cheat a bit like me and buy a cheap, plain white frosted cake so that everyone has the same cake from the grocery stores. No baking! That way your time is spent on being creative instead of mixing and cleaning. The purpose of this is activity is the decoration, not the making of the cake.

Buy mixed frosting colors for each cake, then have a number drawing to see who picks their frosting color first. By using an assortment of frosting color the results of the creations will be unique. Host a decorating contest among your own family or with some of the neighbor kids. Each person gets to take home their creation so they can share those tasty calories with their own family. This idea also makes a unique date activity! Your own version of Cake wars.

Materials:
Cakes pre-frosted
Candies
Mini cookies like animal crackers
Sprinkles
Draw-on edible pens and frosting pens-fruit-more frosting
The Dollar stores have lots of decorations for... you guessed it, a dollar, that can be put on cakes. But remember to remind the kids that most are not edible. Like mini cars, trains, and doll figures.
A camera for all the pictures you are going to want to take

You can make it a social media contest if it is adults engaged in the contest. I think for young kids hoping for votes might be discouraging, but for adults it can be a lot of fun trying to get their friends to vote on their cake. Never say who decorated what cake though. Make the votes only on the cakes.

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Pajama Party Entertaining

8/28/2014

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Pajama Parties are a fun and easy idea to entertain for all ages. No, I am not talking about a sleep-over pajama party, I am talking about a daytime pajama get-together. Keep it as simple as you like and serve breakfast food that everyone will enjoy. Waffle or pancake-making bars can become an activity as opposed to just having food laid out. Have bowls of yummy add-ins like Resees pieces, M & M's, fresh fruit, nuts, peanut butter, unique jellies, flavored syrups, and of course whipped cream. If you are thinking about making waffles, they now have a spray can waffle batter so everyone can make their own with a counter flip waffle iron.

For kids this can be an afternoon party where your kids invite their friends over and watch cartoons in front of the TV or they can even decorate pillow covers to take home. Purchase puff paints or fabric painting kits that can be placed on the kitchen table, just make sure it is covered well. Teens will like this idea for an early evening party where they can tell ghost stories, play board games, and, if you have the ability, make S'mores. An adult-only get-together can include a breakfast bar with some mimosas and socializing. For family reunions, include some fun games like Pictionary with a large drawing pad on an easel so everyone in the room can see. If you have the right number of boys and girls, then make it a gender challenge or else just split up the guests equally.

Each age range can have its own spin on a pajama party. A fun game for guest of all ages that requires little prior planning is the wink and murder game where each player pulls a slip of paper from a stocking cap and some papers are blank and one paper identifies the player as the killer. Throughout the party, the "killer" winks at his/her victims and they have to fake their death a few minutes later and far away from the actual killer. Guest can guess who they think the killer is before they are wink-killed. If they guess wrong, they have to fake their own death. (The player has to whisper the question "are you the killer?" into the person they suspect's ear for a yes or no reply. If it is yes, they are the winner, and if it is no, they must fake their own death).

When we played this for our family reunion, my father-in-law turned out to be the killer and absolutely no one suspected him as he had a bit of difficulty getting around and is pretty quiet so he just waited for his victims to come say hello to him. One of my nieces even decided to up her game on her faked death by painting herself with horror makeup and fake blood. This game has been around for a while and has many different spins and names. I am not sure where it originated, but it is a brilliant activity that does not have to be planned.

Looking for Pajama ideas? We bought ours at http://www.jumpinjammerz.com/ because they had camoflauge footed ones for the guys. Of course, you can find cute pajamas anywhere.

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Teaching kids about saving money

8/2/2014

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Balancing a checkbook has become a lost skill. Since the age of computers and smart phones, it is all too easy just to stuff a receipt in your pocket and then check online to confirm that the receipt went through correctly. The banks make it so easy that they even calculate your balance.

While that is wonderful news for the adults who have already had the experience of having to balance a checkbook and, hopefully, are conscious of where they spend money, and even remember to figure in those checks written long ago that someone did not cash, the younger generation is depending on the internet to tell them how much money they spent, without any concern about where, when, and how they are spending it. When you have to physically write down that you spent a whooping $5.99 at a coffee place for a gourmet drink with extra whipped cream five times a week, it might be a wake-up call for them to figure out that they just spent $29.95 a week. That's $119.80 a month! Trust me, a lot of the teens really do spend that kind of money on coffee, yet they ask you for a few bucks for a concert ticket they have been dying to see because they are broke.

If this project is done right, you could alter their future spending habits. If they have to face the truth everyday about who is getting their hard earned money and decide if what they are buying is worth the amount of money they are spending on it, at least they are making that choice with the proper information. They might actually consider what they could have bought or saved with that extra money.

So, TEACH them how to write and keep a bank balance. Do not let them check their balance online until they have written it down, and only to check for ones that cleared. At the end of every week, have them look over the things that they bought that may have not been worth what they spent. If they cannot have a checking account for what ever reason or you give them allowance in cash because they are too young, then get a play checking account and you become the banker. They withdraw money from you, but they have to write it down and balance the account. Most kids have no idea how to even write a check!

Consider this: Have you stood in line for morning coffee behind every teen holding up their debit card for a buck or two? (OK I know, there is no such thing as a buck or two coffee at the big chains, but you know what I am talking about). They deal only in immediate gratification. While they might not think it is a big deal, you certainly will if this becomes a life-long pattern. Kids become very good at what they practice. Some of the teens are practicing impulsive spending very well. They will roll their eyes at you and tell you that they can see perfectly fine how much they spend on coffee and "Hey, it's my money", but two points of that argument are incorrect. First, most kids learn by seeing, writing, and then doing. Missing the physical writing skips a step in the learning process. Second, is it really their money? Or are they spending the money that you will have to make up for on other things? If they are not saving for a car, or college, or prom... Guess what? They come to you for the difference.

*Side note- This is not only a good activity for kids and teens. Sometimes adults need a back to basics as well. If you are spending more money than you want and are doing the check online thing like the kids, you too are missing the important write-it-down step and skipping out on the consequences of your purchases.

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Cellphone Game- What Is This Object?

7/10/2014

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Let the kids keep their cellphones for this game! Make sure you have everyone's cellphone numbers and start a group text of "what is this object?". We have done a post previously about playing a hide-and-seek hunt with a cellphone, this is less of a hide-and-seek game and more of a what-is-that-picture activity.

Take a picture of something, anything. It can be an animal, plant, mineral, what ever you want. Take several pictures of the item from extremely close up so it shows just
the color and the texture of the item. Then, in stages, take pictures of the same
image, just zooming out to full view. Send out the first text with the very first close-up picture. Give them a time in which to guess what the object is. Continue to send texts as you move outward from the object until someone guesses what the picture is of. Sort of like a slowly reversing zoom lens.

There are some camera phones that will allow you to take one picture and crop/edit to look like it is a zoom. If you have just such a camera then this will be easier and you might be able to use images you already have stored on your phone. If not, things with odd textures and colors work the best for that ah-ha moment.

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High Ropes and Trust Falls

6/26/2014

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I remember the very first time I had to do a trust fall. It was at a teen retreat when I was in high school. Now, if you don't know what a trust fall is, it is when you have to fall backwards and hope the people you are with don't let you fall. This activity it is designed to build trust in a community.

This trust fall has now been built to a much higher height (I mean a really high height!). There are a few great companies out there that have taken this concept to the extreme and built high ropes walks and pole climbing (where you have to stand on top of the pole with no rails to hold onto). Now you do have a harness that they can securely bring you down with, if you fall, and your team belaying you, thus the TRUST factor. I went to a high rope course with my "at risk" group of which I am a mentor. We headed out in the early morning and spent a whole day trying to help each other over walls, walking on a beam and helping each other not fall, climbing up what looks like a telephone pole, and last, walking across a high ropes course designed to scare the heck right out of you. The purpose is to encourage you to work as a team to complete the challenge and to build each others trust. I loved it!

I actually think this should be a prerequisite to those couples engaged to see how they could work together under pressure. Heck, this would be a great engagement gift. As for the teens, this would make a great family activity with them because face it, you would be totally cool and, of course, sometimes teens need to remember that their parents are the ones they should always trust when they are in a jam.

There are many rope courses around the US but here is one.

onedayadventures(dot)com/

If you have ever considered being a mentor and you live in Arizona you can check out the Phoenix New Pathways program. Most other states have Youths At Risk programs as well.

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Clothes and More Swap

6/12/2014

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This can be a fun day idea for a girls' get-together or even an activity for teens. The best part about this activity is that the clothes you no longer wear or the items you no longer use to decorate with, someone else will have the opportunity to enjoy, and you get new items for FREE!

Keep it simple and fun. Invite your friends over and have everyone put their items in a pile. You can set a limit or a minimum on the amount of items everyone should bring to the event. Then, each person takes a turn going to the pile and picking out something to take home. You can pick out something for yourself or for someone else.

Make sure and take pictures to capture the fun. If it is kids involved in the clothing swap, set up a mini runway for them. The adults can snap the pictures. Not only is this a great way to recycle old items, it also helps you clean out your closet. Any left-over items can be donated to a thrift store at the end.

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Water Play! Tables and Squirt Guns.

5/22/2014

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It's getting hot out there which means is a perfect time to visit some options for keeping cool and enjoying a fun activity. I found a wonderful water-and-sand table, (you can see the link to Amazon at the end of the post) but really, if you are crafty, you can save some money. I checked out the plastic kiddie pools, both blow-up and solid, and they are pretty reasonable in price. (Think dollar store or discount chains). That way you can even make your own water center for outdoor play at a fraction of the price. Put it up on a table outdoors at your kids height, add a few inches of water, then load it with water toys. They can have imaginary play for hours and keep cool.

I'm not saying that the first little pre-made table is not a fantastic idea. To be honest, I might be inclined to just order one and turn it into a crafting play table in the winter for indoor play, (playdough or water painting perhaps) but there are options that will work just as well as purchasing one. I also consider the Step2 Play and Shade pool a great alternative since you can use it as a pool some days and a water table on others. It comes with a few toys and a shade as well, so that gives it bonus points.

Just remember to watch little ones around water. Even a few inches in a bad situation can be a drowning hazard. It's ok to be rolling your eyes at me, I know you all know
that. It's just the mother in me coming out.

OLDER KIDS and FAMILY PLAY : Forget the water table and host a squirt-gun water fight. You might think that this will not keep them occupied long, but you will be surprised. Even teens love this idea. Pick up the cheap assorted-style water guns, a few sand buckets filled with water for quick refills, and a large enough area to run and play. The kids WILL knock over at least one bucket as they run to fill up, so always have extras. Throw in assorted popsicles and you are all set.

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Teen Cellphone Hunt

5/1/2014

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Being around most teens, you may have noticed how difficult it is to get them off of their phones and interacting. I have actually been in a room with five teens who sit in total silence and text their conversations while never saying a word to each other. So, how about taking advantage of this new phenomenon? Play a game of hide and seek with the cellphones.

First, make sure everyone in the group has each others' numbers and start a group text. Then, one person hides an item somewhere in the house. Next, the person who hides the prize sends out hints, one at a time, and leaves a lag time between texts of about two minutes. Every two minutes, a new text hint is sent out by the hider until the prize is ultimately found. The winner becomes the new hider.

This may not get them off the cellphones, but at least it is interactive and can actually start a real conversation!

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<<Previous

In-A-Day Activities

Gofundme a website with a heart

Host a Teen Tailgate Party

Cake decorating contests

Pajama Party Entertaining

Teaching kids about saving money

Cellphone Game- What Is This Object?

High Ropes and Trust Falls

Clothes and More Swap

Water Play! Tables and Squirt Guns.

Teen Cellphone Hunt

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