6 Ways to Reconnect With The Kids in Your Life

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It is so easy to get distracted and lose sight of the important connections in our life. The kids have sports, activities, friends. You have work, social media, obligations, general adulting.

Let’s take a quick moment to talk about a few simple ways that you can reconnect with the kids in your life, whether you are grandparents, parents, or much older siblings! You could even make a whole week out of reconnecting!

Learn something new together

That instrument you’ve always wanted to learn? Learn it with your child! With programs like VirtuAcademy you don’t even need to leave the comfort of your own home to have Julliard level instructors teach you. My kid’s used this program for Violin and had a great experience. You can also check locally to see if the instrument you are interested in learning has in-person lessons available.

That thing your kid is interested in? Get curious with them! Find books, search youtube – do a deep dive into their interests! They will love it and it is a connection you can share forever.

Teach them how to cook, or learn together! Kids are often fascinated with cooking and it is a LIFE SKILL they will need for when they eventually leave the nest. Here’s a great blog post about teaching kids to cook by age and ability.

Planning a trip somewhere or just really want to learn a new language? Learn it with your child! There are so many programs out there to help both adults and children learn online. The one we have most consistently used in our home is Duolingo. Want an actual teacher to help? Connect with a personal language instructor on Italki.com. They offer affordable 1-on-1 instruction for over 150 languages 🙂

Family Game Night

This is one of the easiest ways to laugh and play together any time of the year and in any weather. You could play several games in one night, or pick one game to spend some time on/play over and over again. If you have multiple kiddos, you could set up a weekly game night, alternating which kid gets to choose the game.

Here are some of our favorites for a variety of ages:

Jenga of all sizes, Sequence, Guess Who, Heads Talk Tails Walk, Chess or Abalone (if looking for two player games), Kids Create Absurdity, Charades, Cranium, Trivial Pursuit Family Edition, Guess in 10 (our kids like the animal one), Headbands. Also on the table are classic card games like Old Maid, Slap Jack and Go Fish 🙂 If your kiddo struggles to hold onto cards, try this nifty card holder out!

A popcorn movie night (where you don’t stare at your phone or shop the whole time)

I would say this is the easiest way to reconnect, but in our household, choosing a movie that we all want to watch is a real challenge! A few fun ways to set this up are to make it a theme night where the snack and the movie align, make popcorn the “old fashioned” way on the stovetop together (my kids think this is fun), or set up an indoor “camp” with a tent to go in and out of while watching.

Alternatively, outdoor movie nights with a projector and a projector screen are top of the list in our family on summer nights for sure- its a novelty and our kids totally dig it when we bust this out on a random Friday 🙂 Don’t want to use your phone for streaming? Grab a TV Stick to plug direcrtly into the projector’s USB port, it works great!

Play outside together (instead of just supervising)

This can be as intense or planned as you want, and is probably one of the best ways to reconnect. The kids will just be happy to see their grownups being playful! We are their best teachers, and showing them that you don’t always have to take yourself so seriously will do wonders for their psyche and your bond. Not the imaginative type? Try playing a simple game of tag, or bump it up a notch to play Laser Tag! Note that 4 of these require loooots of batteries (24 total), so you’ll want a jumbo pack of these bad boys. Other fun?

In the summer: Play outdoor lawn games like Giant Jenga or 4-in-a-row. Set up a Ninja Course or Slack-Line and actually try it with them! Run through the sprinkler or set up a slip ‘n’ slide . Also, don’t forget the simple fun of sidewalk chalk, bubbles, hula hooping, and water balloon/silly string fights!

In the Fall: Go for a hike with a field microscope (we use this one and it is wonderful), do a nature scavenger hunt complete with walkie-talkies, go for a bike ride, or rake up all the leaves together and jump in them!

In the winter: Build a snowman or have a snowball fight! Wanna get creative? Paint the snow with a mix of water and food dye in a spray bottle. Go tubing or sledding – no hill? Pull them around and pretend to be their sled dog while they mush! They will love it. And you will get your steps in 😉

In the spring, Play catch (yes, moms and girls like this activity too!) with a baseball and mit or with a football. Play frisbee. Set up “fairy houses” using natural materials and dig in the dirt together. Stomp in all the puddles!

The options are endless, but those should be a good start 🙂

Plan out a trip as a family

By “trip” I mean anyplace that you plan to take time off as a family together that is not at your home. It could just be an hour away…or the other side of the world… Let your kids participate in the planning! Ask them questions about what is important for them to do or see. When you are looking things up on the internet do it with them – let them get excited (or bored out of their mind) about different aspects of the trip.

Do a craft together

The limits here are almost literally endless. Here are a few favorites:

For the toddlers and preschoolers: Hand Puppets, Animal Plates, Handprint Art Kit. 

For the school age kiddos: Make bouncy balls (be careful with these if you have very little ones or dogs), make pottery at home, do science experiments(OK, this ones not a craft, but it’s a sit down activity that is interactive – our kids love doing experiments!), sew mini animals, or rock painting.

For the tween and teen: Build a wall collage with them for their room, learn hand lettering and modern calligraphy together, make DIY hand stamped jewlery, or work on a wood burning kit.

Start a family book club

This could be handled in a couple different ways. The first is to simply pick a book that the whole family can read and set a day aside each week that you can sit together to discuss and read favorite passages.

This book by Ainsley Arment, Founder of Wild and Free, is a wonderful resource to look at before getting started if you’d really like to start incorporating literature into your family routine. I highly recommend it 🙂

There are so many ways that you can reconnect with your kids today, next week, and every week of their lives. 

Let me know if you try any of these and how they go! I’m just an email away 🙂

Stay curious. Stay Kind.

Danielle