Mack Thomas - 99 Ways to Entertain Your Family for Free!

Live in harmony with one another.
R OMANS 12:16

Heres step number one for the best indoor entertainment: escape and unplug from electronic media as much as possible. When it comes to entertainment, you have better things to domore enriching and healthier, more restorative and recreationalwith your time and your brain cells.

Yes, theres a valid place in our lives for electronic technology, but lifes too short to give it the amount of time that it tends to addictively suck from us. Plus, electronic media often tend to separate families more than unite them. After all, youre not primarily a collection of screen-frozen, lock-eyed, keypad-punching individuals; youre a family.

Get in the habit of doing things that regularly get you talking together, thinking together, sharing together, laughing togetherand enjoying the new sparkle in one anothers eyes.

N EVER B ORED WITH B OARD G AMES

On a stay-inside, disagreeable-weather day, have a board game marathon. Have everyone choose a favorite board game, and take turns playing them all.

For some variety, allow the person who chose the game to make one rule change in how that game is played, and make it a fun alteration. For example, in Scrabble, give everyone a five-or ten-point bonus score for each word they play that includes a letter in their name. Or in Monopoly, charge everyone a fifty-dollar fee, payable to the bank, each time they complete their turn without saying either please or thank you. Or in Clue, have two murderers responsible for the crime (sharing the same weapon) instead of just one. In Risk, divide the players into two alliances who strategize together and never attack each other; one alliance wins whenever just one person on the opposing side has all her troops eliminated.

P ICTURE T HIS

Get out your old family photos and go through them together. You may want to sort and organize them as you go, but the main point is simply to enjoy them together. Take plenty of time to reminisce.

Together choose your top three, five, or ten photos in several categories; for example, funniest, weirdest, coolest, most embarrassing, most revealing, happiest occasion, most serious occasion, most tired occasion, most energetic occasion, most awkward occasion, most formal occasion, most relaxed occasion, best shot for a family Christmas card, best shot for a family scrapbook cover, best shot for a wanted poster, and best shot for a national magazine cover (just in case you get asked!).

Also identify your oldest family photo (perhaps one of grandparents or great-grandparents).

Make a visual family tree, with a favorite photo of each person.

F AMILY C REST

To best illustrate and symbolize each persons personality in your family, have them each choose a living creature (lion, eagle, ox, gazelle, tiger, spider, dragonfly, etc.) or plant (sagebrush, daisy, heather, rose, oak tree, lily, wheat stalk, pine tree, apple tree, etc.) or some other object (lighthouse, book, rock, hammer, shield, nest, etc.). In the same way, choose symbols in these categories that best represent your family as a whole. (Also research the meaning of your family name, and think about how to indicate it visually and symbolically.)

At the library or online, research the topic of heraldry. Design your own family crest or coat of arms, or individual crests, that will incorporate the symbols youve chosen.

You can illustrate all this on posters. Or make a family banner (or banners for each person) using cloth fragments and old sheets and towels, etc.