Fall is the spark of many things, like the leaves and weather changing, but that’s not the only thing. For many families it also means our schedules change too with school, sports, and holidays! Watching your family grow and get busy brings so much joy, but how many of us are wishing we had just that little bit of extra quality time with our family?
With full schedules it’s easy to miss out on some of the little things that can move lower on the priority list as other commitments are added on. Use these easy tips and tricks to get the family a little more intentional within our everyday lives. Whether you have littles or teenagers, these are sure to get the whole family involved!
1. Create a family calendar and find a chunk of time to go for a walk, help with homework, or even do some household chores together. It can be 20 minutes or a few hours, setting this up will give everyone something to look forward to when the schedules are hectic!
2. Watch each other’s favorite movies! With the family calendar, try to set aside an evening where you rotate whose favorite movies you watch with the family. Watching someone’s favorite movie shares a little bit about them and makes everyone feel included.
3. Screen free mealtime - dinner is definitely a good time for everyone to come together and share about their days or week! Setting up a day where everyone can be present and talk about their excitements sets up a good time to visit and be intentional with the time you share.
4. Create a holiday tradition like shopping or wrapping gifts together, decorating for each of the holidays, or cooking a meal together. These all give each member of your family something to help with and can create some of the best memories!
5. Write down a couple of questions like “What was the best part of today?” or “What could have made your day better?” and set them up in a high trafficked area of your home. Every time someone goes by they can answer the questions to those in the room and start a conversation with everyone.
As schedules only get busier, we hope that your family can use these tips to increase your quality of the time you do have together. Every moment counts!
To view the fall 2024 issue of Partners magazine in its entirety, click here.
