Family Fun Night Ideas

Families come in all shapes and sizes, but the great thing is that God put our families together on purpose, for a purpose. Everything we do can be channeled into kingdom work, so raising children in a Godly home is included in this. There’s one thing you need to know about our family. We’re all about loving well and playing big (and probably also being very loud). That’s why I’m giving you three fun ways to bond as a family. These family fun night ideas are great for any season, rain or shine!

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Love Comes First

Before we dive into our three family fun night ideas, let’s address the most important thing: Love. One of the best things we can do for our kids is to love them well. Thank you, Jesus, for giving us the example of perfect love. In Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, he writes about what love looks like. Hint: love is an action word. When we put love into action that points to Christ, we are loving others well. Read the verse below, and think about what love can look like in your family:

“Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.”

1 Corinthians 13:4-7

Now that you’ve read it through once, do it again, but instead of saying the word “love” replace it with your name. You may cringe in some places, but let that be a gentle reminder of an area where we can put in some growth work. I know after a rough day, I am not always patient. It’s a reminder to me that when we begin our family fun night, I need to check myself in the patience realm.

Pro Tip: Read or say this verse form 1 Corinthians (either to yourself or as a family) prior to beginning your night together. If you read it as a family, it’s a wonderful way to speak life into each other, set good ground rules, and read scripture as a family. Wins all around!

The Build Up

Anticipation is half the fun! An easy way to hype up these family fun night ideas is to get excited! It costs zero dollars to pump up that energy with your kids (and spouse!). In our house, when we look ahead on the calendar, we set a date. It’s goes on our magnetic kitchen fridge calendar, and the countdown begins!

It’s the little things in life, and again, for free, you can set a date, and begin a countdown. You can even spruce it up with a paper chain countdown. Remember these from elementary school? I always grew up with a paper chain countdown for Christmas and then one to kickoff summer. Nostalgic win for you, plus a fun way to build up all the excitement. Bonus: the paper chain answers the infamous question, “How many days left?” Just point to that countdown chain, and the kids get counting practice while they’re at it.

The build up process is two-fold. One: It gets the kids excited, which makes everything more magical. Two: It helps you, the parent, get your mind right. You may not be a parent that absolutely loves family fun night ideas, but you know that building loving memories as a crew is good for all parties involved. The build up ensures you’re in the right head space when the time approaches. Forgetting about the family fun night is also terrible, especially because the kids will not forget.

We’ve addressed beginning with love and building up the event, so now it’s time for the three family fun night ideas! There are a ton of great suggestions out there, but here are the top three we use in our house that are all crowd favorites. Remember, take it, tweak it to your household, and have fun loving each other well and making lasting core memories.

Idea #1: Movie Night

Who doesn’t love a good movie night? The great news about this family fun night idea is that you can host it in different parts of your house for a simple switch up. Try out different spaces in your house if you have them, and over time, y’all will find your favorite spot.

Now for the million dollar question:

What movie should you watch? Hint: Deciding this before the day of your movie night will make the build up more fun, and the customizing more fun (more on that in a bit). You can rotate through classics you all enjoy, or watch a new movie. We’ve currently been in a nostalgic phase. So our kids have recently seen shows like Homeward Bound, Ferngully, Mighty Ducks, Hook, etc… It’s been fun quoting the movie lines to each other, and nothing sounds more encouraging than a loud “Bangarang Rufio!” now and again.

If we’re going to watch a movie that Morgan nor I have been able to see beforehand, I like to check it out on a my favorite Christian movie review site, Plugged In. It breaks down the entire movie and gives very specific examples of what all we would be exposed to if we watched any given show. If we choose to move forward and watch, it gives us the time ahead of movie night to have conversations and address any potential issues. This makes it so much easier than pausing along the way to explain things, or worse, never addressing topics that need to be discussed.

The streaming services out there take away most of the headache because they’re so good at categorizing. Just hop over to your favorite service and search as a family. If you’re wanting to streamline this step further, you and your spouse can choose a few movies and play the previews for the kids, then let them agree. We have frequently used the phrase, “You must come to a consensus.”

We’ve also taken turns, picked our top three, or even had a marathon. This can look a million different ways, so do what you like best. For example, Morgan and I have preselected five movies, and each kid ranks them in order of which they want to watch. Odds are, they’ll likely get to watch one of their top three choices. If you’re looking for a marathon, there have been times we’ve back to backed all the High School Musical movies together. The kids have a blast getting to stay up later than usual.

You can also go with what’s seasonal. There are plenty of fun summer movies that all ages can enjoy. We’ve done a fun beach summer kickoff before and watched Finding Nemo, Finding Dory, and Moana. If it’s an Olympic year, bust out all the motivational sports movies! Miracle on Ice gets me every time. We’ve also recently had soccer playoffs, so you know we had The Big Green on repeat! You can even do a Christmas in July theme! This can be as creative as you want.

Customize your movie night:

Now that you’ve selected your movie, it’s time to have fun customizing the experience. You can go all out, or just keep it simple. We do a mix of both depending on the situation and season. This is meant to be family fun night ideas, so if you burn out with going big, tone it back a bit so you can enjoy the moment too.

Simple version: Pick up some Chick-Fil-A on the way home, put the movie on, and enjoy the meal together while the movie begins. As you finish, make your way to the couch to watch the rest of the show. When your kids look back on the memories, they’ll remember being together for movie night, and feeling the love. Mission accomplished.

All out version: Here’s an example of a recent movie night. A couple days ahead of time we selected Angels in the Outfield (I told you we were in a throwback phase!). We talked baseball all week, and we answered all the questions about angels. Do we really see them? Do they like baseball? Is Christopher Lloyd and angel in real life?

Thanks to Plugged In, we knew that we were going to hit some tough topics too, namely the foster system. It gave us the chance to address all those questions and point back to our loving father God who will never leave us.

When the night for the movie came, we had peanuts, crackerjacks (caramel popcorn), pizza, and the kids grabbed their favorite flavor of gatorade. I have a friend who’s daughter recently finished the Harry Potter books, so they had a HUGE movie marathon. The mom decorated, had themed cookies, and cute trinkets to go along with it. I jokingly/not jokingly invited myself. Relax, I didn’t go, but I definitely asked for a play by play and pictures! It was awesome!

How we typically kick off our movie nights:

It’s movie night time! We’ve just finished eating dinner, so now it’s time to get our theater set up. By theater, I mean the couch and floor. We put a ton of pillows and blankets down to make a pallet. Then, the kids head to their rooms to change into jammies. While they’re doing that, I put a couple of our oversized blankets into the dryer to get them all toasty.

Trail mix time! Once the kids are done changing, we head to the pantry and start bringing out all the things we need to make trail mix. We’re talking, variety popcorn, candy, chocolate chips, pretzels, you name it. Anything can go in trail mix, right? That’s our rule, anyway! We each get our own bowl, and we add in all the things to get our perfect combination. By the time we’ve overfilled our bowls, the dryer goes off. Then, we all rejoice because warm cuddly blankets and snacks is the best combination.

The movie plays, we eat trail mix, and we press pause if we need snack or drink refills, and potty breaks. I love movie nights! Makes me want to go have one right now! I hope you love this first of three family fun night ideas as much as I do! These movie nights are perfect for when you’ve had a busy week and need to get off your feet. It’s a way to be together without pouring out a ton of energy.

Idea #2: Game Night

Ready for an energy boost after our cuddly and cozy movie night? Great! Another household favorite of ours when it comes to family fun night ideas is game night! We love games…really love them. If we could play games every night, we would! Game nights are a great way to teach competitive fire (shout out 1 Corinthians 9:24). It’s also great for teaching good sportsmanship (back to love not being boastful or rude).

Now for the million dollar question:

What games should we play? That’s great question, and there are a million right answers to go along with this. This is family game night, so ideally you want something that everyone enjoys, or enjoys being on the team of a parent. For example, if Uno or Go Fish is too advanced, let the toddler be on your team and play the cards for you.

Hint: This is the part where you teach as you go. “We need to play a yellow or a 7, do we have a yellow or 7?” “We have three cards with the number four”. Who do you want to ask to see if they have any 4s?” Love is patient and kind, remember? The only way they’re ever going to be able to play on their own is if you teach them.

Games that we love:

We’re just now creeping in to more strategy and in depth games, so this is so exciting for us! But for starters, any basic game is good. Card games include, Uno, Go Fish, Memory, Battle, Slap Jack, etc… We also love games that help you move your body. Hungry Hungry Hippo, Connect Four, help do this. A family favorite is Charades. Charades is such an amazing game for all ages, and helps develop young brains. Rhett has been playing Charades since about age 2, and he has proven to be the most hilarious actor in the family. These are classics that are in constant rotation in our house.

For the next level up, look into games with basic strategy. Guess Who is great for learning how to ask good questions. Operation and Jenga are wonderful for fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination. Think low level strategy and check age appropriate labels on the boxes (those are just suggestions for typical age ranges). You’ll be surprised when your kids catch on, and it’ll be exciting for everyone!

Woohoo! Mid level strategy games are here! The great news, is that some of your favorite board games have a kid version! If you have a game you love, go see if it has a junior version. It gives kid friendly situations, and levels up smoothly when they’re ready to advance. Ticket to Ride is a favorite of ours. So, the kid version is definitely going to be a future Christmas present. I am also obsessed with Clue. When I discovered Jr. Detective, I definitely did a happy dance as I went through the checkout line.

How we kick off our family game nights:

Just like with our first of three family fun night ideas, we set a date and start a countdown. We build up the excitement, and keep 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 in mind. As a matter of fact, let’s read that again, just in case we forgot how we’re supposed to act during some friendly competition (me talking to myself).

“Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.”

1 Corinthians 13:4-7

We typically play each kid’s game (we rotate each time with who’s game we start with), and we call it an evening. They’ll have the countdown time to think about what they want to play, and change their mind a few times between then and when it’s actually time to play their games. The great news is that we’ll have another game night again, so if they have a couple favorites, they’ll get to do that one next time.

Sloane is really loving Junior Detective right now, and since it’s a lot like Clue, I love it too! Rhett joins one of the adults to be on their team for this one. Our girls are reading now, so it gives them the chance to read and understand all the clues and hints. Man, games are so good for our brains!

Scout has been loving card games lately. Depending on her mood, we may play Go Fish or get a really intense game of Battle going. She is super competitive, so giving her the choice of game is something she really values.

Rhett…if you were here for episode 293 “How to Load the Car for a Road Trip“, then you know that boy loves his Ranchy toys. So he has invented his own game, and it’s called Zoo. Each kid plays a different role every time we play this, so we just go with it. Morgan and I play the same roles every time per Rhett’s instructions.

I play the role of mommy, and I visit the zoo. If one of the girls chooses to be my kid, I am taking them to the zoo. If the girls are not playing the role of “kid”, they join Rhett as the animals. Morgan plays the role of zookeeper/tour guide, and he only speaks with an Australian accent. It cracks me up, and I am always so impressed with Morgan’s ability to stay in character.

Now, when you play Zoo, the mommy and potentially kids meet the zookeeper/tour guide and he takes us throughout the zoo. As we walk through the entire house, the zookeeper shows us all the different animals. Now remember, Rhett and potentially the girls are playing the role of all the animals, so they sprint from room to room, and when we get there, they are acting. Sometimes Morgan chooses the animals, and sometimes Rhett does, but there is always a couple of moments when a dangerous animal escapes, and we all play along. It’s equal parts hilarious and creative, and it always makes us laugh.

Game night is one of our absolute favorite family fun night ideas! This makes me want to go plan one right now! I love that as we are making these memories for our children, it could one day be passed down to our grandchildren. I grew up playing games, and now it’s a full circle moment when we go over to my parents house and we bust our the cards, dice, or board games and play!

Idea #3: Fort Night

No, not the video game, but the actual building of forts. I could spend all day talking about how much I love forts of all kinds. When I was in elementary school, my dad and I designed and built a tree fort over Spring Break. With the help of my dad, uncles, grandpa, and cousins, this amazing tree fort came to life, and everyone LOVED it. We have since moved, but that thing was still going strong almost two decades later.

Today, we’re not talking about outside forts, but we’re addressing forts that anyone can make. If you have blankets, chairs, and some creativity, you can make a fort come to life in a matter of minutes. When you make a fort as a family, you have the chance to bond in imagination and work as a team to accomplish a common goal. Now that’s excellent soft skill building right there!

Now for the million dollar question:

Where are you going to build this thing?! This depends on how long you’d like to keep it up. We tend to make single day forts in the living room, but we do have the occasional takes-up-most-of-the-room fort that stays up for an extended period of time. We are currently on week three of a massive fort construction that is located in the game room. It’s nothing short of magical, and the kids play in it every day. But first, let’s reflect on our verse for this episode so we can see where we need our focus to be.

“Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.”

1 Corinthians 13:4-7

“Love doesn’t demand its own way” sticks out to me here. If we’re loving well, we hear out all ideas, see if they’re solid in the engineering process. There are multiple opinions going into this project, so it’s important to hear everyone out. See what tweaks need to be made, and operate under “If we can make it work, let’s give it a try.”

“Love it not irritable and keeps no record of wrong.” Perfect mindset for this third of our family fun night ideas. Making forts takes all hands on deck and lots of teamwork. If that chip clip fails to hold three big blankets, we can’t sit and pout. We need to fix the roof so the imaginary rain doesn’t come into the house. Or, how about a skylight so we can see the imaginary meteor shower? When we get irritable in fort night and keep record of the failed engineering (which likely happens), it takes the fun out of it. Love well through this. These minds need to learn to fail forward with a team rooting for them.

Elements of a good fort:

Now that we have the ground rules for this family fun night idea, let’s talk about optimal fort making. There are a ton of fun fort tools out there, but let’s keep it simple for today. I’ll link all the things, so if you want to go big on your forts with beyond the basics, it’ll be here for you in the show notes. For now, let’s use what we probably already have in our house.

Scavenger hunt time! Once you’ve decided on building a fort, I always like to turn it into a scavenger hunt of gathering and organizing supplies. We’ve got three kids in our crew, so we start by blurting out the basic supplies so they kids can start grabbing them and taking them to our fort spot. Again, think about how long you’re keeping the fort alive. For a day, most anywhere in your house would be great. If it’s staying up for more than 24 hours, I’d recommend a room that is out of your high traffic areas.

How we kickoff fort night:

Just like with our other family fun night ideas, we set a date, and build up the hype! We choose our location ahead of time as well as tell our kids how long the fort will stay up. HINT: It’s easier to be the giver of more time with the fort, than taking time away. For example, if you’re building a fort in a low traffic area, but want it picked up by the weekend, tell them that. If/when you decide to let them keep it up for the weekend, you’re the giver of time and the fort hero! Another hint: Don’t take fort time away. If you’ve said it would be up for three days, don’t make it two… This is a whole other podcast episode, so just trust me on that one.

It’s family fort time! We start naming all the things we need and the kids start bringing them to the fort construction site. While they’re doing this, I begin the structural foundation. I build out corners at a time and fill in the middle gaps along the way. The current fort we have, we’ve got four bar stools and four dining chairs. I have two tall chairs as the back two corners, and two tall chairs side to side in the front middle (think tall triangle).

I have the four dining height chairs, two are the front two corners, and the other two are on either side between the tall and dining height chairs. There are limitless ways to build a fort, this is just what we have this time. I also don’t like to build the same fort twice, but that’s just me! The four pop up tents we have are placed in as rooms, and then blankets are all on top of that thing.

Now you’re ready to go! You’ve got three family fun night ideas in your back pocket. Use them rain or shine, but the most important elements are not to be forgotten. Keep love all up in your family fun night, and enjoy the build up of excitement! Let’s recap the family fun night ideas:

• Movie night
• Game night
• Fort night

Links from the Show

• Summer Thrive Guide Mini Series (ep 291-304)
• Type 1 Diabetes, Rhett’s episode 185
• Witty & Gritty on Instagram