Name: Thrive! NCHE Homeschool Conference
Start: 2025-05-22T00:00:00-05:00
End: 2025-05-24T23:59:59-05:00
Location: Winston-Salem, NC

Tagged: Family Activities, family time, free-time, small houses

This topic has 28 replies, 15 voices, and was last updated 10 years, 7 months ago by LindseyD.

Viewing 14 posts - 16 through 29 (of 29 total)

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September 18, 2014 at 6:05 pm
Scoathy
Participant
Have you heard of Geocaching? (global treasure hunt using GPS) We started doing this a few months back. It’s a great outdoor hobby for the whole family 🙂
Here is a post I wrote on it if you want more details.
http://lifeshiddentreasures.com/3/post/2014/08/geocaching-a-new-hobby.html

September 18, 2014 at 7:14 pm
Claire
Participant
I’m curious Lindsey, what happens if you don’t plan anything in the evenings?
September 18, 2014 at 7:24 pm
MountainMamma
Participant
Geocaching is great! There are tons of them in Texas (we lived there for 15 months). We were geocaching a few weeks ago (in Colorado…not Texas) and almost got bit by a rattlesnake… so do be careful! You have to step off the trails to find many of them.
Another idea is to check your local science, nature, or state park website. They often have nighttime activities for families. I know in our area, they have stargazing group that meets up once a month to observe the night sky from high up on a mountain. You could always just do this with your family too. Just drive up to the highest point around or out in the country away from city lights, put out a blanket, lay down and look up. It would be fun to compare each month to see changes in the night sky.
September 18, 2014 at 7:48 pm
LindseyD
Participant
Geocaching is a great idea! And something my husband has mentioned in the past. I think we’ll have to try it!
Claire, if we don’t have some sort of an idea of what we’re going to do in the evenings, we end up watching a movie or something else on Netflix together. Not the worst thing in the world, but as a family who tries to limit screen time, I’m ashamed to say that over the last couple of months, we’ve reverted to watching something on the screen more often than I am comfortable with. If nothing is planned, the kids’ first question is, “Can we watch a show?” And then about 50% of the time, we’re saying yes to that because we have no idea of what else to do. The other 50% of the time, we’ll play a game or dh will take the kids swimming for a while, but as i mentioned earlier, swimming is about to end as the weather cools off.
When we lived in our own single-family home with our own yard, this wasn’t a big deal at all. There was plenty for us to do as a family, whether it was playing outside or even just my dh and I sitting in our swing and watching the kids ride bikes or draw with chalk on the driveway. In the winter time, we bundled up and played in the snow. In an apartment, it just feels different. Many people have dogs in our complex, us included, and the grass right outside of our door is a popular place to take dogs to potty. Fortunately, our apartment has rules about picking up after your pet, but the poop trashcan is in the plot of grass outside our door. I don’t want my kids playing in that grass, even if there’s no visible poop, ya know? 😉 There’s a playground at our complex, but my children aren’t interested in playgrounds anymore. Just the other day, ds10.5 told us that he felt like he was too old for the playground.
Worse than watching a show or even being bored, is my own mommy guilt. I feel that I haven’t been intentional about our family time when the evening passes without us doing something together (other than TV) that’s fun and enjoyable for everyone. My children are older now (9 and 10.5), and reality has set in that they’re growing up too fast. So this is more about me needing ideas to create intentional times of togetherness and fun with my family than anything else.
Just yesterday, I was having a conversation with a friend. She had overscheduled her children and was spending hours of her day running to and from various extracurriculars and activities. She was exhausted and missed the free, unstructured time they once enjoyed. I told her I was in the opposite position. I feel like we have way too much time on our hands. The children and I have 3-4 hours a day of free, unstructured play time with which to pursue our own interests, take a nap, read a book or whatever we choose. After we eat dinner, there’s another 2.5 hours to fill, and none of us is interested in doing what we just did in the previous 3-4 hours. Does that make sense? So my friend and I both agreed that we were at opposite ends of a spectrum of time and we both need to find the balance.
@MountainMamma, Dh and I let the kids stay up untl almost midnight a few weeks ago for the meteor shower. We went out in pjs to a remote country road and waited for almost an hour to see the shower. We saw two very faint meteors, and that was it. We were all so disappointed! Still, that’s a great idea!
ETA: After contacting several nursing homes, I finally found one yesterday that would be happy to have our family serve one evening per week. We are all very excited about this!
September 18, 2014 at 8:45 pm
Claire
Participant
Ok, now I’m seeing the picture better. We don’t have 3-4 hours free anymore in the afternoons here so the evenings are our free, un-scheduled time. So, if there are no plans we all resort to various activities together and apart that seem to happen spontaneously and don’t need structure. Occassionally we are all bored too though and then we do the park (which means walking really and not so much the playgrounds any more for us either), hike, take a ride, explore a new area of the city, window shop, get an snow ball, etc.
I’m not even going down the path of “why don’t we have afternoons free anymore?” because I can’t! I just can’t!
September 19, 2014 at 11:15 am
LindseyD
Participant
Yep, once we finish with school, chores, and lunch by about 1:30, we’ve got until dh gets home to do whatever we like. That’s at 4:30 or 5:00. Our afternoons are wonderful and slow and I love them. But by evening time, I’m ready for a change of pace, and so are the children.
I actually don’t even interact with my kids much during that time, unless I’ve planned a baking day or an afternoon at the park. Usually, they’re off in their own world with their Legos or stuffed animals or they want to lay down and read for an hour or two. So, yeah, in the evenings, we need to be together as a family and focus on our family’s culture. It’s just hard to come up with stuff that interests everyone! And because my kids are getting older, the stuff that was once fun and interesting to them seems to be changing–as it should. I just have to keep up!
September 19, 2014 at 12:26 pm
Claire
Participant
It’s interesting spending time with the kids in the same way we have since they were little now that they are older. I mean they’re pretty much teenagers! And yet we still spend our time largely together and prefer to be near to one another when we are doing our own things too. We live in “Tinyville” though too so you can’t physically get too far away but we all have our own bedrooms. It’s sort of a family joke now. We are always together – the four of us! I look around and see families where that is not the case (not yours, I’m just thinking right now) and I kind of wonder what that would be like too. I don’t think my family looked like this when I was growing up, at least not initially. Later when the other kids were gone and it was just me and my parents we did do more just the three of us. I think it’s a challenging (thinking of teen pressures/changes, everyone’s changing roles and maturity) way to raise a family but it’s nice to see we’ve done it more isolated in the country and also here in the city. I always wonder if they’d be happier if they were off every afternoon or evening doing some activity outside the home but they don’t seem to want to do that so I use that as my gage. Family dinners, family outings and activities, homeschooling … I joke with them “it’s keeping everyone out of prison and off drugs” and then they say (lovingly) “you all are such nerds!” 🙂 It does make for a very tight unit and lots of communication! You can’t hide anything opperatiing like this … 🙂
Fun thread to think on Lindsey, thanks!
September 19, 2014 at 12:30 pm
Claire
Participant
I better clarify that they have activities outside the home too – sports, classes, youth group, friends, clubs – lest I make them sound bizarre! (or if they read this and say “geez, mom, way to make us look like nuts!”) I just meant when not engaged they are here and we are together. And that we all seem to see one another as really close friends. The kids explained to me yesterday that they consider one another their best friends! Wow, how neato is that?!
September 19, 2014 at 12:57 pm
LindseyD
Participant
We LOVE our small house! In fact, I went into it so excited because I knew it would bring us closer together; and it has. We have a poem hanging on the wall right by the front door, so no one can leave or be in the living room without seeing it:
Love grows best in little houses,With fewer walls to separate.Where you eat and sleep so close together,You can’t help but to communicate.And if we had more room between us,Think of all we’d miss.Love grows best in houses just like this.

My kids are definitely best friends, and they love their free time in the afternoons. Heck, I love my free time in the afternoons too!
Growing up, my parents watched a lot of TV. We weren’t allowed or invited to watch most of the shows they watched. We stayed in our rooms and did homework or played or watched our own TV in our bedrooms. In fact, if we came into the living room during my parents’ show, we had to wait until a commercial before we were allowed to speak to them. “Family Movie Night” didn’t exist in my house! Nor did read alouds, game nights, or anything like that. Family evenings were just not something I had growing up, so I don’t really have an example to follow.
My mother and I spent time together in the kitchen, baking and cooking. But once dinner was over and the dishes washed, we were all separated–mom and dad watching TV, my brothers and I doing our own thing. And of course, once I was driving, I was gone 5-6 nights a week.
God has given me grace and allowed me to raise my children differently, and we were in a pretty good groove with our family time until moving. That threw us off, and it’s been hard to get back on track. Adjusting to apartment living has been a challenge too, though the good far outweighs the bad. It’s just another challenge!
September 19, 2014 at 1:14 pm
RobinP
Participant
If you were closer to me, Lindsey, y’all could help us milk in the evenings. 🙂 Sny evening you want. Just pick one.
September 19, 2014 at 1:15 pm
LindseyD
Participant
Ummm, Robin, we would absolutely help you milk in the evenings…if we lived closer. Sigh…
September 20, 2014 at 11:56 am
art
Participant
Lindsey,
I wanted to thank you for the comments about a tiny house. We have the smallest possible house for the number of people we have. We are together absolutely 100% of the time. We don’t do anything outside the house that isn’t together. Although, once a week the kids have youth activities at church; and they are sometimes in seperate groups by age or gender for an hour. Other than that, every every everything we do is together.
We’ve been dying to get out of our tiny house for years. I mean, we ALL sleep in one huge bedroom and the other “bedrooms” have reasons we can’t use them–baby grand piano, street noise, etc. We have 4 kids ages 21 to 11. It’s pretty ridiculous, but I’ve never known a family as close as ours (not personally). People comment on it all the time too.
My 21 year old is away at college (across the country) and we Skype with him every day for prayer and scripture together, as well as another phone call in the evening. The other kids miss him so much, and he genuinely loves being with the younger ones.
I wonder if it would have been this way if we hadn’t spent every waking minute together all their lives.
I’m counting my blessings this morning, and I thank you.
September 21, 2014 at 6:32 pm
Claire
Participant
I thought of something we used to do but forgot about when we moved … I had this crazy rooster mug filled with “talking sticks” and we used to lounge around the living room or after supper at the table and pull one to start a conversation. I think they were really silly back then because the kids were younger but that would be a neat idea. It could even be an “i spy” theme or a “Find it” theme. Pull a stick and then have to locate the object based on the cryptic clues? Or use some “conversation starters” from online for the sticks.
Just a thought. It might lead to silly or serious discussion fun. We love to talk and discuss and even debate in our family so this is right up our alley.
September 22, 2014 at 10:11 pm
LindseyD
Participant
I wanted to check back in and let you all know what dh and I have decided for our family’s evenings.
We decided to keep Family Movie Night on Fridays since we all enjoy that and it’s a great way to start the weekend. I contacted a nursing home that is very excited to have our family come on Thursday evenings and spend time with their residents in the locked Alzheimer’s/dementia ward. They currently have no volunteers for those residents, so we immediately felt that was a need our family could meet. Sundays are for rest and everyone to do whatever they like (watch a football game, nap, read, watch a movie, etc.). We are keeping Saturdays open for entertaining friends or going to friends’ houses.
Our other nights aren’t scheduled as they previously were. My children are clock watchers and constantly want to stay on a schedule and have the same routine week after week. I suppose I am partly to blame for this. Anyway, we aren’t going to schedule anything for the remaining nights of the week, as we feel that it’s important for our children to also learn spontaneity. So dh and I have the other activities in our minds but not on the schedule, if that makes sense. Geocaching was something he was particularly interested in, so we will plan on that once every couple of weeks, as soon as we can figure it out. We have decided to hook our Wii back up (hasn’t been used in 2 years) and have dance parties using Just Dance once a week. Our kids have discovered Just Dance videos on YouTube and our family has been doing that together for a couple of days now. We are also going to have our nature walk one evening per week, and will plan it depending on weather.
I am very interested in beginning to learn a craft, such as crocheting, with dd. I haven’t decided the best way to go about doing this, but I’m looking into it. I just don’t have much patience with teaching crafts to my kids, especially when the craft is wholly unfamiliar to me as well.
All your other ideas were stellar and helped us a lot. Some, like cooking or baking as an entire family, just aren’t doable in our current home. As much as we love the smaller space in which we now find ourselves, this apartment is sorely lacking a kitchen that all of us can fit in at once. Two at most is all we can do without frustration, and even that is challenging. Plus, I cook 3 meals a day, and I honestly don’t want to get back into the kitchen again in the evening once dinner is finished and the kitchen cleaned.
Thank you again for your wonderful suggestions!