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Remember all those goals you set at the beginning of the year?  I bet one of them was something to the effect of “spend more time together as a family”.

How are you doing with that?

What steps are you taking to make sure that is happening?

If you are reading this with a raised eyebrow and no answer – that’s okay.  A family night activity cart can be a step in the right direction.

If you already have a plan and system in place for family time hopefully the activity cart will just add an element of fun and remove the step of having to plan activities every week.

Creating a Family Night Activity Cart (or shelf or station or using whatever space you have) is so easy!

The cart I use is from Ikea.  I love Ikea because their stuff is fantastic quality and less pricey than most other stores.  If you don’t have an Ikea close you can always grab one off amazon.  This one is similar.

What to put in your Family Night Activity Cart

First things First – What you decide to include in your cart should be based on what your family enjoys and the age of your children.

My girls are currently into puzzles, Disney, Playdoh.  At ages 2 and 4 whatever activities we do must keep them entertained at all times or they will be off in a flash.

Think outside the box too!  Maybe your family likes to get outside together.  Maybe your activity station should include different yard games.

If you are a family of gamers, maybe you have specific games that you only play together.

This does not have to be an expensive project.  In fact other then the cart I spent ZERO dollars on our activities.

Begin by inventorying what you already have.

The second thing to do is check out what you already have.  You might be surprised what you can come up with if you haven’t cleaned out your playroom, junk drawer, under the kid’s bed or inside that random closet.

 

It’s amazing how you manage to accumulate those games and activities that you don’t use every day

In my situation, I had everything in one closet but it was all over the place.

My kids had gotten lots of art kits, puzzles and games for Christmas and their birthdays and it had all just found its way to the linen closet.  I seriously forgot we had most of it.

Make sure you have all the pieces for the puzzles and games you are putting in your cart.  Go ahead and toss anything that is missing parts.  Seriously!  Don’t keep holding on to something that you cant use!

Gather it all up and get it into that cart! Neatly!

Third, and this is the fun part put it all together.  Make sure you can SEE what you have available.

Schedule Family Night

Lastly, schedule a day, or two, or three and get family night – screen free – on the calendar!  Remember that to make your goals a reality you MUST be intentional about them.  Getting your activities altogether won’t do any good unless you FOLLOW THROUGH!

 

PS Want to see what we have in our cart?

BIG Puzzle piece puzzles.  The kids love these and they are really easy for BOTH kiddos to work on. LIke this

 

Peaceable Kingdom Count Your Chickens Cooperative Board Game

Wonder Forge Disney Classic Characters Matching Game

Mattel Games Big Picture Apples to Apples Game

We also keep the bottom shelf full of adult games.

We host holidays at our house and break out the dominoes once we are all full and miserable! I cant even remember how many years we have been playing dominoes but we cant stop now!

We also have a few card games

 

 

 

 

 

 

Charades and some movie trivia cards.