Between after-school practice, work deadlines and maintaining some sort of social life it’s easy to only “spend time” with the family in the car in between destinations.  Our schedules get hectic and as children get older they start to become their own. Spending time as a family is important so here a few easy ways to fit in some family time so your house doesn’t feel like you have a bunch of roommates. 

Whiteboard Calendar

Hang up a white board calendar in a central place.  Some good spots are the kitchen or in the bedroom hallway.  Have everyone write appointments and events with a different color marker for each person or mark the event with initials.  The goal here is to find one day, just one day that month where you can plan something together!  White Board Calendars make it easy to erase, update and reuse month-to-month.

Early Morning

Wake up 30 minutes earlier and cook breakfast together.  This could probably work better on the weekends for some so it’s not at the crack of dawn! 

Field Trips & Events

Try to get the whole family to participate whenever possible.  If you’re attending a baseball game, for example, try to do something before the event together so then after the game they can spend time celebrating with the team.  It’s a win, win!

These tips may not apply to all family units but hopefully, they can inspire some ideas to find ways to spend time together.  It doesn’t always have to be a big getaway or a vacation. Spending time together should be simple.