Family bonding provides a variety of benefits for parents and children alike. Productive communicating, establishing mutual respect, and valuing individual members are all positive outcomes of successful family bonding.
Sometimes, opportunities for bonding may be minimally present in busy lives. When it is present, it can often settle into a repetitive routine. Your family’s usual way of spending nights together, like dining out, participating in game night, and watching movies can become tedious and unengaging. Here are 3 fresh bonding ideas that are challenging and stimulating enough to strengthen familial bonds.
Learn a Musical Instrument Together
Learning a musical instrument offers a number of benefits when done on your own. This process has been shown to relieve stress, improve confidence, and establish a sense of self-discipline.
When done with family members, the benefits of learning a musical instrument are augmented. You can hold one another accountable for practicing, encourage each other through any encountered frustrations, celebrate shared victories, teach your children skills you’ve learned, accept tips from them, and share a common interest.
Ideally, you and your family should take up an instrument that fosters a sense of sharing, like a piano. Two family members can easily sit down at a piano bench together and play different parts of a song in harmony. Other members can sing along to join in on the fun and learning!
This bonding activity only requires a one-time investment in the instrument your family decides on. Additionally, you can save money on lessons by learning the techniques and jargon of the music world through online resources.
Revamp Your House
This idea has the potential to positively contribute to your family’s dynamic and improve the quality of your home. Home improvement projects you can work on with your family include:
- Starting a garden
- Building a fence
- Painting a room
- Fixing a roof
- Building an organisational space
- And much more!
These activities often present frustrations and aren’t accomplished overnight. Completing these projects as a family will foster teamwork. Working through hiccups in any home improvement process is a great way to establish a sense of collaboration and fairness within your family because everyone will be contributing to the end goal.
This idea has the added benefit of enhancing your home’s aesthetic and structural value! And it can be an opportunity to pass on important life skills to your children. Your family can share the sense of accomplishment that home improvement projects bring.
Visit an Escape Room
This activity gets everyone out of the house. It is a way to have fun while working together as a team. In an escape room, like the ones at Trapped Puzzle Rooms, all participants work towards a common goal: solving a series of puzzles in order to get out of an enclosed area.
While the environment of an escape room is purely for entertainment, it offers a chance for families to assess and appreciate each other’s strengths and to celebrate solving clues together. This activity can improve communication between individual family members because of its challenging nature.
Escape rooms are growing in popularity. Depending on where you live, there is likely one near you. A lot of escape rooms are made to be accessible for those who experience trouble getting around. Additionally, escape rooms are often made to be age-appropriate, some even have entertaining themes that range from Harry Potter to museum art theft. You and your family can enjoy these entertaining themes and revisit escape rooms again and again without running out of rooms to enjoy!
At the end of the day, no matter what activity you choose, the most important factor to consider is whether it promotes true family bonding. With the challenging activities listed here, your family members can learn to work through challenges together while having fun in the process.
