How to Have a Fun Friday Night at Home With Family

You don't have to spend a lot of money to have a lot of fun. Stay home on Friday night to hang out together, laugh, talk and bond. You'll be having such a good time you won't even miss an expensive night out on the town.

Things You'll Need

• Food
• Movies
• Snacks
• Games
• Tickets
• Prizes
• Music
• Family photos
• Scrapbooking supplies

Instructions

1. Design an interactive dinner to encourage family participation. Set up a build-your-own pizza bar, nachos station, salad bar and dessert center. Take requests before you shop for ingredients to include everyone's favorites.

2. Organize movie night in your family room. Choose a few favorites from your DVD collection and allow family members to "buy" tickets to see one of them. Create a snack bar in the kitchen with popcorn, sodas, hot dogs and candy. Give each person some money to spend on snacks.

3. Play games and set up an arcade-style prize redemption center right at home. Give them tickets if they reach a certain score on a video game, Scrabble, Boggle or win at Bingo or Twister, for example. Let them redeem the tickets for toys, trinkets, books and snacks that you've purchased at a discount store.

4. Make up stories and songs. Play the "one word story game" by sitting in a circle and having each member contribute the next word as you go around the room. Create fun new endings for classic fairy tales. Buy a Karaoke-style compact disc, but instruct family members to make up different words rather than sing the proper lyrics.

5. Get out your family photos and allow each person to create a scrapbook layout of their favorite memories or milestones. Have a selection of cardstock, patterned paper, pens, adhesives and simple embellishments like stickers and die cuts on hand so even younger kids can participate.

Tips & Warnings

• Friday night fun at home can also reinforce educational concepts. Kids can practice money math at the movie night snack bar, counting when redeeming tickets for prizes and spelling when playing games like Scrabble.