Family Team-Building Activities
A study by the Department of Health and Human Services showed that strong families yield successful children. Family team-building activities can be essential to building and maintaining a strong family connection. These activities can be used any night of the week or at larger family gatherings, such as family reunions.
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Family Storytelling
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Gather family members together on the floor, sitting in a circle. Place a pillowcase full of family photos taken from family albums in the center. Pass the pillowcase around the circle, allowing family members to draw out one photo at a time, without looking. Have each family member tell a story about the events depicted in the photograph or about the people in the photo. This will not only strengthen your child's literacy skills by having him practice developing and sharing stories, but also strengthen family bonds by reminding them of long-forgotten family members.
Family Game Night
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Kit Bennett of Amazing Moms suggests making a tradition of family game night. You can divide into teams and play team-focused board games, try out Hasbro's new Family Game Night for Wii or play icebreaker challenges that require family members to work together to accomplish a common goal.
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Camping Activities
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Camping can be a family team-building experience. In the woods, campers are challenged by insufficient resources, such as food, water and shelter, and must work together to survive - or, at least, to be comfortable. Successfully working together to achieve these goals can build trust and an ability to cooperate. Ultimate Camping Resources also lists some team building activities while camping, such as Magic Carpet, a game where all members stand on a large blanket. Once everyone is on the blanket, the game leader informs them they are standing upon a magic carpet 100 feet in the air and that they must quickly find out how to steer it. In order to find the instructions on how to steer the magic carpet, they must flip it over while standing on it, without falling off, as the directions are on the other side. Family members will have to work together and cooperate in order to successfully complete this mini-mission.
Family Meal Time
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According to a 2006 article in Time magazine, studies show "the more often families eat together, the less likely kids are to smoke, drink, do drugs, get depressed, develop eating disorders and consider suicide, and the more likely they are to do well in school, delay having sex, eat their vegetables, learn big words and know which fork to use." Regular family meal times can provide children, especially teenagers, with a sense of stability and regular family face time.
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References
- Photo Credit business team image by Wojciech Gajda from Fotolia.com
