Family Activities on Friday Night

Spending time with the family is a great chance to unwind and catch up.

With parents working long hours, kids at school or soccer practice, and the family eating at different times to work around a busy schedule, there isn't much time left to enjoy a night together. Setting aside your Friday night to spend with your spouse and kids will give you a chance to hear about everyone's busy week, share a few laughs and unwind with the people you care about most.

Video Game Competition

Get the whole family involved and have a vote for the top three video games to play. Make sure they are multi-player games so everyone can compete at the same time. Assigning teams will get the competitive juices flowing, and to give an extra incentive to play hard, have prizes for the top scores at the end of the night. Video game consoles like Nintendo Wii, Playstation and Xbox all offer interactive games such as boxing, tennis and Rock Band that can keep the whole family entertained.

Fondue for Dinner, Sundaes for Dessert

Cut up different meats into bite size pieces like chicken, steak and shrimp and give each person their own color-coordinated skewers. Have each person cook their own meat in the fondue and have veggies and dip on the side to snack on while the food is cooking. Fondues are a fun way to cook and give everyone a chance to get involved. For dessert, have an ice cream sundae party where everyone picks their own toppings. Set aside dishes with peanuts, sprinkles, chocolate sauce and strawberries so each person can get creative and make their own sundae.

Get Outside

If you've got a decent size yard, put it to use and spend the night outside with the family. Organize different sports stations and have each family member go through them to compete for the top score. Stations can include a basketball free throw competition, hockey shootout, soccer rapid fire or badminton tournament. Assign teams and create a tournament bracket so everyone gets to compete against each other. Wrap up the night with an awards ceremony and hand out participation trophies to each family member, with an extra prize to the team with the top score.

Movie Night

Have a relaxing night inside with the family on movie night. Take votes for the movies everyone wants to watch. Don't just settle for watching movies though. Take it a step further by having popcorn, candy and other movie concession snacks ready. To limit the amount of candy the kids eat, give them play-money to buy their snacks with and treat your kitchen like a real concession stand. Ask movie trivia questions at the end of the night to see who was paying attention and offer prizes to the top contestant.

References

• Fun Activity Ideas For The Family
• Idea List -- Family Activity Ideas