If you are trying to blend a family, whether that’s by merging two households or by fostering or adopting a new child, then you’re going to need to put some time and effort into creating a bond between family members. Sure, some of that just takes time but you can speed the process along by being aware of activities that can help. Here are six great bonding activities for blended families.
- Set up regular family nights. Pick at least one night a week to use solely as family time. Limit, or eliminate entirely, interruptions such as phone calls. Plan different activities for each week such as playing a board game, watching a movie or even setting up a scavenger hunt. If you have children of different ages, try to find games that everyone can participate in such as charades. If you watch a movie let the kids take turns picking the movie. Comedies are especially good since laughter makes everyone feel good. Have favorite snacks and drinks on hand to help round out the fun.
- Cook together. This is another activity that can involve kids of all different ages. Smaller children might participate in, say, shredding lettuce for the salad or mixing a dressing while older children can slice up tomatoes and other vegetables for the salad. If you have children in the family of different ethnicities, you can experiment with dishes from other cultures.
- Go on an outing. Trips to the park, the library, museums or local historical sights can all make for fun, and even educational, bonding. Outings give children an opportunity to be themselves as well as get to know more about how others in the family see the world.
- Do a group project. Pick out a project that everyone can participate in such as building a tree house or setting up a swing set. Pick projects that include educational elements such as measuring, reading directions or learning a new skill. Not only will doing the project together help your family bond, but it will provide a sense of accomplishment and pride for the children.
- Attend special events together. Be sure to bring along the whole family for special events such as one child’s baseball game or school play. The children who are not participating can do things to encourage the child who is, for example by making supportive signs do display during a baseball game or creating and signing a “good job” card to present after the school play.
- Make scrapbooks. Scrapbooks are a great way for children to blend their past with their new family. Scrapbooks can include photos and memorabilia from the child’s former family life as well as build on these with items from the new, blended family. Take lots of photos of your children doing fun things together as a new family and plaster these liberally in a scrapbook as reminders of the fun times the new family has had and will continue to have.
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