For years, my husband and I struggled to come up with family fun night ideas that we could do at home. Because when you have small kids, it’s not always easy dragging them out of the house.
So most of our weekends were spent sitting on the couch and staring at each other until one day I decided to start getting creative with our family time.
We started with a movie night every Friday and our kids LOVED it! We let them choose the movie, pop a bag of popcorn, and ordered-in a pizza.
There are many other family fun night ideas that are just as cheap and today I’ll be sharing them ALL! Plus, most of these activities can be done right at home which is perfect for families (like ours) with young kids.
25 Cheap Family Fun Night Ideas
1. Art Night – I love simple kid art projects. You can find watercolor paint kits, crayons, coloring books, and construction paper at dollar stores. Let your kids doodle or finger paint and then you can hang the most beautiful pieces in your home.
2. Book Night – Take a trip to your local library to grab a few books, then spend time reading books to each other.
3. Dessert Night – Get your kids in the kitchen and bake desserts from scratch! You can start with peanut butter cookies since they are the easiest to make homemade. Just check out this 3-ingredient peanut butter cookie recipe below.
4. Character Night – You can throw a fashion show or pull out those old Halloween costumes so your kids can dress in their favorite suit for a few hours of pretend-play!
5. Family & Friends Night – Invite your loved ones over so your kids can have other kids to play with and you can enjoy some adult company too!
6. Drive-In Movie Night – Yes, at HOME! Let your kids bring their ride-on cars inside or you can turn laundry baskets and cardboard boxes into cars too! Mique from ThriftyHandmadeDays.com will show you how.
7. Exercise Night – Turn on dance and workout videos on Youtube, take the entire family out for a stroll or enjoy bike riding before the sun goes down.
8. Play Hide and Seek – Once your kids are at the age where they’re no longer afraid of the dark, this game is really fun to play throughout the house!
9. Treasure Hunt Night – Kids of all ages love a good scavenger hunt! You can create your own or print one of these premade hunts here.
10. Backyard Camping Night – I mean, who can turndown s’ mores and roasted hot dogs over a fire pit? Not my family! Backyard camping, while telling stories and singing songs, is always fun.
11. Homemade Pizza Night – You’ll save more money making your own pizza while also making fun memories with your kids.
12. Board Game Night – Easy games like Connect 4 and Trouble are a favorite in our house. It’s a great way to get your kids to disconnect from their electronic devices.
13. Backyard Stargazing Night – Get the kids binoculars and challenge them to count as many stars as they can.
14. Breakfast for Dinner Night – Specifically, homemade blueberry pancakes or muffins (yum!).
15. Puppet Show Night – Turn those old pairs of socks into puppets and put on a skit for your kids. This is an old-fashioned, yet fun way to entertain your kids without watching tv.
16. Tye-dye Night – Yes, people still tye-dye t-shirts! You don’t have to wear your tie-dye shirt, but painting them is loads of fun.
17. Blanket Fort Night – Omgosh! Doesn’t this just make you want to be a kid again?! We love to do this with our kids on a rainy night with all the lights out except our flashlights, and we tell them stories until they fall asleep. It’s awesome!
18. Homemade Slime Night – Kids are OBSESSED with slime these days. That’s why this is such a cool and fun idea! There are all kinds of Youtube videos that will show you how to make slime from scratch—just check out this video below!
19. Talent Show Night – If your kids are anything like mine, then they probably can’t wait to show you all of their artwork from school, their latest dance moves, and sing to you their favorite tunes every day. So dedicate a night where they can showcase their many talents!
20. Karaoke Night – If you don’t want to commit to buying a karaoke machine, you can rent one just for nights like these.
21. Scrapbook Night – Raise your hand if you have more photos of your kids on social media than inside an actual photo album? Yeah, me too. Choose a day in advance to print off those digital photos so you can create a scrapbook with your kids to keep in your home!
22. Get organized – Start in the kids’ bedroom so they can help out too! You can get rid of toys they don’t play with, the clothing they’ve outgrown, and give their room a fresh look by rearranging the furniture.
23. Lego Night – My boys are pretty much obsessed with legos and love it when we all build together.
24. Livingroom Sleepover Night – You can bring mattresses downstairs or grab air mattresses and sleeping bags to set up a fort right in your living room while binge-watching movies until everyone falls asleep.
25. Homemade Playdough Night – It’s super easy and the ingredients are cheap too! You can get the full recipe here.
Which of these family fun activities are you excited to try?
Because now that you know staying at home with your kids doesn’t have to be boring or that having fun doesn’t have to break the bank, I hope these cheap ideas inspire you to maximize the moments you have with your children so that you can create as many memories for them as you can!
What does your family like to do for fun?
Share & Comment Below!
Your blog reminded me of a word puzzle game called Lexulous, I truly enjoy it playing and it has an interesting feature where you can play with your family in multiplayer mode, and when the family gets involved nothing can be more exciting than this!!!