75 Activities To Enjoy With Your Family This Weekend

The working week’s over and it’s time for some downtime. What are you planning to do with your family this weekend? Get any chores and boring errands out of the way early and enjoy your precious free time.  Here are 75 activities to enjoy with your family this weekend.

Have a Fun Family Weekend

The weekend is the best time for some family fun. Don’t let your weekends get taken over by catching up from the week. It takes a bit of practice but it’s easy to make small changes to drastically improve your weekend. Then it’s time to enjoy your time off. Whether you’re having a quiet weekend at home, looking to get out and about, having a weekend away, or getting on with some projects, we’ve got ideas for you!

The list is also available as a downloadable PDF.

75 Activities To Enjoy With Your Family This Weekend

This list of family weekend activities is divided up into ideas of things you can do at home, out for a day trip, on a weekend away, when getting a project done, learning something new or giving back to your community.

Enjoying Family Weekend Activities At Home

The opportunities for having fun as a family at home are endless! And yep, we might have spent a lot of time together at home over the pandemic, but it’s still so nice at the end of a busy week to come home, relax together, and spend some quality time at home. Here are some ideas:

1. Cook a new food or recipe together. This is especially useful if you have a picky eater, as kids tend to eat new things more easily if they help to prepare them!
2. Do some yoga as a family. There are loads of videos on YouTube. Our favourite is definitely Cosmic Kids Yoga and has tons of character/film – themed adventures.
3. Make your own pizzas with everyone choosing their preferred toppings.
4. Do a family jigsaw puzzle. This is a great activity to leave set up over a wet or cold weekend so everyone can do some little and often.
5. Make homemade ice cream or frozen yogurt. You don’t need an ice cream maker – there are plenty of recipes that are really simple, such as this no-churn ice cream.
6. Bake some favourite cookies or cakes. Try these Easy Condensed Milk Cookies or some Failsafe Chocolate Brownies.
7. Have a family movie night in your PJs with popcorn and a selection of snacks.
8. Cook a special weekend dinner with each family member in charge of a dish. Little kids can be in charge of putting sprinkles etc on ice cream for dessert.
9. Have a retro afternoon showing the kids some favourite movies and music from your childhood.
10. Set up a family board game night or have a tournament over the weekend.
11. Have an Arts & Crafts morning/afternoon/day when it’s a rainy weekend.
12. Create an obstacle course (inside or outside!) using household items.
13. Make s’mores either in the oven, or outside on the barbecue or firepit.
14. Start learning a new language – the kids can have fun with this by getting a pad of post-it notes and labelling items around the house in the new language.
15. Play charades.
16. Have an unplugged day where books, crafts and outdoor activities are all that’s on offer.
17. Plant some of your most-used herbs to grow at the kitchen window.
18. Get your favourite photos off your phone! Print them and make a family photo album.
19. Build a fort of cushions and blankets in the living room.
20. Get everyone to learn a magic trick and put on a family magic show.
21. Have a family water balloon fight in the garden.
22. Make paper aeroplanes or learn some origami.
23. Build a marble run out of cardboard or other household objects.
24. Research your family tree.
25. Put on a play or talent show.

 

Getting Out & About At The Weekend

Going out is back! After a long year of pandemic restrictions, many areas are starting to ease back towards normality. Get out for some family fun this weekend and take a day trip or visit somewhere new. Here are plenty of ideas for both indoor and outdoor weekend activities.

26. Be a tourist in your own town or city: visit all the tourist spots you know about but have never been to.
27. Go on a scavenger hunt or treasure hunt in your city or local area.
28. Search for hiking trails in your local area and head out for a long walk in the fresh air.
29. Go for a family bike ride – preferably on a no-traffic cycle route.
30. Try birdwatching, either in your garden, or at the park or woods, and see how many different species you can spot.
31. Go fly a kite. We have these kites from Amazon and they fly really well with very little effort or skill needed.
32. Try your hand at fishing at a local fishery, pond, lake or river. (Always check if you need a permit first!)
33. Have a go at geocaching and see what you can find near you.
34. Go somewhere you’ve never been before, either on foot, by car, or on public transport.
35. Visit a local farm, farm shop, or farmers’ market and buy some fresh seasonal produce to take home.
36. Go for a picnic and spend the whole day outdoors.
37. Visit a local museum or art gallery.
38. Go to an indoor activity like bowling, ice skating, laser tag, or crazy / mini golf.
39. Head to the beach and go paddling or swimming in the sea.
40. While you’re there, have a sandcastle competition.
41. Collect stones or seashells and make some outdoor art.
42. Visit a castle, ruin, or other historical site.
43. Go fruit picking – going either berry picking in the summer or apple picking in the autumn are firm favourites in our house.
44. Take a road trip for the day – either to visit friends or family, or visit somewhere you haven’t been able to go during the pandemic.
45. Go to a funfair or amusement park.
46. Visit a zoo, safari park, or aquarium.
47. Go and see a play, musical or show at the theatre.
48. Visit a climbing centre or ropes course.
49. Go to a book, music or arts festival.
50. Go out specifically for dessert or ice cream sundaes.

You might also like:
How to Relax at the Weekend When You Have Kids
15 Easy Ways to Improve Your Weekend

Going Away For The Weekend

Ah, a weekend away. How I missed these during all those months of stay-at-home. Packing a bag and travelling somewhere new on Friday always leads to a fun weekend adventure. Here are a few family favourite weekends away.

51. Go camping – either to a campsite or do some wild camping and go off-grid.
52. Hire a campervan and have a weekend adventure.
53. Book a city break – preferably somewhere with good kids’ activities.
54. Have a house swap weekend with friends who live in a different location.
55. Have a weekend by the sea.
56. Stay on a farm for the weekend.
57. Try a weekend’s canal boating.

Project Weekends

Sometimes you really need a weekend where you just get stuff done. Get the whole family involved and blast through some overdue projects, then sit back and enjoy your handiwork.

58. Paint a room in the house that needs decorated.
59. Have a whole-family effort at decluttering as much unneeded stuff as possible.
60. Give your garden / yard / patio / balcony a makeover with some new furniture, pot plants, or solar lights.
61. Sell things you don’t need – and spend the cash on something fun!
62. Upgrade a kid’s room to make it more grown up.
63. Wash the cars and/or all the windows.

Giving Back Weekends

If you don’t have any plans for the weekend, try spending some time giving back to your community or to a charity or project you think is worthwhile. You’ll definitely end the weekend feeling like you used your time well.

64. Volunteer at a local charity.
65. Do a random act of kindness – and teach your kids to do so too!
66. Donate clothes, books, shoes, toys etc that you no longer need to charity.
67. Drop off supplies at the local food bank.
68. Attend – or organise – a litter pick.
69. Help out at an animal shelter.
70. Offer to help an elderly person with shopping, gardening, DIY, etc.

Learn Something New This Weekend

Why not spend a quiet weekend learning a new skill, craft or hobby? This is especially great for quiet weekends at home, bad weather weekends, and school holiday weekends.

71. Learn to do/make/craft/fix something from a YouTube video
72. Get a non-fiction book from the library about a subject that’s new to you.
73. Try an online class in something you’re interested in.
74. Learn a life skill like first aid.
75. Try your hand at learning a simple instrument like the ukulele.

I hope this post has given you some ideas for fun activities to do with your family this weekend. Don’t forget to download the PDF!