Favorite Family Fun Times

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Permalink Reply by Robin on March 12, 2008 at 7:50pm

Fav from the Family Fun Box is to read a book together as a family. Okay..very jealous of the Disneyland passes...by the way! Family Fun Days would be trips to the beach in the summer...Woo Hoo!

Permalink Reply by Sharon Prichard on March 12, 2008 at 9:11pm

Some of our favorites are singing karaoke (especially now that my girls have the CDGs for High School Musical 1 & 2!), watching a movie together, and playing a board game! We LOVE using our Family Fun Box!!!

I, too, am jealous of the Disneyland season passes!!! Oh well... :-)

Permalink Reply by Wildmom on March 12, 2008 at 10:24pm

Our favorite Family Fun Activity is Letterboxing. Here is a description: Letterboxing is a FREE adventure in the outdoors for family and friends. What you need to do is go to www.letterboxing.org and print off clues. You can choose anywhere in the United States on this website. Some of the clues are very easy for little ones and some are so difficult that they don't even tell you what city they are in...you need to figure it out by the clues. (This can also be a fun free date night for you and your hubby to do for an afternoon...it's amazing how just a walk in a new park can strengthen your relationship!)

Once you have the clues, you need to take along a few supplies before you set off on your trek. (At our house, we just have these kept in a small bag with some pre-printed clues from around us, so that any day we like, we can just grab it and go!) This is what we keep in our bag:
--Pre-printed clues
--Our Letterboxing Journal (Just some blank notecards held together with a ring)
--Our rubber stamp (Purchased at a craft store, or you can make your own)
--An Ink Pad
--A Pen
--A small compass

Anyway, once you have your supplies, you are ready to set off...go to the park that you are instructed and follow the clues. When you find the clue box, there will be a notebook of some kind in it and a rubber stamp. You should stamp your stamp in their book and their stamp in your book. Then I always write the date and our names in their book. In our book, I do a little more because I think this is a journal of our adventures together. This is what I put in our book:
--Their stamp gets stamped
--The date
--The letterbox # and name (so I can remember what ones we have done!)
--Who found it with us (lots of times we pick up people at the park along the way who want to join in our adventure)
--What the weather was like that day
--What city it was in (We do this a lot on family vacations, so it's always nice to see where we have been)
--On the back I write a few sentences about our adventure

I know this looks like a lot to write, but it usually only takes a few minutes once you get in the habit of it. This is one of our favorite new adventures as a family...it is especially nice on vacations because you get to see some great parks that you might not have known about...also, if you are driving a long way, pre-print some along your route, they are great for breaks along a long trip. Another thing we like is that since it is FREE, it is something we can do on vacation and save our money for maybe a larger activity one of the days, but no matter what, the kids get out!

I hope that you get a chance to try this with your family...kids really LOVE it because they feel like they are searching for a hidden treasure and for parents, it helps you teach your kids to follow directions and problem solve basic clues and even more difficult ones as they get older. It is also always GREAT for me when you get an opportunity to be in the GREAT OUTDOORS! If you have any other questions, please feel free to ask, or you can go to my journal and see a record of all the places that we have been since we started our adventures!

Permalink Reply by Beth Reed on March 13, 2008 at 5:37am

This sounds so cool!! I am definitely going to check this out.

Permalink Reply by Kathy on March 25, 2008 at 6:13am

I'm SO excited to try this one out. I've printed your instructions and already sent them, along with the letterboxing website to a few people that I know will love it. We are always looking for adventures to do together so THANK YOU so much for taking the time to share this awesome activity. Kathy Knudsen (Canton, MI)