50 Ways to Bond with Your Children

Alice Seuffert

Simple and loving ways to bond with your children.

Your weeknights are logjammed with activities and homework. Your weekends are a logistical shuffle of running errands and prepping for the next week. Your head hits the pillow and as you stare up at the ceiling, you think about how you spent your time today.

The reality is there is just not enough time in motherhood.

It is impossible to give 100% to everything in your life.

But there are moments when our children want us. There are moments when we put down our phones. Our eyes lock with our child’s. We forget about the shuffle to get to school, the sibling fighting and packing lunches.

We are there.

We are present.

And for that moment, motherhood feels rich and we are bonding with our kids.

Ways to bond with your children can be as simple as taking a nature walk to pouring chocolate chips into a mixer. Find your favorite activities or do something new. These are 50 ways to bond with your children.

Ways to Bond with Your Children in Nature

1. Build a Fairy Garden together. Use seasonal items, like a pumpkin to create a Pumpkin Fairy Garden.

2. Take a micro adventure. These small trips into nature in your community are a great way to explore.

3. Grab your binoculars, field guide and head out with your kids to go birding.

4. Go your state’s Department of Natural Resources and find a free outdoor event. Most Departments offer free programs year-round including bird-watching and snowshoeing.

5. Instead of doing math at the dinner table, get outside and do math activities in nature.

6. Go camping!

7. Create a nature scavenger hunt and see if you can find those items.

8. Make leaf rubbings.

9. Go to a new park or nature area that you have never been to before.

10. Collect flowers and make these Flower Garden Windows.

Ways to Bond with Your Children in the Kitchen

11. Make Nutella Bonbons.

12. Try something new and make something from the garden like Kale Chips.

13. Do a food-related science experiment like edible water balloons.

14. Make a television show themed meal or snack, like Sesame Street Ice Cream.

15. Make something homemade just for fun, like Red Velvet Graham Crackers.

16. Make cupcakes for dinner with this Mac and Cheese cupcake recipe.

17. Look through a cooking magazine or cookbook and get some ideas for the meal planning for the week.

18. Make a special family recipe and talk about the history of that recipe.

19. Organize spices or a cabinet. Kids love helping clean out and organize.

20. Create your own special hot chocolate drinks with special toppings and mixes.

Ways to Bond with Your Children With Favorite Activities

21. Game Night, try some of these creative game night activities.

22. Share your favorite books.

23. Go see a movie together.

24. Get your nails done or get a massage together.

25. Attend a parent and child exercise class together.

26. Go to your favorite coffee shop and share a hot beverage together. Bring a favorite book or board game along.

27. Go to a family-friendly painting class or create one yourself by stopping by a craft store and picking a still life to recreate.

28. Start a parent and child journal. Write to each other and use home photos to glue into the pages.

29. Pick out some seasonal plants or decorations for your home together. Make homemade decorations too.

30. Talk to your child about your favorite hobbies that you had as a kid. Do you still do any of them? Comic book collecting, video games, or whatever, check it out again.

Ways to Bond with Your Children in the Community

31. Get to know your neighbors.

32. Go for a drive around your city. Take a new road and stop somewhere you have never been before.

33. Go through your cupboards and pantry for items for your local food bank.

34. Set up a lemonade stand.

35. Gather items from your home to donate to charity.

36. Bring someone you don’t know a homemade card, flowers or edible gift.

37. Offer to rake your neighbor’s yard or help with another household chore.

38. Check out your city in a new way. Take the bus, a taxi or bike around town or in a metropolitan area near you.

29. Go to a sporting event, theater production or concert in your community.

40. Leave kind notes around your community or messages in chalk around popular walking areas.

Ways to Bond with Your Children that are Free

41. Make homemade cards.

42. Do household chores together.

43. Do an arts and crafts project with items from nature, like leaves.

44. Listen to some of your favorite music together. Find some of your favorite songs or albums from your childhood.

45. Get some of those favorite songs together and hold an epic dance party with the whole family.

46. Move dinner from the table to a blanket in your living room or backyard for a special family picnic.

47. Look at baby photos, family albums or make a new photo book together.

48. Get out an old camera or let them use your phone and let your child be the photographer for the day.

49. Play hair salon and take turns doing fun styles on each other.

50. Go geocaching and use your phone to find hidden treasures around your city or parks.

READ MORE FROM THE FAMILY ROOM


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50 simple and loving ways to bond with your children.

Alice is the creator of Dining with Alice where she shares creative comfort food recipes and conversations about motherhood. Alice cooks regularly on television and is known for her easy, accessible and fun recipes. She also works outside the home as an education researcher. Alice’s favorite and most important role is mom and wife. Her family loves reading, cooking, adventuring around their home state of Minnesota and checking out new food spots.