Ever watch a young child dance? It’s fun. They’re just so unashamed.

Why not join in?

Put on some fun music and get the whole family dancing. It’s fun and can be good exercise. Don’t worry about what your kids think. You can even have a silly dance contest to see who can be the funniest while dancing.

Or you can teach your kids whatever you know about dancing. If you’re like me, that’s not a lot, but if you’re a good dancer they might appreciate the practice later on.

One of the fun things about taking a family walk is all the leaves and such you can find. Take advantage and make a collage when you get home.

You can think of different themes or just do a “stuff we found” collage. Maybe look for seeds, or different kinds of leaves.

This can be a great way to encourage the entire family to pay attention to what’s around them as you walk. Not to mention that younger children in particular love making crafts.

A family newspaper can be typed up on the computer or you can use it as writing practice for younger kids, then glue the whole thing together. You probably have the supplies at home.

Start out by teaching your kids the basics of creating a story for a family newspaper. You can have each person interview someone else in the family. Help younger kids come up with a topic and questions to ask. Questions such as “What does Mommy do?” or “What is (child)’s favorite activity?” can be a lot of fun.

If you work it up on the computer you can even print it out or send it by email to grandparents and other relatives who might get a kick out of seeing what everyone is up to.

Happy first day of spring. What better way to celebrate by enjoying the next rainy day you have?

Most kids love to play in the rain. I know mine do. And make sure to splash in the puddles. It’s a simple pleasure that many adults forget. Just dress appropriately or have towels ready so everyone can dry off quickly after playing.

It’s not the rain that causes colds, after all.

After playing in the rain is a nice time to curl up together under blankets with some hot chocolate. Watch a movie or just talk about the next fun things you want to do together.

Most families have a lot of movies, most of which only occasionally get watched. Rather than buy or rent others, arrange with another family to trade movies around regularly.

Keeping track of who owns what can take some work. You can stick a mailing label on the boxes to keep track of who owns what, and keep a list of who has borrowed what so that you know where particular movies have gone.

This of course takes a lot of trust, but it greatly cuts down on the need to buy or rent movies. Just beware of special favorites of the kids. Tempting as it may be to get rid of that movie that is requested 200 times a day, even for a short time, some movies should be loaned out only once the kids are sufficiently tired of them to share well.

Then again, the movie can always go over  to have the kids watch them together.