Creating Memories With Family: 10 Meaningful Activities And Ways To Remember Them
There are many ways to create memories with family – some good, some bad. We’re going to talk about the good memories – the ones you can look back at and share with your kids or grandkids.
Times change, however many popular family activities that have a huge impact on kids haven’t.
I’m looking back at some of the fun stuff we did with our parents in the 1970s and 1980s, and thinking about the most impactful activities that can still be done today.
It doesn’t matter if your kids are five or fifteen – these all have a positive impact and will have your kids saying “Remember when..”
Let’s look at some of the best memories you can make with your family and ways you can remember them years later.
10 Ways Of Creating Memories With Family
These memorable activities for families range from inexpensive things to do to those that require a bit of an investment.
Choose the ones that work best for you!
One thing I can say is that you don’t have to spend much to make a memorable activity for your whole family.
1. Take Your Family To A Favourite Hiking Trail – Regularly
One of the easiest ways for creating memories with family is hiking.
Do you have a favourite place for a hike?
Our son loves to go hiking in our nearby Bronte Creek Provincial Park. It’s a short drive from home (literally, 10 minutes), and it gets him outdoors to a natural area.
Since he loves exploring, he’s always finding things along the trail. Like the time he found slugs. Or when he checked out the turkeys on the visitor’s farm that’s located on the grounds.
Discovering things and learning about them from us has been one of the most memorable things for him.
Take your family to a regular spot where they can be adventurous in nature. Let them discover things and show them to you.
RELATED: How To Go Hiking With Little Kids – Tips To Keep Your Sanity
2. Take Your Kids Fishing
Creating memories with family by the lake or river, learning how to fish, is one of the best things to do.
It’s a truly memorable moment when they catch their first fish.
I remember mine – a little bass caught on a lake somewhere near Gravenhurst at a cottage of family friends.
We also remember other fishing experiences: when my brother caught a minnow, and then used it to fish for other fish.
Kids love the idea of fishing. Whether you take them to a stocked fishing pond or a lake or river, they will remember the first time they catch one.
PRO TIP: Check out our region’s rules around fish licenses. For example, in Ontario, Canada, kids don’t need a fishing license, but adults do. In many cases, you can get a day license.
3. Take Them To A Great Museum Or Zoo
I fell in love with the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) the first time I visited it with my parents. Subsequent school visits only cemented my fascination with history and the natural world.
Taking kids to a museum is an eye-opener for them.
They learn through exhibits and visual examples. Things that you see in a book or on TV are only part of a reality that they get when they are up close to a T-Rex fossil skeleton. Or can see the intricacies of a 18th-century brocade dress.
We had a memorable experience at the Toronto Zoo as well! For me, the most memorable moment was seeing chimpanzees behaving very much like us kids at playtime.
Museums and zoos are two places where first-time discoveries can create memories. Our son, for example, loves Sudbury’s Science North, where he came face to face with a dinosaur skull. He often talks about it as a cool destination.
PRO TIP: Take photos in front of the museum if you can’t take them inside. Sometimes the facades and front entrances with signage can be impressive (like the older part of the ROM!).
4. Go Skating
If you know how to skate, teach them to skate! And take them to unusual rinks. Many will stick to indoor rinks, and they have their benefits (no wind for wind burn).
However, outdoor rinks are super fun.
For example, my earliest memory on the ice is at an outdoor rink that was at a park along the lake shore in Etobicoke’s New Toronto area. It was a rink used for hockey for the locals, but they also had family skates.
I still remember the sunshine, the chilly air and me… on my baby skates, trying to get around the rink. Fun times!
If you live in an area where there is no skating rink, consider another type of skating: roller skating!
BONUS TIP: Take your kids to a coffee shop afterward for a hot chocolate and something to enjoy. Talk about your experience and take photos!
5. Take Them Outdoors During A Snowfall
There’s nothing more magical than a walk in the neighbourhood as the snow is falling. Particularly if it’s in the evening and it’s dark.
The glow of the sky from the white snow, and the crunch under your feet is something completely different.
It’s also a great time to have a mini snowball fight.
6. Designate Friday Night As Family Fun Night At Home
Whether you do karaoke or play a board game, Friday night is the perfect time to make fun memories.
For us, it involved playing Chinese Checkers, chess, or traditional checkers. My parents would put their record player on and play a variety of tunes.
Later on, they used these times to teach us how to dance the waltz and polka so we could join them at community parties (Polish “zabawy”).
My husband’s family always did Friday nights with music, dancing and singing. We still try to keep this tradition alive.
7. Go Camping At Least Once
You may like bugs, or you may abhor them, but the idea of camping and sleeping in the Great Outdoors is an adventure.
From showing your kids how to create a fire to roasting marshmallows, there are so many memories to be made.
Even if the camping experience is a washout due to rain, they will remember the experience of sleeping outside their home.
| RELATED: Fantastic Reasons To Camp After Labour Day Weekend
8. Teach Them How To Cook And Bake – As Often As Possible
Have a special family recipe or way of making something that they love to eat?
I was blessed with a Polish grandma at home that loved to cook for us. She made the best pierogies (soft pillows of deliciousness), mushroom sauce, chicken/pork cutlets, and kapusta dishes. I still dream of how yummy they were.
It was my luck that I started helping her make some of these dishes and I could recreate them pretty well today.
I still have fond memories of cutting the circles of dough for the pierogies and her showing me how to fold and pinch the edges together.
Make cooking and baking together a family affair. Your kids will appreciate it for years to come.
9. Experience The Extraordinary
Is something happening that’s unusual – especially with the weather – that normally doesn’t happen?
Or can you take your kids to experience the world in a way they usually don’t where you live?
For example:
- Seeing the Milky Way
- Experiencing Northern/Southern Lights
- Snowfall
- Stretches of rainy days/humidity
It may involve travel, but giving your child an experience of the natural world in a way they usually don’t have every day can be truly memorable.
I remember the first time I saw the Northern Lights while staying at a family friend’s cottage, about three hours north of Toronto.
The sky was dark, devoid of human-made light pollution. The aurora borealis danced green and pink that night – something I’ll never forget.
10. Create A Bedtime Ritual And Stick To It
I still remember the evenings my mom would read to us from a book before bedtime.
Getting cleaned up, changed for bed, prayers and then a story. That was our routine.
Sometimes the story got replaced by Bible stories or short sessions of the Catechism, as we prepared for our First Communion.
Nevertheless, the memory sticks with us: our mom getting us all cozy for bed.
Family Time Spent Together: How We Did It In The 1970s And 1980s
Before Family Day became a provincial holiday in Ontario, spending time with parents and siblings was something that just happened on a regular basis.
Creating memories with family members was easy.
Activities could range from learning how to play Chinese Checkers to taking a stroll by the lakefront. Occasionally a day trip to a friend’s cottage or a visit to one of the many attractions Toronto had to offer.
Sundays were always meant to be days of rest in our household. It was a throwback to the good old days when families would head to church in the morning, have lunch and then enjoy a relaxing afternoon indulging in shared activities.
Balance A Busy Life With Family Life
Our lives are more hurried.
Household tasks that used to be done on weeknights are now pushed to the weekends.
We are distracted by the multitude of TV shows, video games and social networking sites. If you run an online business like I do, it’s a fine balancing act.
And time flies by faster because we have so much to balance in our lives.
Learn the art of saying no to things that keep us from creating family memories. It’s hard to do, but it’s worth it in the long run.
Three Ways To Keep The Family Memories Alive
You know how to make memories with family- but how do you keep them alive with your kids?
Here are three ways our families are keeping our favourite memories alive:
- Visuals: photos and video. Especially with actual hard-copy photos around our home
- We talk about it: during quiet moments when our son is focused on conversations or we’re going somewhere and have his captive attention
- We share family histories during get-togethers and dinners. It often starts as “Do you remember when…”
When you spend time with your family, bring up the good times!
QUESTION: What are your tips for how to make memories with family?
You’re lucky :)
I have to agree with you on that Teena – I was very lucky that my parents made the time to do things with us that took us outside of the house. So few parents do for a variety of reasons, but mostly it’s laziness.
“This post brings back so many memories of camping trips with my family as a kid at campsites in rizal! There’s something magical about being outdoors together.