Any one have any ideas on a family project? We have 16 year old and 11 year old boys. I would like to have a family project to work on with them to get them away from the computer screen when we have time on our hands. I know this is a vague request...but I would like something in place that we can do whenever we have extra time. Something they can be proud of accomplishing that doesn't require taping on a keyboard. Something fun and compelling. Any ideas?
Start a band or an ensemble. Everybody can choose an instrument they're interested in, and you could all choose a piece of music to work on.
Choose a sport, and start working towards a competition such as a 10k race or half marathon, or ironman or triathlon. You could enter as a team.
I would look around the house/yard and find a home improvement project. What would your family enjoy? Building a deck or fire pit? Redecorating a bedroom, basement or game room? Installing a pond or a chicken coop or garden?
I think the key is to find something your boys would enjoy and use in the end. I personally always wanted to build a tree house with and for my kids but it just never happened.
build a backyard gazebo.
knit sweaters for under privileged children/ orphans/ refugees.
make care packages for soldiers
collect canned goods/ non perishables
clean the street/ sidewalks/ lake banks/ highways
plant and maintain butterfly/ bird gardens
go birding
foster animals
help an elderly/ disabled person with their home, yardwork, gutters, planting, trash, etc.
upgrade and maintain nature trails (I would have loved a machete and giant shears at 16 and 11).
Best,
F. B.
I was also going to suggest gardening. My dad gave me the book The Square Foot Garden Question and Answer Book (that may not be the exact title), and I love it! Square foot gardening doesn't take up much space, and it yields a ton of produce. I live on a small farm, so I have room for a lot of gardening, but I still prefer the square foot method. I grew so many different things (flowers, herbs, and vegetables) last year!
My sons are 16 and almost 10, and they both helped a bunch, and they loved learning about gardening. They also enjoyed seeing what grew at different times and what grew more quickly. I planted giant sunflowers in the middle of some of my vegetables to provide shade for some of the plants, and my husband suggested we each choose one to see whose would grow to be the tallest by the end of the summer (he enjoyed the garden, too). It was so much fun because one sunflower would be in the lead one week, and then a different one would take the lead. By the end of the summer, they were all taller than my 6'2" husband! Our youngest son won the contest.
Gardening has gotten all of us out of the house more. We spend time together without technology, and we are trying more foods. We're having fun now trying to decide what we want to plant next month.
Another thing we do together is watch Academy Award Winning movies. My husband has collected ALL of them! We watch them together, even the really old ones, and then discuss why we think they won during whatever time period it was. Not all of them are appropriate for our youngest son, but many of them are. Now we also watch all nominated films, but we just started doing that a couple of years ago.
Whatever you end up deciding to do, have a good time! :)
Build something to use around the house. Woodworking is a lot of fun and you'll have a big feeling of accomplishment when it's finished. You could make bookshelves, a TV console, or anything else that comes to your mind.
I don't know the site, but I know my friend has found tons of easy projects online. She built a bed frame, cabinets and more.
A garden is nice. My husband loves gardening and we have made some fabulous gardens in the past with the kids. Everyone helped build it and pick out the plants and plant them. But our kids are younger so that might not hold interest to the 16 year old.
A few years ago, my dad built a boat with my son and niece. They went to visit my mom and dad in Georgia and spent a lot of the time doing that. When it was finished, they took it out to go fishing. Great memory.
Or if you have the money, what about an old car? That might be more financially and complicated than you are looking for though.
I bought a portable table tennis (ping pong) set. The net attaches to our dining room table. It's quick, easy, takes up no room and is a ton of fun. It was a great addition for our family game night. Here's the link on Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0042EJEKW/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?q...
T. Y
SAHM of 5
(13, 12, 6, 4 & 2)
Plan and plant a garden. You can start seedlings now and plant them in about 6 weeks. You would have fresh veggies and flowers to enjoy and maybe can or freeze, or you could get a booth at a local farmers market and sell the extras, let the kids keep the money.
I'd make some calls to volunteer organizations. The RSVP office might have some ideas for volunteers, Habitat for Humanity is always looking for volunteers to help on the homes, camps such as the scout camp in Cleveland might use some volunteers to do brush and ground cleaning, finding some churches that do service projects, and more hopefully will come with ideas.
I know with all the lakes around the area maybe the Corp of engineers might have some area's they need cleaned up too. Much has happened to Oklahoma this winter...lol.
My parents used to have a really tough jigsaw puzzle set up on a card table. We'd sit down and work on it constantly. Took days to finish.
