Suggested Family Activities
Fun and Creative Ideas for Your Family to Do at Home. New posts weekly.
Send your pictures, ideas, and comments to photos@nereg.lib.ms.us
Suggested Family Activities
Fun and Creative Ideas for Your Family to Do at Home
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Suggested Family Activity 🦜🏴☠️ It’s Talk Like a Pirate Day
Get ready to pull out some pirate lingo today – it’s Talk Like a Pirate Day. According to the website Grammarly, some popular pirate words to use today include “ahoy” when you want to greet someone or call their attention to something or “shiver me timbers” when something exciting happens. If you want to talk about your friends, you call them “mateys” and you can use both “yarr” and “yo ho ho” just about any time. In addition to trying to talk like a pirate as you go about your day today, try to turn your favorite songs into pirate versions by substituting pirate words. -
Suggested Family Activity 🥞 Better Breakfast Month
September is Better Breakfast Month. Taking time to eat breakfast can have helpful health benefits, as many nutritionists believe that starting your day by eating a regular morning meal can help control weight by setting a pattern of eating smaller, healthy meals throughout the day. Eating first thing in the morning also gives our bodies energy to get through our day. Children who have a healthy breakfast before school often think more clearly and behave better while they are at school. A great breakfast should contain a balance of all the major food groups - protein, dairy, fat, and carbohydrates. Including some of each in your breakfast will help you to make it to your next meal without resorting to mindless snacking. It also may help improve your family bonding if your family makes a habit of grabbing a quick bite to eat together each morning before everyone heads out the door. -
Suggested Family Activity 🎾🎈 Outdoor Games
Try some of these fun outdoor games today: Play tennis with clean fly swatters and balloons. Play shaving cream Twister by adding shaving cream mixed with food coloring to the dots. Play Sardines – one person hides and everyone else tries to find them. When each person does find the one hiding, they quietly join them until only one person is left searching. Then that person becomes the one who hides. Have races while walking like various animals, such as crabs, horses, elephants, etc. -
Suggested Family Activity 🐻 It’s National Teddy Bear Day
Today is National Teddy Bear Day so let us see your favorite teddy bear! Did you know Teddy Bears were inspired by an event that happened in Mississippi? In 1902, President Theodore (Teddy) Roosevelt was on a hunting trip in Mississippi and refused to shoot a bear cub that was tied up to make it easier. A cartoonist made fun of the incident, a New York store owner saw a way to make money, and a new toy was born. Generations of children have found solace with a bear friend, whether it’s a Winnie-the-Pooh, a Paddington, a Care Bear, or any other soft and cuddly version. So send us a picture of your favorite Teddy Bear and we will post in on our website. Email it to photos@nereg.lib.ms.us. -
Suggested Family Activity 📖 It’s National Read a Book Day
Celebrate National Read A Book Day by spending today relaxing and reading a great book. You can also read books out loud to other members of your family. Even older family members or neighbors will enjoy being read to, especially if it is difficult for them to see books themselves. Children can get into the fun too, by reading out loud to other family members, reading to their pets, or even just reading to their favorite stuffed animals. -
Suggested Family Activity 🦖Dinosaur Arts & Crafts
Do your kids love dinosaurs and doing arts and crafts projects? If you have some paper plates, you can let them make their own dinosaur today. Grab a plain white paper plate and cut it in half to be the body of the dino. Color the body whatever color you want, using crayons, markers, or paint. (You can also use left-over colored plates from birthday parties to make a body). Next, draw and cut out pieces to glue to the paper plate to finish your dino friend. Draw a long neck and head to make an apatosaurus or one with three horns to make a triceratops. Or add spines down the dinosaur’s back to turn it into a stegosaurus or an ankylosaur. Don’t forget to add a tail (short and stumpy or long and curved) and legs to finish out your dinosaur. -
Suggested Family Activity 🍋✏️ Secret Messages
Did you know you can write secret, invisible messages using lemon juice? Squeeze some lemon juice into a bowl and mix in a few drops of water. Using a cotton Q-tip dipped in the liquid, write a message on a blank sheet of white paper. After your message has completely dried and can’t be seen anymore, heat the paper by holding it close to a light bulb. -
Suggested Family Activity 🌭 National Hot Dog Day
Celebrate National Dog Day today by sending us a picture of your four-legged family member. Practicing reading by reading out loud to your pet is also a great way for young ones to get more comfortable with their reading skills. Send photos to photos@nereg.lib.ms.us -
Suggested Family Activity 🐚 Seashell Crafts
Have you picked up seashells on the beach but don’t know what to do with them now that you are home? You can turn them into ornaments to decorate your home or put on your Christmas tree by painting them and adding glitter and other sparkly bits like sequins. Adults can drill a small hole in them to thread ribbon through to be a hanger. Or you can wear your creations as a necklace by using a longer piece of ribbon or cord. You can also turn a large seashell into a tropical fish by painting it a bright color and then gluing on tiny seashells to be the flippers. Don’t forget to paint on an eye or use a googly eye if you have one. You can also turn various sized seashells into collages by challenging your family to see how they can arrange shells to make pictures. Maybe they will make a sea creature or a flower or a butterfly. You can also turn seashells into a cute summer wreath by gluing them onto a form you have cut out of cardboard. Tie a pretty ribbon around the top and your house will look like the beach! -
Suggested Family Activity 👩🔬🧪 Family STEM Experiment
For a fun STEM experiment to do with your family, have everyone wear an old sock over their shoe and then go for a walk outside. After everyone has walked around, take the old socks off and spritz the bottom of each sock with water. Then put each sock in a separate resealable plastic bag. Hang the bags in a sunny window for 2-3 weeks and see what grows. You might be amazed! Make sure you keep the bottom of the sock moist for the best growing conditions. -
Suggested Family Activity ☁️ Navajo Code Talkers Day
Today is National Navajo Code Talkers Day, a day to honor the contributions of the Native Americans during World War II. During the war, Navajo speakers were recruited to create a code system based on their language, which had never been written down. They created a secret code that they used to send and receive messages that the Axis powers were never able to break. The program was classified until 1968, at which time the United States presented the original 29 Navajo Code Talkers with Congressional Gold Medals. The library has several books that will help young children learn about this fascinating part of our history. You also check out the CIA’s website to learn more about the history of the project: CIA.gov Navajo Code Talkers or this article from The National WWII Museum in New Orleans. -
Suggested Family Activity 🪄 Magic Wand Reading Pointer
To help young children learn how to follow along when they are reading a story, let them make magic wand reading pointers today. To begin, you will need something to be the handle of the wand, such as a small dowel rod, a chopstick, a wooden skewer, or even a pencil or stick from outside. For very young children, you can use a popsicle stick or craft stick to give them something wider to hold. Next, get out your pom poms, stickers, feathers – anything they can glue to one end of their stick. After it is completed, let them use it to follow along with the words while you are reading a story to them. Or you can ask questions about the text while you are reading, such as “Can you find the red hat?” and let them point to the answer. -
Suggested Family Activity • Pickleball
Want to learn to play pickleball? The library can help! We have a new kit that you can check out that includes paddles, balls, a netted carry bag, and an instruction sheet. For more information, we also have the book Pickleball for All: Everything but the "Kitchen" Sink by Rachel Simon. In it, you will learn everything you need to know about America's fastest-growing sport. -
Suggested Family Activity 📝 School Supplies
Don’t let your school-age kids have all the fun - let everyone in your family pick out new school supplies this year. Brand-new pencils, pens, markers, journals, notebooks, colored pencils, stickers, and crayons are fun for everyone. They can use the items to work on their own craft projects, make a journal, or draw fun pictures. Dollar stores are heavily stocked with inexpensive school supplies right now, so this treat doesn’t have to be expensive. -
Suggested Family Activity 🏅 Summer Olympics
Take inspiration from the Summer Olympics to get your family moving around: Teach young children to do a flip, handstand, or a cartwheel like gymnasts or place a piece of painter’s tape on the floor to mimic a balance beam or tightrope and let them try to walk from one end to the other without ‘falling off’. Tie lengths of ribbon or crepe paper tied to a stick to mimic the artistic swirls of rhythmic gymnastics or see how they move with a hula hoop. Children can even mimic Olympic weightlifters by having competitions to see who can lift a can of vegetables or soup (the larger the better) the most times. Track and field events are also popular Olympic sports, so let them compete to see who can run the fastest, jump the highest, or throw a frisbee the farthest. You can even make small hurdles (pillows work well to prevent injuries) for them to jump over. -
Suggested Family Activity 💌 Message in a Bottle
Have your family make a Message in a Bottle today. Grab an empty plastic water bottle and have each person write out a secret message to put inside. They can write it in code, such as using a simple number substitution of 1=A, 2=B, and so on. It is also very easy to make your own invisible ink. You can find several simple recipes online that use baking soda mixtures and liquids such as milk, lemon juice, vinegar, and water. Use a cotton swab to write out a message, roll it up, and send if off in your bottle. When they are ready to reveal their messages, have an adult help hold the paper over a candle flame to cause the chemical reaction that makes the writing visible. -
Suggested Family Activity 🛟 Sink or Float 🦆
Play Sink or Float with your family today. Grab anything that holds water, such as a bucket, a large bowl, or a large pot. If you do the activity inside, you can also just use your kitchen sink or bathtub. If you want to do the activity outdoors, you can take your water vessel outside or use a small kid’s pool. After your container is filled with water, grab a variety of waterproof objects, and have your kids guess (and then test) whether the object will sink or float. For older, school age children, you can sneak in a little STEM learning by asking them plenty of questions about why they think an item will sink or float. After they have tested their answer, you can ask more questions if the result was not what they expected. Was the object heavier than it looked? How did the material it was made from (paper, plastic, metal, etc.) influence the outcome? How are the things that float and the things that sink similar or different? (As with all activities involving water, adult supervision is required.) -
Suggested Family Activity 👚 Experiment with Tie-Dye
Have some family fun experimenting with tie-dye today. All you need are pieces of clothing, such as a t-shirt, and some tie dye solution. Ritz is the most popular and can be found at most discount stores in a variety of colors for just a few dollars. Some solutions require you to submerge the item in the dye, so you’ll need a large bucket or plastic container if you purchase that kind. Other types are in smaller bottles that give you more precision with how you apply various colors all at once. You will need something to use to wrap around your items to make the white parts of your design. Rubber bands are commonly used for this, but you can also experiment with making smaller, more intricate designs with tightly bound twine or string. Don’t forget to protect your workspace with newspaper or plastic to avoid stains (or try the activity outside for stress-free fun). -
Suggested Family Activity 🍦🍧🍨 Ice Cream Days
Several national ice cream days are celebrated this month, including National Vanilla Ice Cream Day on July 23 and National Hot Fudge Sundae Day on July 25. Celebrate this fabulous treat by creating a picture of the tallest scoop of ice cream you can using pom poms or various sized circles in different colors to represent the ice cream flavors. Draw or cut out from brown paper a larger triangle and then flip it with the tip pointing down for your cone. Decorate your layers of flavors with crayons, markers, glitter, beads, sequins, or anything else you have at home. -
Suggested Family Activity 🐶🐱 National Pet Fire Safety Day
Today is National Pet Fire Safety Day – a great time to talk with your family about ways to keep your pets safe during an emergency. Some tips include never leaving open flames unattended, storing your pets’ leashes and collars near an exit to your home, and replacing outside water and food bowls with plastic containers. For more tips, check out https://www.nationaldaycalendar.com/national-day/national-pet-fire-safety-day-july-15. -
Suggested Family Activity 🍅 Try A New Veggie
Summer is the best month to try out a new veggie! Head out to your garden, a Farmer’s Market, or the grocery store and have your family look at all the colors of vegetables. Pick out something interesting and then work together to look up recipes. If children are more involved in the process of preparing food, they are often more inclined to try it. -
Suggested Family Activity 🥏Disc Golf
Disc golf is a fun family activity to do outside. All you need to start the fun is a disc (a special disc golf one or just a frisbee) and a course to play on. Some city parks departments have started incorporating disc golf courses within their parks and along walking trails. City parks in our area that have courses include ones in Corinth, Booneville, New Albany, and Tupelo. Nearby courses in Tennessee include ones in Crump, Savannah, Bolivar, and Henderson, as well as one in Red Bay, Alabama. National parks have also had disc golf courses for several years, so check out the ones at nearby Pickwick Landing State Park, Tishomingo State Park, or Tombigbee State Park in Tupelo. It is even easy to make a simple outdoor disc golf set up at home if you have tomato cages and laundry baskets. Just push the cage down in the ground and nestle the basket in the top of the cage. Another super fun throwing activity to try outdoor involves scattering plastic pink flamingos around your yard and using small hoops to throw at the flamingo’s necks. -
Suggested Family Activity 🎆 A Capitol Fourth
Each year for the Fourth of July, PBS hosts “A Capitol Fourth”, a concert featuring live musical performances. This year’s concert will be hosted by Alfonso Ribeiro and will contain a lineup of performers from pop, country, R&B, classical, and Broadway. Expect to see Fantasia, Smokey Robinson, Fitz and Noelle from Fitz and the Tantrums, Chloe Flower, Sheila E., Darren Criss, and more! The National Symphony Orchestra will accompany many of the artists. The United States Army Band, the U. S. Army Herald Trumpets, and The Choral Arts Society of Washington are also among the performers. In addition to being broadcast on local PBS stations, the concert can also be viewed live on their website at PBS.org. The concert will be recorded and made available on their website for an additional two weeks after the performance. If you want to host your own Watch Party, or just need ideas for how to celebrate the day, the PBS website has lots of patriotic recipe ideas, game and activity suggestions, DIY decoration tips, and a pre-show party playlist. -
Suggested Family Activity 🧨 Painted Fireworks
Can’t wait for July 4 to see fireworks? Make your own painted version with just a few supplies. You’ll need scissors, paper, paint, a plate (a disposable paper plate works great!), and several inner carboard tubes from a roll of toilet paper. You can also use the inner cardboard roll from paper towels or even wrapping paper, but you will probably want to cut it in half to make the size more manageable. Use scissors to cut slits about a quarter inch apart along one end. When you are finished, the long, skinny carboard pieces will be what you use to apply the paint to your paper. You can have different sized fireworks if you make some tubes with short slits (about 2.5 inches long) and some with longer slits – as far up the tube as you can go while still having something to grip. After your tubes are cut, pour paint (acrylic works best because it washes off kids and clothing easily) onto the paper plates – one color per plate. Dab the splayed out ends of the rolls in the paint to load up the color, then press it onto the paper, using a slight twisting motion to spread the paint around. If you want, you can layer different colors of firework ‘blasts’ on your paper to make an exciting and multi-colored fireworks display. -
Suggested Family Activity 🧊 Frozen Toys
For just a little taste of water fun, try this fun activity that can be adapted for children of all ages. For toddlers and young children, grab some small plastic toys (sea animals like whales, sharks, and fish) and put one in each compartment of an ice tray. Fill the tray with water and then put the tray in the freezer until it is solid. Once it’s frozen, let kids figure out ways to release the items. Maybe they will put it in a patch of sun to use the sun’s heat to free their animal. Little ones may even try to gnaw the item loose so this activity should always have adult supervision! To make the activity more challenging for older kids, freeze items (plastic toys or maybe even coins) in a larger plastic container so that the items take longer to get out. If you have several kids gathered, they can even have a race with hairdryers or other methods to see who can melt the ice the fastest. -
Suggested Family Activity 🛟 Water Safety
Before you hit the water this year, make sure your family knows everything they can about water safety. The American Red Cross website offers lots of information, such as the skills of water competency, what to do in a water emergency, and general water safety tips. The information is presented in a variety of formats, such as videos and handouts. They also offer a free online course (available in both English and Spanish) for parents and caregivers to learn the basics of water safety. Check out their website here: https://www.redcross.org/about-us/news-and-events/press-release/2024/swim-season-is-almost-here-red-cross-shares-critical-water-safety-tips-for-children-and-families.html -
Suggested Family Activity ☀️🌄 Sun Print
Make a sun print today for the summer solstice. Construction paper works best as it fades easily. Have your family collect several different kinds of objects to experiment with - natural objects, such as leaves or flowers but also consider using some of their toys, such as plastic dinosaurs and other animals. Set the objects on the paper and leave it outside in full sun. Check on your papers often to see how they are progressing. -
Suggested Family Activity ⚽ Beach Ball
You can do a lot of fun things with a beach ball, even if you can’t get to an actual beach. And since beach balls can be found at most dollar stores, it doesn’t take much money to buy several for your family’s enjoyment. One thing you can do is take masking tape and write down silly ways to throw a ball. Put one piece of tape on each ball and use enough balls for however many people you have playing the game. You can write down actions such as throwing it through your legs, throwing it with your eyes closed, or hitting it with your head. Gather everyone in a circle and start the balls passing around. When you catch one, you must throw it using whatever silly way is taped on it. You can also set up color coded targets for you kids to practice throwing or kicking the beach ball. Or hang a beach ball from a tree and challenge your kids to jump up and touch it. If you just have one child playing with the beach ball, they could see how many times they can throw the ball up in the air and catch it or see how many balls they can carry at once without dropping any of them. -
Suggested Family Activity 🌊 Ocean Sensory Bottle
To make an ocean sensory bottle today, just grab an empty water bottle or plastic sandwich bag, make sure it is well sealed, and fill it with a mixture of sand, rice, and small items such as beads, seashells, or plastic coins. Children (and adults) will be mesmerized for hours as they turn the bottle to see what is revealed along the sides. Another alternative is to use water to fill your bottle. You can even tint it with a little blue food coloring to look more like the ocean. And for extra security, put a piece of tape over the top to keep it from spilling. -
Suggested Family Activity 🧺 Picnic
June is a great month to go on a picnic with your friends and family. You can pack a traditional picnic in a wicker basket or just grab some snacks and sandwiches and head outside with a blanket to enjoy your food. Take time to sit and enjoy nature, whether you stay at home in your backyard or go to a nearby park. Make sure to spend at least part of the day barefoot to enjoy the tickly sensation of walking on the grass. You can even plan to make a whole day of it and take pillows for relaxing while you read a book. You could also grab some coloring books and crayons or other art supplies, such as pencils, paper, and paints to try your hand at drawing and painting the natural world around you. Try to stay out all day so you can catch the sunset and have fun watching (and catching) fireflies. Or you can wait to start your picnic time outdoors after adults are home from work. Picnicking later in the evening by taking your supper outside to enjoy is a fun activity to try out anytime with your family. -
Suggested Family Activity 🍩National Donut Day
For National Doughnut Day today, treat your family to doughnuts and enjoy them while reading Laura Numeroff’s If You Give a Dog a Donut. Children might be tempted to see how many doughnuts they can eat without getting sick - after all, you can’t eat just one! A better idea might be to buy a dozen donuts and see how many you can share with those around you.
Suggested Family Activities
Fun and Creative Ideas for Your Family to Do at Home.
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