Three Natural Ways to Spend Quality Time with Your Kids

I personally feel that in these modern times happiness is something that people prefer to gain in exchange for money - as this is the easiest way to stay happy. The mechanical lives of modern people don't allow them to get that naturally. I really feel sad when I see people trying to make their kids happy with expensive gaming consoles, television, ice creams and a lot of electronic gadgets. Yes, I agree those are also OK, but parents should spend quality time with their kids as much as possible for their kids' future well-being.

I often hear people say  "In my happy schedule, how would I spend quality time with my kids? What would make them happy?" Well, for all those parents who pose the same question, I would like to share some of my thoughts on how you can spend quality time with your kids to make them happier than they get from mechanical things you give. 

• Gardening: I have often seen kids enjoy a lot in green environments, with colorful flowers, beautiful insects, and all those funny activities involved with seeding, watering, and cultivating the plants. Have fun with your kids in different activities of gardening and get them involved in anything they wish. Maybe they can get engaged in playing with butterflies, enjoy making their hands dirty with mud or eating up some veggies; for Pete's sake, let them do whatever they enjoy!

• Biking and Hiking: Pack some sandwiches, bottles of water and go for a Saturday afternoon bike ride with your kids. Your local park would be the perfect destination for both the biking and hiking activities. I'm sure this would be a place where you and your kids can fulfill curiosity of lifting rocks and peeking underneath to discover a myriad of bugs and creepy things. Let your children's imagination get exposed through anything they like without any input from parents so they begin to make their own choices in life. 

• Plan a Camping trip: I have always seen that the planning process of some trip is exciting, especially when you engage your entire family in this activity. So plan a lot and go for a camping trip on a weekend with your family. Do zany things in the trip; do something that not only make your kids happy but also make some wonderful memories they'd love to recall later in life.

So what do you think makes kids really happy? Are these not some great ways to have family fun? Give a try with any of them and see the result; believe me you will find your kids much happier than those you spend money on.

Photo Puzzle Games - Entertaining with Puzzles Equals Smarter Kids

Some funny kids activities not only make them happy, but help them to be smart as well. Puzzle is considered as one such game that acts both as an entertainer and a brain exerciser. Now how about breaking the boredom of your kids with some funny educational activities? I am sure kids online games like puzzle would be the one that your kids would definitely like to spend time with.

Ok, if you kids don’t find a puzzle game interesting then you can take some creative actions to excite the curiosity of the game among your kids. Instead of bringing some serious looking jigsaw puzzles, get some funky looking and bright colored puzzle games for your kids. I think the scenery ones and those which look like 3D will be the most amusing puzzle for your kids. A puzzle can be more than funny for your kids when it can be made with funny pictures or a picture of your family or friends.

Believe me, this kind of photo puzzles are simply great. This would surely bring together the fun of playing puzzles with the collaboration of your family in enjoying your family photo, marriage photo, vacation snapshot and so on.

Make the photo puzzling game more and more exciting for your kids by not being limited to a single photo. You can take a copy of all your favorite photos and use them to make puzzles for your kids. If you have a digital photo-frame and a digital camera then I think creating such jigsaw puzzles would not be a matter of concern for you.

If you are thinking about the right time to celebrate with a photo collage puzzle then choose the upcoming family reunion day. Call for a reunion party with all your old friends, relatives and their kids and have fun with all of them with a photo puzzle.

A Wonderful Way to have Family Fun - With Your Boat

Early morning wake up for school, same boring classes, home-task, playing with the same friends everyday "Mom I am fed up, I need a break, my kids' sad faces for their monotonous life were making me sad as well." You can understand in such a condition you can't do anything with ice-cream, video-games and Tom and Jerry.  So, I decided to do some family fun programs in different ways by which my family gets big spaces to breathe some rejuvenating air and lots of opportunities to have fun.

After a week, I thought I'd choose an inflatable boat to go gaga with my family. You won't believe the weekend we spent together with our boat, it was one of the never-forget experiences of our lives to date. The boating was completely full of fun with fishing and rafting. To make the fun memory-making, I adopted some ideas which eventually proved brilliant, and I hope if you do the same your family will get unlimited fun as did mine.

Go with a boat and explore around the shoreline in every nook and cranny. On a weekend go for a family adventure to a lake or river, pack along some bug spray, a lunch, and set out for a boating expedition. Let your kids investigate the small inlets and lily pads of a river or lake bed. You can take your kids to dock on the opposite side of the water and go for a hike. I am sure, the colorful fishes, turtles, frogs, birds and bugs will make your kids happier than they get from their favorite ice-cream parlor, cartoon show and computer game.

You can make your outing more enthralling with funny stuff that will add more fun for your children. Play some funny games with some funny toys with kids, do some funny activities, which will make them more cheerful and bright.

Kid's Fun Weekend

The best family fun weekend is one that the children and parents plan together. The parent should compile a list of various activities and present them to the family as possible fun activities to do together. It should contain a variety of interests and activities for different budgets. Have the family discuss the activities together and plan a fun-filled weekend, based on everyone's input. Such ideas include bowling, mini-golf, story time at the library, a community theater production, the playground, board games, a scavenger hunt, swimming at the pool or beach, fishing, the zoo or aquarium, circus, sports event and any others available for your local area.

You may want to plan one day that is dedicated to activities you have to pay for and another that is free. Saturday can be the day to go out and do activities that require a cost. You can begin the day playing a couple rounds of mini-golf, and then proceed to have lunch at a local pizza place that has games to play. You can relax after this by attending a sports event or watching a community production such as a funny play. Be sure to go out for ice cream afterward at your child's favorite ice cream shop.

The next day can be done at home and can cost you little to no money at all. Make breakfast as a family, having the kids partake in mixing the pancake batter, buttering the toast or pouring the orange juice. After breakfast, your family should be energized and fueled to play sports games in the backyard, such as football, kickball or volleyball. Have lunch on the patio with easy to make meals such as sandwiches, salad and lemonade. Spend the rest of the day indoors, doing activities you like such as playing Monopoly or watching movies as a family.

Family Fun at Bar-K-Ranch

Family Fun at our small community gathering here in the Colorado Rockies. There is a community here of about 100 families or so, sort of a tight knit community of close friends so everyone knows everyone else - almost. Yep, not a lot of privacy but who cares? We all get along well with each other and more importantly we help each other out a lot. So there is a lot of fun with friends in this type of community.

On August 22 we'll be having the annual BBQ which is always a hoot. Plenty of food and drink all paid for by Bar-K Association.