Is it just me or are the days starting to blend together?! Without school and appointments, it’s hard to know what day of the week it is. There was one day when I didn’t even realize that it was a weekend. These theme day ideas are a great way to break up the monotony and add it some fun.
The idea for this came because my kids were officially on Spring Break but with it snowing and cold outside and no option to go anywhere fun, I brought the fun to them with a family Beach Party. We even Zoomed with our neighbours who had a beach setup happening at their house too. The beach party gave us all something to look forward to as we prepared for it and then gave us memories to look back on. It certainly helped that Tuesday stand out from the other days that week!
Since I know that some of you are also trying to teach your kids at home right now, I’ve also included some learning or art activities into some of the theme day ideas.
One last thing to mention: Busy mamas, this is not meant to give you ONE MORE THING to do. Enlist your kids to do the planning and decorating. Ideally, this should give you less work because you won’t hear the cries of “I’m bored” as often. It can also give your kids something to look forward to when so many of their events are being cancelled. They can look and see that on Friday, it’s the family dance party and get excited for that.
Theme Day Ideas:
Backwards Day:
This is such an easy one to do. You don’t need to buy extra supplies or spend money and you can pull this off at the last minute. Here are just some of the things you can do:
- supper for breakfast and breakfast for supper
- dessert before the meal
- wearing your clothes backwards
- have kids learn about palindromes (words, phrases, or sentences that are spelled the same backwards and forwards – find lots here)
- count backwards
- say the alphabet backwards
- sing a song backwards
- call everyone by their name spelled backwards
- read a book backwards
- walk backwards
Beach Party:
Our beach party was so much fun! It was like bringing a bit of tropical vacation right to our living room. Making the decorations and food for it also gave the kids a fun project to work on for days beforehand.
If it’s warm out where you are, you could have this in your backyard instead. Here are some ideas for having your own beach party:
- decorate with beach towels, paper fish (we taped ours to blue recycle bags to make it look like water), sand pails and sand toys, tropical confetti, sunglasses
- bring in beach chairs or loungers
- food ideas: goldfish crackers, cupcakes with blue icing and brown sugar (sand) with a tiny umbrella, umbrellas in drinks, picnic food such as sandwiches, chips, candy fish, clear cups filled with blue jello and a gummy shark “swimming” in it, fruit skewers, sand dollar cookies, watermelon slices
- dress in bathing suits, shorts, sundresses, t-shirts, flip-flops
- play music like the Beach Boys and dance on the “beach”
- read books like The Rainbow Fish
- have a Limbo competition
- set out a station for fish crafts or put out beach theme colouring pages with markers or crayons
- paint seashells
- read lounging out on your beach chair or towel
- toss around a beach ball
Minute to Win It Theme:
Our family loves, loves Minute to Win It games. They are easy and inexpensive to set up, great for all ages, and best of all, hilarious! Here are some of our best Minute to Win It Games:
- Minute to Win It Family Fun Games
- Dollar Store Minute to Win It Games
- Minute to Win It Games for Camping
- How to play Minute to Win It Games
Camping at Home:
- set out a tent or tents in your living room or backyard (we like to put ours on the trampoline because it raises it up and makes it less cold)
- sleep in sleeping bags
- make S’mores (if you have a backyard fire pit, use that, if not, you can make s’mores in the microwave)
- Ghost Hands are super fun (albeit messy) if you have a fire pit
- play Minute to Win It Camping Games
- sing campfire songs
- paint camping story stones
- food ideas: hot dogs, s’mores cookies, chips, walking tacos, mini camping cereals for breakfast
- print off this camping printable pack that has camping theme learning activities for kids
- star gaze together as you learn about constellations
- play card games or board games
- go bird watching in the backyard
Drive in Movie in the Living Room:
This is so fun if you have little ones.
- Decorate a large box as a car. You’ll need one per child. Let your child use their imaginations. You can use paper plates for wheels and the steering wheel and paint details or add them in Sharpie.
- food ideas: popcorn, juice boxes or pop, chips, raw veggies, movie snacks
- Set the “cars” up in front of the TV and watch a movie.
Christmas:
Pull out the tree, turn on the outside lights, and start baking! Since it kind of feels like those weeks around Christmas anyway, you might as well embrace it!
- set out a holiday puzzle for everyone to work on
- wrap things you already own to gift each other
- play Christmas music
- pull out your Hallmark Christmas movies shirt and start watching those Christmas movies!
- sing carols
- play Christmas Minute to Win It Games
- make Christmas crafts
- read Christmas books
- play Christmas games
- print off Christmas activities for the kids to do
- wear your ugly Christmas sweaters
- food ideas: Christmas baking, traditional Christmas foods
Family Talent Show:
Hosting a talent night in your home is great because for days before, it gives the kids something to practise. Set the stage in the living room or backyard and cheer on each family member as they perform. Here are some ideas for talents to be performed:
- a skit or short play
- reciting a memorized monologue or poem
- playing a song by tapping on water glasses
- playing the spoons
- magic tricks
- displaying art
- singing
- lip syncing
- dancing
- gymnastics
- juggling
- comedy act
- martial arts
- playing an instrument
- showcasing a new skill such as knitting, whittling, or macrame
- hand clapping routine
- yo-yo
- jump rope routine
- hula hoop
- baton twirling
Fun Food Ideas:
We’ve been doing these fun food nights mostly for our Survivor nights. I pick a different one each week.
- Build your own nachos bar – pie plates for everyone, different kinds of tortilla chips, shredded cheese, and all the toppings: sliced black olives, jalapeños, tomatoes, onions, red peppers, taco meat or shredded chicken, beans, sour cream, salsas, and guacamole
- Make your own pita pizzas
- Sundae bar
- Decorate your own cookies or cupcakes
- Appetizer night
- Popcorn bar
- Pasta bar
- Breakfast for supper
- Fondu night
Other Fun Theme Day Ideas:
- pyjama day
- crazy hair day
- Rainbow party
- formal day
- Dr. Seuss party
- sensory play all day
- celebrity lookalike day
- dress up
- twins day (dress to match someone else in the house)
- Lego building challenge
- baking or cake decorating challenge
- family dance party
- family fun night (hilarious!)
- backyard or living room picnic
- 50s day
- 60s day
- 70s day
- 80s day
- 90s day
- moustache day
- backyard Olympics
- math game marathon
- role reversal day (kids and parents swap clothes and roles)
- kitchen restaurant (kids make menus and cook for parents)
- Zombie day
- un-birthday party (cake, decorations, singing, streamers for no one’s birthday)
- fort building competition
- kitchen science experiments
These fun family theme day ideas can help you make the most of this time you have together. You can build memories and infuse some laughter into these weeks and focus on building family connection.
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The games can be played a couple of different ways. You can create teams and have a member from each team go head to head against each other or you can play as individuals in a “beat the clock” type of fashion.
The object of this game is to retrieve all the pumpkins out of your pie. To set up, place candy pumpkins on the bottom of each pie plate. Cover with whipping cream. Each player sits with their hands behind their backs and has to find the pumpkins and move them out of the pie using only their mouth.
In this game, players need to attempt to keep their feather in the air for a full minute by blowing it up. It’s harder than it sounds. If a player’s feather touches the ground or a surface, they are out of the game.
To set this game up, pour some pumpkin seeds onto a paper plate for each player. Set that down next to an empty plate. To play, each person puts a straw in their mouth and attempts to transfer all the pumpkin seeds to the empty plate in less than one minute. If you’re playing head to head, then then the person who transfers all of their pumpkin seeds the fastest is the winner.
Place one candy pumpkin (or candy corn) on a spoon. Have players race holding onto their spoon with one hand (you can allow younger kids to use both hands). If their candy drops off, they are eliminated or have to start back at the beginning.
Give each person a turkey baster and balloon. The goal of this Minute to Win It challenge is to get the balloon across the table lengthwise using only the air from the turkey baster. You are not allowed to touch the balloon with the turkey baster. This can be played to beat the one minute timer or played head to head with the winner earning one point for their team.
Interactive activities are a great way to make lasting memories. These Christmas party games encourage participation and fun for all.
Instead of gingerbread houses, we make Rice Krispie houses. That way, they can be shaped into trees or any type of building shape and can still be decorated the same way a gingerbread house would be.
The object of this game is to stack 3 golf balls on top of each other. The balls must remain stacked for 3 seconds to win. You can either play head to head or individually. If playing head to head, the first one to complete their stack and have it stay in place for 3 seconds is the winner.
To set up this game, slice a watermelon in half and prop it up on a picnic table or other flat surface. Have each player stand at a distance from the watermelon and throw cards one at a time in an attempt to get a card in the watermelon. The object of the game is to get one of the cards to stick in the watermelon in under a minute.
Set the cans up in a pyramid on a flat surface such as a folding table or picnic table. Give each player elastics. The object of this game is to knock over all 6 cans using elastics in under a minute. Again, you can determine how far away players must stand depending on age.
Give each player a set of chopsticks, 2 graham crackers, a marshmallow, and 1 or 2 pieces of chocolate. The object of this game is to assemble a s’more using only the chopsticks in less than a minute.
Blow up the balloons. You’ll need 3 if doing this individually or 6 if you’ll have people competing head to head. The goal of this one is to keep all 3 balloons in the air for 60 seconds without having any of them touch the ground.