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Family night is such a fun time for us to listen, talk and play with our kids. They love it and look forward to it. Okay, I have three boys who are 11, 8 and 4 years old and truth be told family “night” are not always fun. Some times they are awesome, but some nights are marred by sibling quarrels and whiny children upset because they didn’t win. Overall, it’s beautiful to listen to them laugh with you and share in the middle of his turn as he lays down his card, that his friend at school was wanting to cheat but he told him no. These are the moments we treasure–real conversation, real laughter, real connection.
Years ago, we decided that we were going to make every effort to the best of our ability to have a time every week where we connect as a family. For us most of the times it’s dinner, for others it’s family game night and in the Latino culture the “merienda” as the time to connect.
I challenge you to carve out uninterrupted time where you connect as a family. Keep it simple and positive and you’ll reap the benefits of this ritual for years to come. I get it, life gets crazy. We know about crazy craze weeks where we are running around from one thing to the next, tucking exhausted kids into bed and barely manage to drag our tired selves to bed. Before becoming a boy mom, I didn’t realize this but boys open up and share when busy doing something else, like throwing a ball, going for a walk or run, playing a game, riding bikes…
I shared with you earlier that “merienda” is a Latino custom. Merienda means snack so basically you serve a small snack but to have “la merienda” time that’s a time, one shares as a family, while catching up. Our “merienda” happens after dinner once a week and other times every other week. It’s a time to recharge, connect and just be a family without outside interruptions. We play games and have a family devotional time. Below I share with you our favorite family night games.
My mom had “merienda” for us right after school. The minute we got off the bus we sat around the table enjoyed our snack and talked. I loved it and looked forward to it as a kid! My hope is to adopt this custom in our home for when school starts up again–an after school merienda, just like mi mama.
Our Favorite Family Night Games
Okay, so our favorite family “merienda” night game is currently Blokus. It’s a game kids and adults can get into. Add a little competition by printing off our Candy bar medal tags below for your winners, but I highly suggest at some point everyone gets a medal for being a good sport or trying hard…
We have enjoyed playing these board games: Spot it, this is another game that both adults and kids can get into. Headbanz is a recent buy so right that’s my kids favorite. Also, another game that works well with both adults and kids. I personally can’t handle Monopoly but my kids LOVE it, they play that with daddy. Trouble is another good one. We use Story Cubes around the table at dinner. Connect Four is a short and fun game. Canasta is for older kids and adults. Jenga, they have all sorts of versions of this game. My kids love their Angry Birds Jenga version. Life and Chutes and Ladders was at one time our kids favorite. Chinese Checkers for older kids. Loteria is a great game and easy game for kids. My kids practice their Spanish while playing this game and we have a great time doing it.
Candy Bar Medals
Supplies:
- MARS Chocolates fun size bag
- M&M’®s Fun Size
- Printable – Here’s your free Candy Bar Medal Tags! Just click on the link here:Candy Medal Tags
- Tape
- Ribbon
Cut out your medal tags and tape the tag to your fun size candy bar.
Then take your ribbon–make it long enough to go over heads and tape the ribbon to the candy.
We always have readers who want to know where we bought our stuff so for the ribbon–JoAnns Fabric, the candy Walmart and the games a variety of places but mostly Walmart and Amazon.
