January 21 marked the one-year anniversary of the first COVID-19 case recorded in America (January 21, 2020). The challenging year has pushed the term “cabin fever” up a notch. Add kids to the mix and we’re bursting through the roof. If you’re a parent, you’re ready for some fresh ideas of things to do besides keeping the kids entertained. Here’s a list of 40+ meaningful family projects, especially for families with tweens and teens. But first, let’s remember why it’s important to engage in projects together as a family.

The Importance of Family Projects

There are plenty of good reasons to plan a family project. Here are ten. In addition to fortifying family bonds, a family project:

• Builds communication skills
• Enhances social development
• Increases cooperation
• Utilizes the development of individual talents
• Provides opportunities to teach and to learn new skills
• Cultivates good memories, perhaps even creating traditions
• Increases awareness of local and global issues
• Gives pathways to express compassion
• Provides avenues for improving neighborhoods, communities, and the world

There are plenty of ideas online for family games and crafts, so we’ll not focus on those in this post. The project ideas below provide meaningful opportunities to build relationships and serve others.

Family Projects Requiring Less Planning

• Watch and write a critique of a family movie- give each of your children’s ages and opinions. Consider sending these to a family magazine or a newspaper, or posting them online on a site such as Goodreads, Amazon, or Christianbook.com.

• Check smoke detectors and change light bulbs for the elderly.

• Paint the fingernails of residents at assisted living centers.

• Teach/Learn a new life skill – sewing, changing oil, using jumper cables.

• Volunteer at a soup kitchen or deliver meals.

• Make no-sew fleece blankets for a homeless shelter or baby blankets for a crisis pregnancy center.

• Offer to be a personal shopper for someone who can’t get out.

• Hold an online Cook-Off Family Championship with relatives you’ve not seen in a while. Make sure everyone has the ingredient list ahead of time, and include a rarely used or odd ingredient! The less-experienced cooks are sure to cheer anyone up. Perhaps record the event on video and share it with someone who needs a smile but may not use social media.

• Label things in your house with a new language you want to learn. (I found this one on the AllProDad website) Eventually, plan an event where you can practice the language you’re learning. Perhaps a restaurant or a mission trip?

• Invite someone who lives alone to a cookout.

• Take a drive through your county. Ask family members to locate historic landmarks, statues, or significant historic areas in your county. Take a photo of each and research its importance. Also, take note of anything they noticed that needed cleaning, repair, or a little TLC. Vote on one to inquire about to see if your family can help in its preservation.

• Pick up litter. Consider choosing the most littered street in your neighborhood. Encourage your teens to invite some friends for this one!

• Paint rocks with positive messages and then place them where people can easily find them.

• Volunteer at a soup kitchen or deliver meals.

• Create or clean a hiking trail. Place some of those painted rocks with positive messages along the way!

• Look around the house and find at least ten items to donate to a thrift store.

• Start a book club or organize a Bible study. One book to consider for tweens and teens is John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress.

A few other great books we’ve read and discussed with our teens:

1. Life on the Edge: The Next Generation’s Guide to a Meaningful Future by James Dobson.
2. Talking with Your Kids about Jesus: 30 Conversations Every Christian Parent Must Have by Natasha Crain. (Excellent book for tweens & teens! I’m reading this with my 16-year-old now. I’ll post a review of the book soon.)
3. The Case for Christ by Lee Strobel.
4. Christianbook.com sells study guides for several of C.S. Lewis’ books, such as Mere Christianity and The Screwtape Letters.

Family Projects Needing a Bit More Planning

• Create first aid kits to donate to homeless shelters.
• Build a food “library.” It’s similar to the free library stands you see where folks take a book for free. Stock it with snacks, bottled water, and easy-to-prepare foods. Acquire permission to place the free food library in a prominent area. We know a church that has one in a high foot-traffic area and is frequently used.
• Participate in a Fun Run or 5K Race for a worthy cause.
• Practice and perform a short play or musical for a group who may not be able to get out as much. Perhaps the weather will cooperate for outdoor production.
• Organize a neighborhood yard sale with a percentage of sales going to a good cause.
• Take a continuing education class via your local community college. Usually, students must be at least 16 years old. My husband and our son plan to take a small engine repair class together.
• Get an old vehicle or lawn mower running again and donate it to a ministry.
• Tackle a home improvement project — your home or someone else’s. Gutters anyone?
• Make Birthday Blessing bags for foster or group homes. Include a cake mix, icing, birthday napkins, plates, and whatever else you and the director think would be appropriate. Place the supplies in a birthday gift bag and tie it with a colorful balloon.
• Build a wheelchair ramp. You can usually find training and building opportunities via a church, a mission organization, or a non-profit housing partnership.
• Repurpose an item.
• Host an outdoor movie & snack bar. Invite friends and family you’ve not seen in a while.
• Take a CPR class or First Aid class together.
• Research mission trips offered to families, or plan one of your own. Some organizations accept children as young as twelve when accompanied by a parent. One summer, our family rented a table at an outdoor market. We painted children’s faces and had free bottled water, Bibles, and children’s books on the table for anyone who wanted to take them. This was one of my favorite family projects.
• Plant and maintain a vegetable garden specifically for those in need.
• Host a Comedy for a Cause Night (ex. bring pet food for an animal shelter).
• Organize a church or community baby shower for a crisis pregnancy center.
• Work on your family tree. However, include what I call “root-notes” Research and find characteristics or known facts about your ancestors. Interview relatives and friends. Look in old newspaper files, family Bibles, journals, and photo albums.
• Offer to help organize and label photos with grandparents.
• Contact relatives and create a family recipe book – make it personal with quotes and photos, or interview the relatives about their memories of family gatherings. Wouldn’t this make a special gift when the family is able to gather again?

Strengthen the Family

Family projects will help us stop focusing on our own situations and limitations (no matter who imposes them). We’re choosing to do something positive.

Not only will we be investing our time and talents in our families and our communities, but our families will also experience the blessings of encouraging one another through challenges and celebrating moments of joy.

It’s time to build up and strengthen the family. Talk with yours and plan a project soon.

For more family project ideas, including those for families with younger children, you may want to check out the three blog posts in the “30 Days of Serving and Sharing” series.

PLUS, we have a few special treats coming in February 2021. The first weekend in February, I’ll post a review of Julie Lavender’s new book, 365 Ways to Love Your Child. This post will include a giveaway of the book! Then, the second weekend in February we’ll be blessed with a guest post by the book’s author, Julie Lavender. It’s going to be a great year to love and be loved!

Motivated by the power of story, history, and His Story, Sally Matheny’s passion is telling the next generation wondrous things.

Her nonfiction writing appears in national and worldwide publications, including Appleseeds, Clubhouse Jr., Homeschooling Today, and The Old Schoolhouse.

She and her husband live in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains and are blessed with three children, two sons-in-law, and armfuls of grandbabies. Connect with Sally on several social media sites, but her favorite hangouts are at SallyMatheny.com and Pinterest.