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Home › Articles › Recreation/Entertainment › Family Fun

Family Fun

Activities Your Preteen Will Love!

By Teri Brown

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  • Another good strategy is to let your preteen have some say in planning the family activity. As with younger children, offer limited choices between several acceptable options. Let your preteen decide whether the family should go skating or bowling. If you're going out to eat, let your preteen choose whether to go to the Mexican or the Italian restaurant. If you're having a family game night, let your preteen pick the game or decide teams.
  • Whenever possible, consult your preteen before scheduling a family event to make sure he or she hasn't made other plans for that time. If your preteen has to give up a favorite activity for a family event, he or she is likely to be sullen and uncooperative.
  • Sometimes brief family activities work better than longer, more complicated ones, because they involve less pressure and lower expectations on everyone's part.
  • Try to plan family activities that fit with your preteen's interests.
  • After the event, avoid saying, "See? Wasn't that fun? I told you you'd enjoy yourself!" On principle, your preteen is likely to respond, "It wasn't THAT fun!" and to resist the next family activity.
    • Fun for Free
    Though favored preteen family activities such as bowling, laser tag and going to the movies all seem to cost money, there are some fun ones that won't cost anything at all. Susan Smith Kuczmarski, Ed.D., teen advocate and author of Flight of the Teenager: A Parent's Guide to Stepping Back and Letting Go (Bookends Publishing, 2004), believes that many family-based activities can be open-ended with a lot of room for positive communication. One of her favorites is painting murals together.

    "Try the blank canvas project," Smith Kuczmarski says. "It involves the entire family painting together on a single canvas with each member selecting a portion of it. Do this once a year and be sure to date it!"

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