1 | TOP CHEF
Whip up memories by hosting a Top Chef Family Dinner Challenge. Have your children research recipes, pick up fresh ingredients at a local farmer’s market, set the kitchen timer and get cookin’. Winner picks dessert.
2 | VIDEO GAME DAY
Don’t know the difference between Atari and Xbox? Play role reversal and put your kids in control. Have them teach you about their favorite videogames. Learn the lingo (sim = simulation), and you’ll earn bonus points.
3 | SIDEWALK CHALK MASTERPIECES
Think outside the crayon box and make the driveway your canvas. Grab a bucket of sidewalk chalk and have kids create an outside art gallery. Invite family, friends and neighbors to stop by and view the museum-worthy masterpieces.
4 | FAMILY NEWSLETTER
Make headlines with a family newsletter. Assign stories and have children interview relatives or friends. Use an online template to design a layout. Your reporters-in-training will be eager to “read all about it” before you even hit print.
5 | PLAY DRESS UP
Inspire your fashionistas with a Project Runway Challenge. Create a fun theme (like disco or pretty in pink), tell them to “make it work” by using clothes from their closets – and yours – and host a family fashion show. Paparazzi optional.
6 | FAMILY SLUMBER PARTY
Break the bedtime rules. Instead, put on your PJs, pile your pillows on the floor, make snacks and grab board games, DVDs or photo albums for a fun-filled night. One rule? No sleeping allowed.
7 | HOST AN ICE CREAM SOCIAL
Host an ice cream social and scoop up the Coolest Family Ever Award. Set the date, time and menu, including assorted ice cream flavors and toppings. Have kids draw invitations, attach them with ribbon to inexpensive ice cream scoops and deliver them to friends and neighbors.
8 | MOVIE MARATHON
Bring Hollywood to your home with a movie marathon. Build a concession stand with snacks from the kitchen. Ask kids to dress up like their favorite movie characters and roll out the red carpet before settling in for an award-winning night.
9 | BUG HUNT
Whether they’re squishy or squirmy, bugs fascinate kids. Foster your child’s natural curiosity and lead a bug hunt. Snap pictures, then use the Internet or science books to identify the buggers you spotted in your backyard.
10 | AT-HOME SCIENCE EXPERIMENTS
Set up a science fair in your basement and help children make mini-rockets, gooey slime, invisible ink and vinegar volcanoes. Really brave? Let them try the ever-popular “Diet Coke and Mentos Geyser Eruption” experiment.
11 | TAKE A TOUR
Arrange personal tours of places like the local newspaper, TV studio, hospital, radio station and fire station. Your children will learn the inner workings of each place, and the tours could spark career ideas.
12 | VISIT CRYSTAL CAVE
Take rock-paper-scissors to a whole new level. Play the childhood game surrounded by calcium crystals and frozen waterfall formations at Crystal Cave, the state’s oldest operated cave and one of area’s most popular daytrip destinations.
13 | COOK OUT
There’s no doubt about it: food + family = lots of fun. Plan a cookout with your favorite dishes, including delicious pub burgers from Peters’ Bros. Meat Market in Lenhartsville. Believe us, your family (and your stomach) will thank you.
14 | DANIEL BOONE HOMESTEAD
Discover what life was like during the 18th century. Kids will surely walk away with a new appreciation for their modern digs after participating in hands-on activities like butter making and quill pen writing.
15 | MAKE A TIME CAPSULE
Find items to include like popular toys, photos and newspaper clippings. Have kids draw pictures and write notes describing what life is like in 2012. Set an open date and bury the capsule in the backyard or store it in a closet.
16 | VISIT THE PLANETARIUM
Take your rising stars to the Reading Public Museum’s Neag Planetarium, where they can explore the galaxy without ever leaving their seats. Your kids will think you’re out of this world.
17 | READING PHILLIES
No family fun activities list is complete without Reading Phillies baseball. Between seeing Screwball, rooting for the home team and eating the yummy stadium food, your day at the ballpark will be a guaranteed home run.
18 | NEIGHBORHOOD DINNER
Put a twist on traditional potluck and plan a neighborhood dinner. For example, make hot dogs at one house and grilled veggies at another. Enjoy popsicles for dessert at the next house, then wrap up with outdoor games at the last house.
19 | VISIT THE GOGGLEWORKS
Nurture your pint-sized Picassos by taking them to GoggleWorks Center for the Arts. The live demos on glassblowing and woodworking, behind-the-scenes looks at artist studios and awe-inspiring exhibits will get their creative juices flowing.
20 | GAME SHOW DAY
Everyone will be a winner during Game Show Day. Have kids “host” their favorite game shows like Win, Lose or Draw; Family Feud and Jeopardy. Family members can be the contestants, and prizes can include dollars and “you-don’t-have-to-make-your-bed-today” coupons.
21 | FAMILY GARDEN
Kids will dig making a family garden. Select a prime spot to plant like the backyard or a windowsill and pick out seeds (think flowers and veggies). Document the garden’s growth with a daily journal.
22 | HOST A TEA PARTY
Select a variety of tea flavors, then encourage kids to sample each and discuss their favorites. Round out the royal treatment by serving fancy finger sandwiches or crumpets. Sipping with your pinkies up? Well, that’s up to you.
23 | ROADSIDE AMERICA
Your kids will feel like giants at Roadside America’s “World’s Greatest Indoor Miniature Village” in Shartlesville. One of the area’s most unique tourist attractions, the village features 10,000 handmade miniature trees, 4,000 miniature people and real waterways.
24 | FLAG HUNT
With some preparation, this is the perfect way to explore your surroundings. Place flags throughout your neighborhood and tell kids that their mission, if they choose to accept it, is to collect the most flags. Winner chooses lunch.
25 | OLD SCHOOL
Go old school and think about the games you enjoyed as a kid. Oversee a round of freeze tag, referee a neighborhood kickball game or start a spontaneous water balloon fight. The mere possibility of dinging you with a water balloon will excite kids.
26 | HAWK MOUNTAIN SANCTUARY
Enjoy the great outdoors at Hawk Mountain. Go for a hike, or grab your binoculars and get a bird’s-eye view of hawks, eagles and falcons that soar around the 2,600-acre sanctuary.
27 | DAY AT THE MUSEUM
Mix education and entertainment with a museum trip. Visit an official Underground Railroad stop at the Central Pennsylvania African American Museum, learn about the P&R Railroad at the Reading Railroad Heritage Museum or view art exhibits at the Reading Public Museum.
28 | ROCK CLIMBING
Family fun will scale to new heights at Reading Rocks, where you and your kids can rock climb, rappel or complete an indoor rope course. Whether you make it to the top or not, you will still be a certified “rock” star.
29 | GET FRESH AIR
Plan a marathon day of outdoor activities. Go hiking in the morning. Pack a picnic and bike to the park for lunch. After dinner, grab your roller skates and do a few laps around the block. Everyone will enjoy the fresh air and family time.
30 | MAKING THE BAND
Live out your inner-Partridge Family dreams and form a family band. Have kids select instruments like drums, maracas and guitars, then plug in your iPod and sing along to a variety of songs. Videotape the performance to capture their pop star moment.
BONUS!
Modernize Masterpiece Theater by hosting a literary reading night. Encourage your bookworms to flip through the books (comics count, too) at a local bookstore or library and find one they like. Once home, have kids each read a passage aloud. British accents encouraged.
