Do crafts with your children.

Make gifts for others.

Write letters to family members and friends.

Play card games.

Have a book that you can read out loud to your children such as "A Little Princess," "The Secret Garden," "Anne of Green Gables," or "Stuart Little." Chapter books encourage children to read on their own and everyone in the family can enjoy these books together without anyone worrying about looking at the pictures.

Color a large poster. You can order many kinds of colorable posters from Doodle Art.

Put a puzzle together.

Listen to different kinds of music and do dances to each type. You can try anything from ballroom dancing to jazz, rap, African, reggae, Irish, etc.

Add photos to your family photo albums.

Go out and take some pictures.

Make your own mazes or crossword puzzles.

Listen to story tapes or audio books. Children will stay quiet in the car when you put in a story for them to listen to such as Harry Potter or any other popular children's book. You can also make read-along books for young children. Record yourself reading a book, indicating with a sound, such as a bell or whistle, when to turn the page. Young children who cannot read can listen to the tape and turn the pages as they listen.

Go to the airport and watch the planes take off and land. We take Cambria to watch them with a picnic lunch.

Bake goodies like cookies, cakes, pies and candy. You can eat them yourselves or give them as gifts to neighbors, family and friends.

Go fishing.

Go for a walk or a bike ride.

Play board games.

Go swimming or inner tubing.

Play in the sprinkler.

Go to the beach. You can play in tide pools, look for pebbles and seashells, take a picnic, make sand castles or build a sand city. Take binoculars and watch the whales.

Work in the garden.

Sing songs. You can sing radio songs, pagan songs, old favorites or even make up some new ones of your own.

Write and put on a play.

Make up a new game.

Look around your house for bugs. Catch and study them, find out what they are and what they eat. Then let them go.

Dress up in costumes.

Create a family scrap book or put together a photo album.

Do art projects such as drawing, coloring or painting.

Go on a picnic.

Invite friends over for a visit.

Take a little trip to a fun place such as the park, the beach, the zoo, the Science Place (if you live in Dallas), the arboretum, the movies, horseback riding, skating, the museum, miniature golf, camping, bowling or the aquarium.

Go to the library.

Go through your old toys and clothing and donate what you no longer use to charity.

Have a garage sale to get rid of that clutter you know has been building up around the house. Encourage children to get rid of old toys and clothes they no longer use. What you don't sell can be donated to the local charity center.

Dress up in costumes.

Have a puppet show.

Draw and design your own board game.

Play hopscotch.

Decorate the driveway with chalk. When I was little, my friend and I would draw houses on the sidewalk. It looked like a dollhouse or a cut-away view of a house. We designed it how we wanted and drew furniture, etc.

Draw a map with a treasure at the end. You can also make a game out of finding something by putting clues around the house that lead to the next clue.

If you want to get the kids out of your way, create a scavenger hunt of things to find. The first to find all the items is the winner.

Clean the house.

Put together a cookbook of your favorite recipes.

Create your own website.

Draw and design a coloring book.

Learn to knit or crochet.

Create nature crafts such as making bird houses or bird feeders.

Plant a tree or plant seeds to give to family members when they get bigger. You can use old plastic plant pots that plants come in at the nursery. This is a great way to recycle!

Paint each other's faces.

If you live in the country, you can make a bonfire or roast marshmallows.

Go window shopping. Pretend that you won the lottery and you will be getting your money next week. Discuss what you will buy and why when you get your money. This is a favorite game of my stepdaughter's. It is more fun if you pretend that you can't buy for yourself, only for others. (I also use this when she wants something at the store she cannot have. It is easier than telling a child "no". Just say we will buy that when we get rich. It works for us every time.)

Dress up and act silly.

Go camping. If you can't go camping, you can at least set up the tent in your yard. If you live in the country you can even have a fire and roast marshmallows for s'mores!

Look at or work on old scrapbooks or photo albums.

Build a clubhouse.

Go fishing or go for a boat ride.

Put on a play.

Take a ride around town on the city bus or trolley. If you have a train, take the train for the day.

Take a nature walk. Collect stones and sticks or driftwood to add to your garden at home. See how many plants an animals you can identify. Collect herbs for your collection or seeds for your garden.

Build a fairy sanctuary in the yard. You can add houses, stone circles, gardens, miniature ponds, etc.

Make up a story with your children. Each person gets to say a sentence to keep the story going.

Go feed the ducks.

Play travel bingo when you are in the car. If you want to keep children quiet and observant, say something like "I have a nickel for the first one who sees a (insert object here)." This way you are not paying off your children to behave, but teaching them that being observant can pay off in the end.

Make your own board games. You can create the game pieces from scratch or use little toys. The board can be made from a large sheet of paper or you can recycle the lid of a pizza box by painting and drawing on it.

Take a huge bubble bath.

Put together a wooden dinosaur skeleton model.

Donate or volunteer at the local animal shelter. They always need a helping hand, towels, rags, toys, pet food and cat litter. You can also donate things like shampoo, pet brushes, chew bones, collars and dog treats.

Build a pond in your yard.

Set up an aquarium or fish tank. It is important to focus on what will make the fish happy when building the aquarium. Teaching children to think of the needs of the fish, rather than the needs of themselves teaches them to respect all living creatures and be kind to others. (Bowls are cruel and extremely detrimental to the life and health of the fish, regardless of whether it is popular or not!)

Start a flower, herb, or vegetable garden.

Set up a lemonade stand.

Rearrange your children's' bedrooms. Let them decide where they want each piece of furniture to go.

Go to the park and feed the ducks or the goldfish.

Make your own nature video with the camcorder. You can also use it to create your own movies or television shows.

Take pictures or have your portraits done.

Build a fort out of pillows and blankets.

Do something special as a surprise for mom or dad that they will see when they come home. You can wash their car, bake cookies, make a special present, or work together cleaning the house.

Take a walk and pick up trash. Make money by recycling the cans and bottles that you find.

Make silhouettes of each other.

Buy flower seeds and sprinkle them along the highways so that everyone can enjoy them. Here in Texas you can buy a huge can of wildflower seeds for about $3 at any grocery store.

Build a pond on your porch out of a half whiskey barrel or a large flower pot.

Make little houses for the fairies in your garden.

Take the kids to dad's work, steal his car for a few minutes, take it for a wash and bring it back, cleaned out and vacuumed. He will be surprised! Leave a note on the dashboard that says how much you all appreciate him.

Go to a garage sale for things you might need. Just don't buy more junk that you don't.

Go and visit a friend.

Take the dog for a walk or to the park to play Frisbee. Dogs are like your children, too.

Pretend  you are rich and go shopping. Don't actually buy anything, but pretend that you are buying each thing that you want. That way you don't spend any money and it teaches children how easy it is to live without the things we think we want so badly. Cambria and I always say "I'll buy you that when I am rich." When we go shopping and one of us sees something the other might like.

Create a family diary. Each day at the end of the day, discuss what you did all day and write it down in the book, even if it was just something good you had for lunch. You can add pictures, drawings, pressed plants and other things to remind you of what you did that day. This is a wonderful gift for your children that they can look back on their entire lives.

Go to the pet store and look at all of the animals.

Paint flower pots to give away as gifts during birthdays and holiday seasons.

Make a sticker book.

Go to a petting zoo.

Decorate a box to keep all of the crafts and papers you have created but don't have room to display. This will be very special when the children are grown up. Handling the items will bring back pleasant memories when they are older.

Do crafts from a craft book or website.

Start a new hobby such as coin collecting, wood burning, sewing, knitting, crocheting, weaving, or pottery.

Read books to each other.

Write a poem.

Gather together a gift basket for someone who is not feeling well. You can include cookies, cans of soup, flowers, a book, cough drops, or herbal tea.

Go paddle boating. This is lots of fun and really great exercise!

Make bookmarks using construction paper, pressed plants and flowers, yarn, and stickers. If you like, you can laminate them when you are finished. These make great gifts. You can also donate them to nursing homes.

Look up a silly sounding word in the dictionary and try to use it as many times as you can all day long. (this is great for teaching kids big vocabulary words.)

If you see a poster for a lost animal in your neighborhood, take the children out for a walk to look for the animals. Never accept a reward if you do find one. It is a good lesson to teach children to help others and to have fun helping. Explain the importance of losing a loved one.

Make your own stickers by drawing on blank sticky labels, coloring them in and cutting them out.

Go to a playground.

Go fishing.

Go to the park and catch tadpoles. Put them in a fishbowl and wait for them to turn into frogs. (feed them flake fish food) Then let them go.

If you know of someone who is homeless, gather together items for them in a paper lunch sack, drive by and drop them off. Items can include gum, fruit, disposable razors, toothbrush, toothpaste, shampoo samples,  packaged snacks, used books, etc.

My mother took us to the local nursing home at Christmas bearing gifts like gum, fruit and candy in paper lunch sacks with cards stapled to them for the elderly. Many of them have no friends or family to visit them during the holidays and they really appreciate a visit. Who knows, you might make a new friend!

Paint your fingernails all different colors.

Read books out loud.

Make a collage.

Make up a song or a story.

Put all of your hair bows and clips in daddy's hair! My dad used to let me do this while he read the paper. Then he would amuse me by going and getting the mail so all the neighbors might see it!

Gather and press flowers.

Make up your own language by creating an easily drawn symbol for each letter. Write secret letters to each other.

You can make a fun invisible ink by writing with lemon juice. Use a paintbrush to write on white paper. Then, to read it, put it under a piece of cloth and iron over it. The letters will turn brown and you can read the secret message!

Play I spy.

Design your own T-shirts with craft and fabric paint.

Learn sign language.

Start or work in a journal. Remember that they don't have to have just words. You can write poetry, add quotes, discuss what you did that day, draw, sketch, write down your dreams, put in pressed flowers and leaves or found objects such as letters, stickers, photographs and magazine and newspaper clippings - even locks of each other's hair.

Cut up magazines and make a collage.

Go garage-saling.

Try to break a world record.

If you need new clothes, go clothes shopping.

Make an insect collection. You don't need to kill the bugs to do this. Find dead bugs around your home or at the park.

Learn how to set a table properly.

Buy plain canvas tote bags and craft fabric paint to make your own personal totes! These are great for carrying toys around with you to the beach, the park and family member's houses.

Write a story or a book.

Make a leaf collection labeling each of the different types of leaves and what trees they came from. Frame it and hang it in your room.

Make or buy a boat with a long string tied to it and float it down a stream or in a lake.

Learn to play an instrument.

Write your own song.

Write a book and illustrate the pictures.

Make presents for each other.

Take a bath with lots of toys.

Write poetry on dried leaves and leave them for other people to find or float them down a stream.

Set up a kiddie pool in the yard.

Go fishing.

Get an old magazine and play scavenger hunt with it. Each person gets a different magazine. Tell the children to look for something, such as a flower or a necklace. Pick things that are easily found in just about any magazine. The first one to find all of the items and write down their page numbers is the winner.

Run through the sprinkler.

Make homemade dough. You can make toys out of these or beads.

Build a snowman or a snow fort.

Birdwatch. See who can identify the most birds.

Buy some bath crayons, run the bath water and jump in!

Have a slumber party.

Make Christmas ornaments to give away as gifts. Use homemade clay and roll it out flat. Cut out shapes with cookie cutters. make a hole in the top and bake in the oven. Paint with acrylic or tempera paints and tie a ribbon through the hole in the top. Don't forget to write your name on the back.

Make a home movie or video.

Make your own musical instruments and start a band!

Foster a homeless cat or dog.

Sell lemonade.

Make a quilt together. If kids are too young to sew, buy some permanent fabric markers and let them decorate white squares. Then piece them together into a small throw blanket they can use at the beach, for a picnic, or just cuddling at bedtime.

Play a sport.

Take photos.

Get a new pet.

Go on a mini road trip somewhere out of town.

Go on an adventure - a long walk somewhere you have never been.

Make your own postcards by gluing a piece of poster board to the back of a photograph or drawing a picture on one side of a piece of poster board.

Make your own valentines.

Learn about a new animal.

Go to the park to find the perfect walking stick.

Make an animal book. Each day, learn about a new animal. Draw a picture of that animal and write some facts you learned about it around the picture. Later, you can piece these together and make a book about what you have learned.

Just spend time talking to each other.