by Angela V 
With so many activities and things to do, the summer months can be even busier than the school year. Parents everywhere are busy planning playdates, holidays and outings; kids are heading to summer camps and spending lots of time outdoors…
During the summer, finding quality time to spend together as a family should be a priority!
Hosting a game night with your family is an easy way to schedule family time to reconnect and have fun together. Ensuring all electronic devices are turned off during game night is equally important, think about Disconnecting to Connect!
You can prepare your space by transforming your everyday living room into the ultimate game room. This can be as easy as ensuring there are enough crozy seats for everyone who is playing, turning on background music that is upbeat but not distracting and setting up a variety of delicious snacks. These small changes will show your little ones that you’re taking the game night, and family time, seriously.
Play a variety of games to change it up and make it exciting. Designate a set amount of time that you will play each game to ensure you’re keeping everyone entertained and allowing people to try their hand at something new. Starting with UNO then moving on to Apples to Apples before Pictionary will keep everyone entertained while giving them the opportunity to win at a new game!
How do you connect with your family during the summer?
THE GIVEAWAY
Win it: One lucky Canadian reader (excluding Quebec) will win three MATTEL® Games, including UNO, Pictionary and Apples to Apples. Enter to WIN via Rafflecopter below.
Good luck!
Disclosure: I am a Mattel Play Ambassador. All views and opinions on this post are 100% my own.
80 Comments on “Disconnect To Connect {Mattel Games Giveaway}”
We have lots of summer birthdays (with a new granddaughter being born in just a few weeks) and we spend lots of time at the beach, eating together, laughing and just having a good time with each other.
Find activities they like to do and plan them. We have done paddleboarding, paddle boats, trip up to whistler and lots of time at the beach
We do a lot of bike riding as a family….and bonfires. Good times!
We usually visit with family or have them visit and we love doing family BBQ’s, the beach, etc.
A nightly swim in the pool, we also play a lot of board games and wii U games.
we have barbeques
Enjoy walks and the pool.
We have BBQs, go to parks and play games.
We play board games at least 2 times a week all year round.
We get together at the family cabin.
Sitting outside and talking, going to the beach and sharing meals together
Our summer reading club connects us with shared books, and trips back and forth to the library.
We try to go camping for a couple weekends, and go for walks and just play together!
We go camping, to the lake, picnic suppers.
We spend more time having family meals with BBQ
We always try to have get togethers doing fun things like camping! 🙂
Spending some time at the lake
We like to go to the library and come home and real ALL the books together.
We love outdoor activities…hiking, biking, swimming, etc.
We like to do board games and story nights! We would visit the library and each pick a book and take turn reading it to each other or tell stories about the pictures if our littlest one who can’t read yet likes to do.
Get outside and play golf and have BBQs
Eating together, outings with cousins, and board game nights
more time at the beach and hikes
we do some camping together
We spend a lot of time at the pool and the beach. When it rains we play board games in side the house or the tent.
We spend lots of time camping, enjoying the outdoors and playing games!
My family spend lots of time together in the summer-we eat all our meals together, and have a special family day every weekend.
We go for walks, bike rides, swimming and canoeing as a family.
I love family board game nights! Theres nothing like spending quality time together with the ones who matter most.
We go for long walks or hikes in the woods.
We go camping, play games and do some day trips
We love to go camping ,swimming and walks during the summer.
Family dinners, family outings .
We travel back and forth between towns to visit each other for some fun and games and I usually travel to Europe once a year to visit my children & grandchildren there too. I usually save my visits to my daughter and family in Australia until winter, when it’s summer there – who wants to go from 6 mths of winter here to winter in another country?
We spend a lot of time camping or going to different events. We just spend a lot of time outside.
lots of swimming and bonding over the campfire
We have a lot of family suppers and play games like I spy, charades, board games and go to the lake and go fishing, boating and have camp fires where we tell stories!
Cool game prize pack!
We try to take a family walk daily or bike ride.
We connect through at least one big family fun activity. Visiting a water park or an amusement park, for example.
During the summer we have lots of BBQs as we celebrate many family birthdays. One of our favourite games in the backyard is bocce.
Take a long drive to Indiana.
We get together at the beach.
We go SWIMMING!!
We go Geocaching together 🙂
We usually stay in and BBQ more.
we gather together every Thursday night for potluck and board games !
We find it easiest to connect in the summer – for one, the longer days give us more time together, and since the kids are out of school we don’t have to worry so much about bed times, so we do stay up later for more time together. Since I only work a couple of days a week, I get to spend lots of time with the kids at the park, swimming, hiking etc., and my husband goes in to work early and finishes early so that we have lots of time together in the evenings. We try to limit how much we schedule ourselves, so that we have open calendars for impromptu fun. If it is rainy (so far not this summer!) we read and play board games together, and once a week we do a family movie night, rain or shine. I love summer for family time!!
We got to the beach together and attend kids baseball games.
we play games and watch movies together.
We like to go to the cottage together. If it’s nice we hang out on the beach. If it rains, well it’s time for some board games!
have bbq’s and just enjoy each other
we spend lots of time by the pool
going on picnics and playing games
We play games and we go for walks outside.
My family go out walking together.
We have Sunday bbqs and family time playing games in our back yard pool.
We have lots of family BBQ’s.
We go camping, take road trips, visit family and have movie and game nights.
We take roadtrips, go to festivals, have family game night and explore new activities in the city
go for walks, have picnics, and play in the park!
By doing different activities like camping, biking, going for long walks and on rainy days we plays cards or board games.
A daily swim in the pool during fair weather and a game (board or video) when the weather is not so nice.
We try to have family time at least once a week. We BBQ, play cards, catch and love to go for walks. We try to find things everyone likes and I know board games are usually a hit with our family. Jenga has always been a big favorite but I love Pictionary and now everyone is old enough to have fun with it. Also they are great for rainy days.
it’s been way too long since I last played a board game – I’m overdue.
lots of camping and goig to the beach
I like these games. They can be played by all ages. Perfect for family get-to-gethers.!
We go on our outdoor adventures.
We go on vacation and leave the electronic devices behind so we can talk and spend time together.
In the summer, we do a lot of hiking and festivals! Last weekend we went to a puppy dog festival! 😀 My favourite summer day is when we take the kids to Canada’s Wonderland, once per summer 🙂 Board games are our favourite rainy-day or family-night activity and we play them regularely!
We visit parks and swim a lot.
These games are so family friendly…all ages can find them easy to play.
we have family bbq’s and we go to the beach or pool day get togethers.
Easy games to interest all ages…great for families to play and keep everyone’s attention!
We try and go camping, but also spend a lot of time at the parks here in the city.
We have family BBQs and roadtrips.
Picnics and road trips
great family games!
We always have dinner together every night as a family and share our days with each other.
We spend time together fishing, jumping on our trampoline and riding bikes.