A few years back I created this activity for our Sunday School class called the Family Olympics. The idea was that each family would compete in a series of games and whichever team won the most would win a Gold, the family that came in second got the Silver, and the third place team won a Bronze. It was a challenge because we had families of all different age groups and some with no kids. Trying to balance it out in such a way so that everyone had a roughly equal chance at winning required some mental gymnastics but I eventually figured it out. Of course the end result was not to find out who had the best family; it was to encourage families to come together in friendly competition.

Overall, I came up with fifteen to twenty different events (we did this on multiple years and the events changed somewhat each time). Every family would choose five events that they would be scored in and then at the end we would total up the scores (3 points for first, 2 for second, and 1 for third). The team with the highest score would be the overall winner. In case of a tie we had a tie-breaking competition.

I categorized each event as to what age group it was appropriate for. So something like a relay race we would break into pre-school, elementary, and older so that five year-olds and twelve year-olds weren’t racing against each other. There were some events with no age restrictions and others that could only be done by certain age people. I tried to give a roughly even split so that everyone in the family could participate.

At the time we had quite a few pre-schoolers in the various families so I had to come up with things that challenged them without frustrating them. It took some searching on the internet and some creative thinking but a few of the events were loved by all. First we had “Don’t laugh.” In this one, I gathered all the children around me and started making jokes and acting goofy. The last child to laugh won the game. Imagine my joy when all I said was “booger” and three-quarters of the group broke out in hilarious guffaws. 5 year-olds are such an easy audience.

The second one was the “Daddy slalom.” In this one, a swerving race course is designed using cones or flags. The father is blindfolded and the pre-schooler takes his father’s hand and leads him through the course. The first one to finish wins. Having participated in this one, I tell you there is a lot of trust you are putting into that little child and it the kids had fun being the ones in charge.

The final event, and the most fun, was “Mommy calling.” We put the mothers on one side of the field and blindfolded them. We then put all the little kids on the other side. Once we said go, the little kids would yell to their mother and she would have to cross the field, still blindfolded, and find her child just by the sound of their voice. The kids loved it and how the mothers found their child in the cacophony I’ll never know.

We had other events besides just physical ones. We created very complex sentences and cut them out word by word. The cards were then mixed up and it was a race to see who could create the longest coherent sentence. There were a handful of similar logic-type puzzles that families could participate in so that everyone felt they could contribute.

At the end of the day, everyone expressed how much fun they had. While the winners enjoyed being recognized it was truly the families spending time together and depending on each other in a fun environment that made the day so enjoyable. I loved the Family Olympics and will start them up once again real soon.

So maybe you are part of a group with a lot of families and are looking for some kind of activity. Maybe your neighborhood is having a block party soon. If so, try out a Family Olympics. Who knows, you might even get a smile out of your teenager.