Unplug to Connect 
Knowing information about our family members (such as their experiences, childhood activities, favorite foods, or the most memorable places they’ve visited) can impact what we take interest in as we grow and develop. One of your family members could have been face-to-face with an angry, wild animal and didn’t know what to do! This activity will allow you to gather this interesting information and hold great conversations with your family.
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to switch roles with your family members? Children become the parents/guardians or the other way around? What is mom like when you’re trying to communicate with her but she is on a screen device? What if the child didn’t complete tasks after being asked multiple times by an adult because they were glued to their technology? This activity is an interactive way to see what is like to be in the shoes of someone else.
Plan and create experiences together that you and your family will want to remember, capture photos, and create a log of your family time.
One indoor activity that will always keep you and your family engaged is a classic scavenger hunt. Participants in a scavenger hunt search and collect a number of items.
Mad Libs is an exciting word replacement activity. This is a great way for families to get creative using specific words in part of a song or story.
Tell a story about one or more characters who find a way to spend less time using their screen device. How do they unplug? Is there anything (or anyone) that helps them put away their smartphone or turn off their laptop? A hero perhaps? What does the character do instead?
In this activity, you’ll become a scientist of sorts and gather information about how you spend time using screen devices in your house. For families that want to spend less time on their phones, this can be an important first step. You might have a feeling about how you use your devices, but if you wrote a little about your screen time each day, what might you learn? Try this for several days and find out.
In this activity, you and your family will make a quick list of the technologies you use at home and how much time you spend using them. Next, as a group, you’ll come up with new and creative ways to spend less time on your devices and more time connecting with one another, for example, or exercising, pursuing your hobbies, cooking, or playing games together.
Gossip spreads quickly on social media, texting and group chats. Likewise, bullying has been a part of school communities for a long time, but social media, texting and screen devices give people more access to one another. This makes it easier for the drama to unfold.
When speaking, many people will use “like,” “um,” or “uh” to fill the silent space in a conversation. Other words you might here are “so” or “right.” This is a habit, but one you can modify. This activity helps to eliminate these fillers in conversation and build public speaking skills.