Family Movie Night and Popcorn Bar with Quick Tips for Busy Families in Friday’s Fast Five 12th Edition

Building a stronger, happier family is at the top of most parents’ list. However, we are busy! These weekly Fast Five ideas and tips are a quick way to brainstorm, check-in, and create the family relationships you really want. Today’s ideas include some fun ideas for a family movie night and popcorn bar, a lesson about relaxation, a simple service idea, and more. Happy Friday!

* These ideas are NOT meant to be a checklist or guilt trip of things we “should do.” Rather, they are intended to inspire you to find what works for YOUR family to learn, laugh, and love together. Remember to stick to the Simple Side of Parenting.

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What is Friday’s Fast Five?

Each Friday, we share five quick and simple ideas for families under the following categories:

1. Something Fun

This is an activity, game, entertainment recommendation, or simple outing for family fun.

2. A Little Lesson

Here you will find a simple lesson to help teach kids important ideas. Examples include life skills or personal qualities like kindness and patience.

3. A Service Idea

Volunteering is good for our mental and physical health. Serving together strengthens relationships with those we serve and those we serve with. Service can be fun and eye-opening. Service is an important way to learn, laugh, and love together.

4. Something Random

This is a random thought, idea, quote, or meme, typically to help you smile. 🙂

5. A Quick Tip

Here you will find a quick parenting or family tip for peaceful parenting or building a stronger, happier family. These come from research, personal experience, or those common sense reminders we all need to hear once in a while.

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Yes, Please!

With that, here is the twelfth edition of Friday’s Fast Five. (You can find other editions HERE.)

1. Something Fun: Family Movie Night and Popcorn Bar

We love having a weekly Friday Night Family Movie Night. We take turns choosing the movie, everyone snuggles up, and it’s a great way to relax together at the end of the week. Include a popcorn bar for a fun twist!

Popcorn Bar Ideas

For the popcorn bar, offer different toppings or fixings like cinnamon, melted chocolate to drizzle, Reese’s Pieces, crushed cookie, or other candies. You could also make it more like a trail mix with mix-ins like nuts, raisins, pretzels, or other dried fruits.

For a little variety, make a flavored popcorn like this Oreo popcorn that we haven’t tried yet but looks amazing! Or try one of these 30 varieties of popcorn!

My favorite tasting popcorn is when it’s made with a Spinner Stovetop Popcorn Popper. Have you had popcorn like this before? It is SO GOOD! You heat the popper on the stove, pour the kernels in, and spin the handle to keep the popcorn from burning on the bottom. It pops really fast and is quick to clean up. Popcorn kernels are cheap, and you can flavor it however you want. Although I like all popcorn, I think this tastes better than microwavable or electric popped.

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Favorite Family Movie Night Movies

Here’s a little mix of older classics and newer family-friendly movies that are some of our favorites.

• Toy Story (all of the movies in the series)
• The Princess Bride
• The Sound of Music
• Peter Rabbit
• Annie
• Despicable Me
• Swiss Family Robinson
• Moana
• Herbie Goes Bananas
• The Parent Trap

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If you’re looking for a fun movie for this weekend, some of our favorite family-friendly Halloween movies include Halloweentown, Casper, Hotel Transylvania, Ghostbusters, Goosebumps, and the classic, It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.

Related: 25 Simple and Fun Halloween Activities for Families

Do you do a family movie night? What are some of your favorite family-friendly movies?

2. A Little Lesson: Relaxation or Meditation for Kids

We live in a high-stress world. When we teach our kids how to relax, be still, or get calm, we’re helping them learn important life skills.

Start simple and short if you haven’t done this together before. Even three long, deep breaths can help us relax.

A simple way to help kids learn why relaxation is important is to talk about how our bodies and minds work to protect us with the fight or flight response. When we sense stress or danger, everything speeds up to get us ready for action. That’s good and healthy, but if our bodies spend too much time in that state, it’s not good for us. It’s kind of like we get worn out.

It’s important to teach our bodies how to come back to a calm place. This also helps the thinking brain jump back into action (which takes a back seat when our bodies are in fight or flight). The thinking brain helps us make decisions that are smart and kind.

After practicing deep breathing and relaxation at low-key times, our kids can start using them to calm down when they feel upset.

A Few Relaxation Resources for Kids

I think it’s really helpful when we ourselves guide or teach our kids to meditate or relax. This helps them recognize that they can do this at any time, without any tools. However, apps are also a helpful way to learn about meditation or relaxation if you haven’t done much of it yourself or if you want some new ideas. This article talks about 8 meditation apps for kids.

One of our kids went through a period of anxious days and difficulty falling asleep at night. We found that a guided relaxation before bed was really helpful. Here is a guided relaxation script for kids, and you can also read the post that shares this experience: Seven Minutes to a Better Sleeper.

Wondering how to fit Little Lessons into your busy family schedule?

The two main ways to fit important lessons into your busy family schedule are to find spontaneous teaching moments throughout the day and to schedule family learning time each week. These two posts go into detail about these two ways and tips for making it happen with your family.

How Busy Parents Can Teach Important Life Lessons

6 Tips for Family Time that Teaches Life’s Most Important Lessons

3. A Service Idea: Sincere Compliments

Small and simple actions matter.

Talk about how to offer a kind, specific compliment. Practice thinking of them with each other. Challenge each family member to give at least one such compliment this week.

There are a lot of harsh words in the world. But we can make a difference when we take small and simple actions to spread kindness.

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Service is a great way to build a stronger, happier family. If you want more service ideas, request Raising Compassionate Children in a Conceited World, which includes 101 Service Ideas for Families.

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4. Something Random: Morning Thought

Is this familiar?

5. A Quick Tip: Preventing Misbehavior

Behavior is communication. When we create time and space for our kids to feel seen and heard, we prevent a lot of “misbehavior.”

We’ve recognized differences in behavior when we’ve prioritized one-on-one time compared to when we haven’t. We use that one-on-one time to talk about concerns, have fun, read stories, and listen to our kids.

I know life is busy, and it can be hard to make it happen. But even 10 undistracted minutes a day can make a positive difference.

This post shares more about how beneficial one-on-one time is and ideas for how to include it in your life: My Parents Rocked One-on-One Time…And I Want to Follow.

And that is Friday’s Fast Five!

Yes, Please!

You can also see Friday’s Fast Five on Instagram or other editions HERE.

Building a Stronger, Happier Family

It takes time and intention to build a stronger, happier family. I hope Friday’s Fast Five helps you find the ways that work for YOUR family to learn, laugh, and love together.

We will never regret the time we devote to our families and relationships with our kids.

Have a great weekend with your family, know that you’re loved, and keep on lovin’!

Do you have a great idea for a future Friday’s Fast Five? Have a question or parenting struggle you want help with? Share in the comments, shoot me an Email, or schedule a call.

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