If you live in a house, why don’t you plan a nice picnic and prepare sandwiches, fruit, and fries? Put everything in a basket and set up your lawn or patio table.

You and your family will still get some fresh air while connecting with nature at home. It’s a win-win.

These outdoor activities are perfect for those who have children. You need four players and a big rubber ball. What you need to do is draw a 12 x 12-foot square on your driveway and divide it into four squares—A, B, C, and D.

Each player steps on a square, and player A starts bouncing the ball in their square. Then, they need to bat it with open hands into another square. That player must hit the ball into another square. When one player misses, or the ball goes out of their square, they move to D, the players behind them advance, and everything starts again. It’s a great game, trust us.

If you have a large backyard, you can outline a path with stones or unmowed grass. Look for outline examples online and follow the labyrinth. This is perfect for small children too!

Kids will love this! Hide little dime-store jewels and other treasures in the garden and draw a map with directions. You can even make it look authentic by letting coffee soak into the map and rip it around the edges.

A smart idea is to hide the map in the house and let your children find it while making the bed or organizing their toys. It’s definitely one of the best weekend activities.

If it’s cold or rainy outside, cooking is always a good idea. Bake cupcakes or pies and make homemade pizza or hot chocolate with marshmallows.

We all know that kids love getting messy—it’s in their nature. Once bathtime is over, sit together and enjoy a movie or two with your freshly-made food!

Download a star chart from the internet and set up an area in your yard where you can sit comfortably and have a clear view of the sky.

Watching the night sky change is the perfect opportunity to get some fresh air and it also leads to better sleep.

YouTube is full of videos showing how to do magic tricks. You can even plan a show and perform for the whole family.

But please, practice first. We don’t want any accidents or difficult questions when you fail with a particularly tough trick.

This game is for six or more people. Get two pieces of different-colored fabric and cut it into flags for each player. Use flour to divide your yard into two 12 x 12-foot courts. Divide into two teams. ¡

Each person must place a flag on the back line of their court. Then, rush to the opposite side of the field and try to pick up one of the other team’s flags. If a player is tagged, they’re out. However, if they capture a flag, they can return to their court. The first team to capture all of the opposing player’s flags wins.

If there’s a cuisine your kids have never tried, now is the perfect time for a taste test.

Choose a random country from a map and read more about its traditional dishes. Then, make one at home for lunch or dinner—for example, Gazpacho or Croque Monsieur.

It may sound impossible, but it’s actually not. Going camping at home is so much fun! Use lots of blankets, pillows, and sheets to set up a nice “camping” area, make some hot chocolate, hot dogs, and s’mores, and tell each other ghost stories.

Turn off the lights and add some candles to get that “around the campfire” atmosphere too. You can also play camp-themed games and sing camp songs.

From podcasts to social media posts, saunas are everywhere now. Part of their increase in popularity can be attributed to research demonstrating a special link between frequent sauna use and improved mental and physical health, and possibly even longer life span, as well as startling evidence that it may prevent dementia. Here are some of the benefits of these hot air rooms.

The majority of research on brain benefits originates in Finland, where sauna bathing is a pillar in the culture of happiness and health. Jussi Kauhahen, M.D., Ph.D., director of public health at the University of Eastern Finland and current head of the research group, says that a few years ago when Finnish researchers dug into some overlooked data on chronic disease risk and numbers they’d been collecting on middle-aged men since the 1980s, they found a special link.

Scientists from any other nation would not have thought to include a question about the frequency of taking a sauna in their lifestyle questionnaires. Dr. Kauhanen explains that in Finland, where it is essentially as universal as exercise and diet, the query seemed natural.

Men who used saunas four to seven times per week had a 65% lower risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease or other types of dementia over the next 20 years compared to men who used saunas only once per week. A 2020 study that followed nearly 14,000 Finnish people confirmed the earlier study’s findings: those who used saunas nine to 12 times per month had a 53% reduced chance of developing dementia over the next 20 years compared to those who went zero to four times per month. Researchers have a hypothesis why this is so.

Dr. Kauhanen explains that even though it may not appear productive, your body is undergoing a variety of psychological changes in a sauna, including some of the same processes that occur during exercise. Exercising in a gym or sitting in a sauna reduces inflammation, which is believed to play a role in dementia. Both activities also stimulate the body to produce proteins that promote neuroplasticity and appropriate protein folding in the brain, thereby reducing the risk of dementia. Kauhanen suggests that cold shock proteins may have similar effects on the brain as heat shock proteins.

Dr. Christopher Chen, director of the Memory, Ageing, and Cognition Center at the National University Health System in Singapore, suggests that saunas may also benefit the brain by exercising the pulse similarly to exercise. This not only reduces the risk of dementia but also enhances the function of your arteries, promotes healthy blood pressure, keeps oxygen and other nutrients flowing into your cells, and removes waste products.

Finally, saunas are enjoyable places to be in. Depression and social isolation are dementia risk factors. According to Dr. Kauhanen, in Finland, sauna use is a pleasurable and often social activity that has been linked to improved mental health over time.