Lifestyle

4 Fun Summer Activities Your Whole Family Will Enjoy

Published

4 years ago

June 14, 2022

Summer is right around the corner and that means spending quality time with friends and family. Whether you already have some traditions in place or you’re looking for new ideas, here’s a list of several adventures and activities you may want to try this summer.

Water sports

When was the last time you and your family headed out on the water for a day of wakeboarding, water skiing, or tubing? Make this summer your time to explore some watersports.

When you already have a boat, it’s pretty affordable to get your own water sports equipment and try new things. For instance, you may want to explore stand-up paddleboards or kneeboards. You could also get a new innertube for towing multiple people at once.

Don’t have a boat? No problem. There are many locations where you can rent a boat and the type of water sports equipment you’d like to try. Look around online and find a place that rents equipment for boating. If they don’t have what you need, ask for a reference.

If you’re feeling adventurous and don’t have younger kids, you might want to head out to a spot where you can learn to kitesurf.

Whatever water adventure you choose, make sure everyone is wearing a life vest, even your pets, and take a basic water safety course if you haven’t already.

Backyard giant toss games

Have you ever seen those giant bean bags, horseshoes, or discs designed to be thrown across the yard? Each game is a little different, but these types of games are fun for the whole family, even little ones.

One of the best games is bean bag tic-tac-toe. With this game, you have to toss a giant bean bag onto a giant tic-tac-toe game board in the right spot. It’s a fun twist on a simple game.

There are tons of other backyard toss games you can play with your family, including lawn darts (the safe version of the game), horseshoes (plastic or bean bag style for younger kids), and disc golf.

Croquet

Croquet is a somewhat involved game to play, but the act of playing is simple enough that it might be of interest to kids, even if they don’t understand the details. Otherwise, croquet is an excellent game to play with friends, a spouse, or older children.

The goal in a game of croquet is to make both of your balls hit a peg after hitting them through a series of hoops in a specific order. For instance, there are five hoops that are all facing different yet specific directions. Each ball has to go through each hoop two times in a specific order.

Then, each ball has to move backward through each hoop in the opposite order, at which point the objective becomes to hit a peg. When a ball hits the peg, it’s removed from the game, and the first person to hit the peg with both balls wins.

Here are the basic rules for playing croquet and a video showing the gameplay if you’re not familiar. It may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but it’s relaxed enough that it can be enjoyed by a group of friends.

A slip ‘n slide

You can’t have a fun summer without a slip ‘n slide in the backyard! Even when it’s not that hot out, it’s a fun way to pass the time.

There are so many different styles to choose from today, from simple tarp-like slides to slides with a pool at one end. Some slip ‘n slides are even padded and come with inflatable kickboards to make the ride a little more enjoyable.

On really hot days, the best slip ‘n slides are the ones that spray water everywhere and cool you down from every direction.

Enjoy this summer with new activities

Don’t let this summer be stale and boring. Bring your friends and family together to enjoy each other’s company with some new activities. Make this summer fun, whether you set up some games in your backyard, go out on the water, or just hang out in the house and talk.

What’s most important is that you spend time with the people you love.

Lifestyle

Kindness First: Lessons From Ellen DeGeneres

Published

1 hour ago

January 16, 2026

Michelle Langton

The Power of Kindness in a World Divided

Let’s accept that it’s easy to be kind when others share your views. It’s when someone has a very different opinion on a topic that you might explode with anger. In those times, being kind is most challenging and most important.

In today’s world, people are constantly judging one another, arguing with one another, and generally dismissing each other’s ideas without any second thoughts. Families are torn apart over politics. People become enraged over their differences in beliefs surrounding religion. Even small disagreements escalate into full-blown arguments on social media. However, all of that anger and hostility does not help anyone.

Ellen’s Enduring Message

This is why Ellen DeGeneres has maintained her message of kindness throughout her career. Every show ended with her saying “Be kind to one another” — a constant reminder to the world of the importance of being kind to one another every day as a choice.

Ellen has always used her experience to focus on what brings her audience joy and laughter, and helping them feel good about themselves. In helping people feel good about themselves, Ellen demonstrates through her comedy that one does not need to bring down another person to lift themselves up. One can also choose to treat, honour, and respect others, even those they may disagree with.

Why Kindness Matters When We Disagree

When’s the last time that someone has changed your mind by treating you badly? Probably never. Hostile behaviour just shuts people down, puts them on the defensive and builds a wall.

On the other hand, Ellen demonstrates that the opposite of kind behaviour is the opposite. Using contempt places a wall between people that does not exist with kind behaviour, and allows real dialogue to exist. When respect and disagreement co-exist, the other person is told, “I see that you are a human being just like me, and while I do not agree with you, I am open to your perspective and will take your position into consideration. Thanks for being you. Sometimes that is what is needed, and that is all it takes to find common ground.”

Learning and Growing Together

Ellen has been forgiven by much of her audience, with fans choosing to focus on the humor, kindness, and positivity she has brought into the world over decades. While past controversies once clouded her public image, her openness, self-reflection, and continued commitment to spreading joy have allowed many to move past old criticisms. Today, audiences celebrate Ellen not just for her career, but for the larger message she represents—that even public figures can grow, learn, and continue inspiring kindness.

As Ellen reminds us, “Everything bad that’s ever happened to me has taught me compassion.” And isn’t that what kindness is really about? Learning from our struggles and extending that understanding to others. She also said, “It always helps to think about other people instead of ourselves”—words that perfectly capture what it means to choose kindness even when disagreement makes us want to dig in our heels.

The truth is, every small act of kindness adds up. Every time you choose grace over anger, you’re making the world a little bit better.

Kindness Without Compromise

On the other hand, kindness does not mean that you have to defend an opinion, nor that you cannot defend that which you consider right. Furthermore, kindness doesn’t come from letting people walk all over you.

More to the point, kindness is about how we deal with people, not whether we agree with them or not. It is possible to have a strong opinion about something, and be respectful to all. We can advocate for what we think is right, and not be perceived as the bad person. Kindness makes the message we spread much more powerful and people listen to us more.

Putting Kindness Into Practice

What does this mean for you? What does this look like in real life?

Maybe it means having to listen to his probably not-so-valuable political opinions, helping out a neighbor, trying to stop your frustration by not going on a mean comment on someone’s Facebook post.

You might find these things meaningless and not valuable, however, the world needs these ‘small’ random acts of kindness, which, by the way, are contagious.

You are already setting the path for a better and kinder world by disagreeing with people in a polite way and, while to you, the act of kindness might not mean much, to the receiver of the kindness, it would mean to someone a lot.