As part of our summer of simple pleasures, we’re incorporating low or no-cost whimsical experiences to build our best summer yet. The ultimate goal of our challenge is to create a summer full of meaningful family connection, that makes the most of small moments in our everyday lives.

Last night my husband hauled our TV out of the living room and onto the deck. I set off the smoke alarm while unsuccessfully trying to pop popcorn. Our little ones shrieked with joy when they learned we were going to watch our family movie out on the deck. (They’d also shrieked in surprise when I set off the smoke alarm.) The moment we set down to eat our usual Friday night pizza, gathered around the tv on the deck as a family relishing in the change of routine together, we slipped into a magical moment. The kids were ecstatic to be watching a movie on our deck. You see, we don’t usually watch our movies on the deck. Tonight was special. It was exciting and fun, and I just wanted to bottle up this moment forever when I saw the smiles spread on my kids’ faces.

If you, like me, love these special kind of moments, read on to find out 5 simple ways to create such memories with your family.

A simple technique to create connective movie nights is to ‘flip the script’. In other words, take an everyday family routine or tradition that is consistent or repeated in a similar fashion and switch it up. The secret sauce here is to change the expectation.

My kids expect that on Friday night at 4:00 we gather in the kitchen and make a pizza from scratch together. While the pizza is baking we prepare the living room for our family movie night. This looks like a giant picnic sheet spread on the floor, set the coffee table as if it’s the dining table, get in pjs, and settle in to watch a movie together while we eat our pizza.

So if your family regularly settles in for a movie night and you want to build in connection, I invite you to read on about these five simple ways to bring more connection to your family movie nights.

Take your movie night outside. Exciting experiences that wake up our brains from the mundane, can strengthen family bonds just as much as consistency. If you don’t have a TV that’s easily moved, you can set up your laptop to keep it no cost. On the other hand, if this feels like a fun new tradition, you could consider investing in a projector and a portable projector screen. Sheets and the side of a building can also function as a no cost projector. No matter how you choose to watch your film, the key here is to change the location. We opted to sit at our outdoor dining table for our most recent movie night, but you can lay out on blankets or blow up an air mattress to create comfy cuddly spaces.

Do it with friends. In my experience, activities are usually better with friends, so invite yours over and compound the fun. You can turn it into a potluck and serve movie snacks. Ask friends to BYOB (Bring Your own Blanket or whatever “B” you’d like to tag on the end).

Create invitations to build anticipation. Anticipation is an often overlooked pleasurable emotion. Generating anticipation is a simple way to build excitement for your next movie night. Whether you choose to customize it or not, it’s easy to download movie ticket templates from canva. Anticipating movie night together gets even sweeter when everyone is given a voice and choice in movie choices or snacks to serve.

Make a movie treat together. Movies and treats just go so well together. Make a treat together before your movie night to add a level of connection before your movie. Build your own pizzas is the easy choice here.

Read together and then watch together. Reading together is a large part of our family culture. Now we’re connecting our family read alouds to our movie nights, by first reading the stories and then watching the shows or movies together. This spring we read our beloved Peter Rabbit Collection and then streamed the 90’s episodes from The World of Peter Rabbit series.

Watching a movie can be a passive experience. Still, we can find ways to establish deeper family connections by creating little tweaks and changes along the way. Whether it’s making a meal or a treat together to share during the movie, reading and connecting on the stories you watch in your films, or trying out a new location and bonding over the experience. It doesn’t take much to bring your movie night to the next level and create meaningful and lasting memories with your family. I invite your to think about which of these ideas could spark joy for you and yours, and give it a try this summer!

What will you do to strengthen connection during your children’s one wild and precious childhood?