What does everyone do on weekend early evenings with primary age kids?

[QueenOfTheSandals]

Inspired by another thread I was wondering what other folks do on weekend evening with their kids? Thinking 5-8yr olds. Do you let them stay up? Special tea? TV or games or just do the same as weeknights?

To be honest I'm looking for inspiration.

Friday night tea of DS1 choice he’s almost six with kids film of their choice.
Hour extra play time downstairs if they want it he’s normally too tired and would rather have his tablet on ( fire kids)
Tablets only on Friday and Saturday night

Mum of 7 year old twins. They tend to eat later at the weekend as we get up an hour later. So tea will naturally finish later. Saturday evenings (when I am not out) are our time to spend together in PJs, playing games (we love board games) and then watching Saturday night telly - Strictly or the dance programme that's now on. They always have a packet of crisps and some ginger beer as a treat. I have a glass of wine as mine!

Friday is movie night. So early dinner/ bath and back downstairs to watch a film by 6.30 with snacks.

Saturday depends how tired they are (both have activities during the day) so either normal bedtime or sometimes we'll have a pizza/ games night or go out for dinner.

That sounds lovely Greasy. What time do they go to bed and do they then sleep later?

My problem is both my kids wake at 7 regardless of when the go to bed and are can get grumpy the next day.

Mine are up 6 or before so don't stay up much later. We do a board games night or film night.... One evening of the weekend.
Friday nights they often do a club

Friday evenings are very chilled out here. Youngest dd is 5 and she is tired after a week of school. She plays games with dh after school (she was playing out on her bike today apparently while he watched her) so by the time she has eaten dinner she is shattered and usually conks out on the sofa in her pjs with the iPad and waits for me to get home from work. I get in around 6.40pm, she has a chat to me, a cuddle and is in bed for 7pm. She likes a lie in so will only get up around 8.00 - 8.30am on Saturday mornings.

Good grief no. It's my weekend too.

DDs 4 and 7 wake at 6am regardless so need a fairly early bedtime. Evenings are mostly the same as weeknights. The kids eat first on Saturday so DH and I can have a later, adult meal; we eat together early on Sunday. We often watch a film Sunday afternoon so we do board games on Sunday night

For DS6, Friday's aren't that dissimilar to the rest of the week as he's normally so tired.

Saturday night is pizza night with Saturday night tv and staying up till 8:30ish or earlier if he's tired.

Sunday's we tend to eat a roast dinner about 6:00, so bedtime is roughly the same.

He gets switch time both days, which he doesn't get during the week.

One 4.5 year old, he goes to bed at his usual time as he wakes up at the same time, later bedtime makes him grumpy the next day.

Fridays we sit in bed after dinner and watch a film together with some snacks.

Saturday and Sunday general rules are a little more relaxed so noisy play is allowed until bath time. But unless we go away we don’t have distinct evening plans at the weekend.

Mine are 4 and 8. We have mcdonalds every other friday after swimming.

Saturdays 4 year old stays up till around 7.30 / 8. Eldest stays up till about 9 and watches whatever show is on, greatest dancer at the moment.

We don’t have a set bedtime on Friday nights, although ds usually heads up not too long after the normal time.

Saturdays are usually lazy. We get up late and if I do need to go to shop or do errands it’s usually late afternoon.

Sunday’s are quite busy, we have rugby and swimming and most weeks dinner out with family.

Quite often there’s a friends party for 1 of the dc. All activities and big days out we usually do on school holidays. We have a ‘bucket and spade’ list of things and places we want to do.

I aim to put them to bed as normal, their bedtime is already later than it should be. DH does movie night with DC1 (year 4) most Fridays so she stays up much later. Occasionally he puts a Disney film on and lets DC2 (reception) have movie night too.

We have supper of our choice in front of a film roughly every other week.

That's about it as DS doesn't do lie-ins.

Once a month we do games night. Bosrs games, nice snacks etc.

Saturdays is either Greatest Dancer / Strictly or movie night with doritos.

Friday night much the same as in the week as we all go to activities. Grandpa may come over for dinner.

DD 8

Board!

We love a board games evening at the weekend, sometimes a film night too.

OP
They go to bed at 7.30 in the week and around 8 on a Saturday. Fridays are normal bedtime as they are tired from the week and we have to be up as they play football on Saturday mornings.

I work full time so love a chilled out Saturday pm with them. We also are enjoying the chimpanzee rescue programme on iplayer at the moment. My daughter especially loves that while my son loves playing me at draughts!
They wake up slightly later but play in their rooms til I wake which is around 8 on the weekend.

Friday is the same as any other weeknight as they're always shattered.

Saturday is 5-Year-old DD's staying up late night. She has dinner with us in front of the TV, at the moment we're watching The Greatest Dancer. Food is normally themed in some way to make it a bit more of an event, so last week we had Spring rolls, spicy crackers and the Linda McCartney "duck" kit as she'd been learning about Chinese New Year at school. She's the eldest so it's nice for her to have some time without the (noisy!) younger sibs!

Ours don't have screen time during the school week, so Fridays it's home from school, play for a bit, maybe go to the park / out on bikes/ skateboard if weather is nice. Then they usually start a film together. We are jewish so have friday night shabbat dinner every week at the table with candles etc (usually roast chicken) then they watch the end of their film with pudding or a treat.

Saturdays we usually have a busy day with activities / outings etc. In the evenings they usually have their dinner in front of another film together or we eat as a family and then they each get some tablet time. We also have a 2 year old so hard to play board games when he is awake as he usually disrupts them but looking forward to doing that more as a family at the weekends when he is a bit older.

Friday's and Saturday's are family movie nights unless we have plans with friends.

They go to bed when they drop, and often at friends places. They got good report cards from school today so I'm picking up a Burger King and Oreo smoothie each, and we're streaming the new Jumanji movie, hoping it's a good quality copy.

The only night I'm stricter (aside from week nights) is Sunday when any movie is earlier in the afternoon, and they're in bed by 7.30pm.

We live in a hot country so the kids are always outside and they self-regulate screen time.

We sometimes have Friday night disco. Disco lights and dancing in the kitchen. Or family games night,Dobble, Rummikub that type of thing. Other nights are early evening tv or a movie popcorn etc. on the sofa.

Trip to sweet shop after school for pick and mix on Fridays.

DCs are exhausted so they chill in front of TV or pc. DS played monopoly with me earlier. Dinner, bath, book, bed 8pm latest.

Dd (9) gets to stay up late Friday and Saturday night. Friday we chill out. Saturday we usually have buffet dinner type food in front of a tv show. She's usually in bed by 9 though. Ds (13) sometimes joins us if there is food involved!

We have a treat dinner such as pizza and family film; ideally finishing about 9 so we can watch a film of our own after. If I’m trying to find activities to fill the earlier part of the day I’ll suggest that we make tickets, sweet pots etc to make it like the cinema

We used to do:
Pizza and film night (still do)
Board games night
Invite friends for sleepovers
Do craft activities or baking

In summer, go for bike rides