What to do as a family in November

November is the darkest month with nothing to celebrate: too cold to walk, too early for the New Year, and the evenings come one after another all alike.

So everything worth doing happens indoors — at the table, in a hall, in the kitchen. It is the one month you have to invent from beginning to end.

Three plans for November

Each one opens in full: the weeks, a project for everybody in the family, the goal of the month. Any of them can be rewritten for you and printed on two A4 sheets.

• Board Game MonthWhich game stayed in the family for good?Week 1 Classics: everything we used to playWeek 2 A new one: we pick it and learn the rulesWeek 3 Friends over: playing with a big crowdWeek 4 Teaching grandma: explain it all and playFind a game worth playing again and get everyone we can around the table.

  Out with the classics, learn a new one, invite friends and teach grandma to play.

• Culture MonthWhat of all we saw did we want to see again?Week 1 The theatre — a play, the whole familyWeek 2 Ballet: the first time in our livesWeek 3 A concert: the philharmonic or an organWeek 4 Playing it ourselves: guitar and pianoGo where we never go, and play something of our own at the end of the month.

  Theatre, ballet, a concert — and our own tune on guitar and piano at the end.

• Italian Kitchen MonthWhat of all we cooked will we cook again with no occasion?Week 1 Baking pizza ourselves, dough set at nightWeek 2 Out to the best Italian place in townWeek 3 Pasta week: three sauces, three shapesWeek 4 A cookery class: cooking under a chefLearn to cook Italian at home instead of ordering it.

  Pizza from scratch, the best Italian in town, three sauces in a week and a class.

How it looks on paper

Each plan prints on two A4 sheets. Open an example, change it for your family and print it — moods, progress and notes are filled in with a pen.

Build your own November

If none of them fits, build your own: the theme of the month, four weeks and a project each. It prints the same way — two pages, and onto the fridge.

Other families put their seasons up too — there are more on the showcase.