I have a list on my fridge titled *The “I’m Bored” List of Things To Do*. It has about 30 items on it, ranging from “blow bubbles” and “draw with chalk” to “build a hiding place/fort” and “be a scientist in a backyard laboratory”. It’s really handy for days when my 6yo claims that he can’t think of anything to do.

We are CRAZY about the “Dangerous Boys’ Book” and the “Daring Book for Girls”!  In fact, we have started neighborhood clubs—a few years ago, we had one for the girls because my girls were the right age, and now we have one for the boys.  Last week, we made sling shots out of forked sticks, strips of inner tube, and pieces of old shoes, and we shot water balloons out of them.  Today, we made flash lights out of Altoids tins, light bulbs, batteries, wire, and duct tape.  The directions for these are in the DBB.  Each week, the boys choose something they want to do for the next week, and the parents help them gather the supplies and plan.  It only takes one afternoon per week, but oh, how my boys look forward to it!  Just the anticipation makes them happy.

Other fun activities: making paper dolls, making play dough, origami, sidewalk chalk, hop scotch.  A few years ago, we had a “fun bucket” with bubble solution, wands, and sidewalk chalk, and we took it to the parks with us periodically.

It is time consuming and exhausting but FUN to play like this with kids.  It helps bring JOY into the family,. and into our relationships with our kids.  We have to spend so much of our time doing chores, correcting and guiding… FUN creates a special type of bond.  Playing with a child says, “You are so important to me that I am going to do this jsut for you because I love you.”

I’m with you Anita!  I say “Go outside, or help me with these chores!”  Nothing clears a room like chores!  Ha, ha!  For the little ones, a trickling hose and a few old pots to fill and dump….

My brain wave this week was to tell each of them to get a clip board & pen and report back to me. When they arrived I told them to walk to their school (about 1 km) and back, and write or draw a picture of 10 things they hadn’t seen before.  They were gone for quite a while, and were thrilled to share their lists & adventures with me.  Gotta remember that one!

That is a forbidden statement in our house or anywhere. Period. If my kids are bored, I am none the wiser.

For the older 2 kids who are 10 and 12, my response is “What are you going to do about that”.  I can get some dirty looks with this but they know if they don’t find something there is always extra chores.

I love this post!  My oldest is only 2 and has yet to discover “being bored” but when I was growing up we had a ‘bored bucket’  It was filled with all kinds of activities (from blowing bubbles or running through the sprinkler to mop the kitchen floor or do a load of laundry).  When us kids claimed to be bored we had to pull something out of the bucket and do it.  End of story - and no complaining if it was ‘no fun’

Michelle, I completely agree with you about kids sharing emotions.  I do not ever want my children to think that they cannot share their negative feelings.

About the “Dangerous Boys’ Book”: there is the original, which contains both things to do and things to know, then there are two smaller “pocket books”—the green one with “things to do” and the yellow one with “things to know”.

The “pocket books” were made after the original.  There are a few extra activities in the green pocket book which are not in the original book.  For example, the green book had instructions for making sling shots (referred to as “catapults” in the book).

I mention that in case you read about the sling shots and want to make one with your son(s).  I wold not want you to buy the original book and then wonder where the sling shot directions are and be disappointed!

Here’s a link to the Happy Housewife’s blog where she has a free download for the “I’m Bored jar” activity cards.  I did actually download them but haven’t had to use them yet. 

http://thehappyhousewife.com/homeschool/mom-im-bored-activity-cards/

Enjoy!

I always say, “You make your own boredom or you make your own fun.”  That seems to do the trick!

“WE are adults , and yet here we are looking for a little help from each other.  Why not allow our kids the same grace”

This really struck a cord with me.  My mom did not do much with us growing up in terms of quality interaction and fun.  Actually nothing I can remember—she wanted us to get out of her way.  It is to east to get caught up in everything that needs to be done.  I love doing creative things with my kids and taking them on little (inexpensive) adventures.  When they write me a mother’s day card it is the adventures and the baking they write about and how I listened to them when they were sad.  Kids do need some direction and perhaps some guidance on a hobbie.  Maybe they just need help in learning how to tye up the water balloons.  Maybe I’m bored means they would just like your company and attention for a few minutes.  Time goes by too quickly for me not to take advantage of them wanting to be with me.

I do understand balance and the needs kisd have to be creative on their own as well.

My response to my kids is: “Only boring people are bored.”

We do many fun things during the summer but there are also times, even during the school year as we homeschool, that not much is going on.  Maybe this is harsh but I think the problem today is that many kids expect to be entertained and the center of attention ALL the time.  I have friends whom I can’t even have lunch with other adults because their kids say, “Mommy play with me.”  That’s all very sweet for a mom to play, have fum, etc. with her kids but I truly see it as a HUGE problem today with sooo many children wanting to ALWAYS be the center.  In fact, this is why many people I know feel so overwhelmed to have more than 1 or 2 children.  They can’t seem to go grocery shopping, have adult conversations, etc. without their child not having a temper tantrum b/c their attention was not on their child.

KK, this is Angela who posted about the “Dangerous Boys’ Book”.  I agree that it is healthy for kids to be able to figure out what to do on their own AND respect times when Mom is not available to play.  it seems to me that most of us who posted here are striving for some sort of balance: times when we play with our kids, and even help them come up with things to do, and times when we don’t. 

Theresa’s message really touched me, b/c my oldest kids are about the ages of her kids.  I miss the paper doll days I had with my now teenage daughters!  I’m glad we have those memories.

I really agree with all these comments.  I spend quite a bit of time with my son, yet I also encourage him to entertain himself, which he does quite well.  He doesn’t watch any TV, so I wonder if there’s a connection.  I really do think it’s a balancing act.

I saw that one of the moms mentioned running and the too hot outside temperature for her children.  Maybe once a week you could go to the mall and just walk up and down.  That would expend some energy and give the children something else to look at.  Also, naybe add a scavenger hunt for a particular color, letter or shape since your children are little.  My youngest two are now 15 and 11…they don’t usually want me to play anymore.  :(
Enjoy them. They grow too fast!

Moms, my kids just got out the “Family Fun” craft book, produced by Family Fun magazine.  I’d forgotten we had it!  There are crafts for all ages in there.

We made salt and flour clay today, and we made some little figurines for my 5 yr old son’s toy skateboards, as well as a few other things. 

There are some crafts which my teenage daughters will like: novel ways to decorate tee shirts that end up looking nice, not sloppy, for example.  They like tie dying, but they’ve done enough of that this summer.  There are directions for crayon batik decorating, pounding flowers into fabric to create a residual flower design, making stamps out of potatoes to make tee shirt designs, and a plan for shaping a tee shirt into a snake, painting it, then opening it when dry so that it has nice looking zig zag stripes on it. 

We rediscovered some crafts we have already done, such as making a milk jug into a “bathtub whale” and making a city out of small cardboard boxes covered with paper bags.

There are some new crafts we want to try, such as making paper (you can use photo frames and canvas instead of having to hammer a frame together).  Depending on how expensive foam core is, we might want to use that to make the play house illustrated.  (We have used old appliance boxes in the past, but those are hard to get these days.)

There are plenty of crafts kids can do on their own.  (I noticed some moms are looking for that.)

This is the book we have:
http://www.amazon.com/Family-Fun-Crafts-Deanna-Cook/dp/0786853239/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&qid=1309819678&sr=8-10

Happy summer, everyone!

These are websits with fun ideas: http://weefolkart.com/ and http://familyfun.go.com/