Things to Do When You're Bored

I recently heard the phrase, "Mom, I have nothing to do. I'm so bored!" It's probably one of my least favorite complaints. Every day the kids come home from school and try to race each other to play on the computer first. We allow our kids to have 30 minutes of computer time, and occasionally after dinner they are allowed a movie. This leaves a lot of extra time in the day for our kids to need some activities to do. Last week I just got tired of those words, and decided it was time to do something about it. I told Gabe I wanted him to come up with a big long list of all the things we like to do here at our house. After he came up with his list, I sat down and helped him add a few more ideas to it. Since we've had the list, I have not heard those dreaded words come out of either of my children. I think it's a great idea for the kids to try to come up with the list themselves. You can always help them out when they're done. If you have small children, you might just need to make a list of things for you to do with them. We have already been adding and changing things on our list. So far this has turned out to be a real life saver!

Here's the list Gabe and I came up with. Maybe you can steal a few of our ideas to add to your own fun!

1) Computer
2) Movie
3) Read a book
4) Work on treasure map book
5) Build with Lincoln Logs
6) Do a puzzle together
7) Play board games
8) Play outside
9) Play in the downstairs playroom
10) Play with play dough or make your own play dough
11) Play with the bedroom toys
12) Sidewalk chalk
13) Lite Brite
14) Write in Journal. Keep a record of what we do each day and illustrate it.
15) Make a tent with chairs and sheets
16) Practice making sentences
17) Play tag outside
18) Hide N’ Seek
19) Play with Valentine our bird
20) Dance to a CD
21) Dance Praise Pad
22) Perler bead crafts
23) Paint a picture
24) Play with Legos
25) Tea Party
26) Make a feeling bag
27) Flashlight tag
28) Charades
29) Coloring book
30) Paper airplane contest
31) “Snowball” Sock Fight
32) See what shapes you can see in the clouds

I'm sure we'll be adding to our list as the days go on!

Nobody likes to be bored and feel like they have nothing to do!