God knows we humans get bored and I think that’s why He made seasons for us. But when it comes to kids, sometimes the seasons are just too long! By now, I’m sure you’ve heard those dreaded two words: “I’m bored.” And you know telling your kids to go outside and play just doesn’t work.
I scoured the Net for new ideas to help bored kids and I got bored with the same old stuff I’d read in magazines when my kids were young; like read a book, watch TV. I did find a few out of the hundreds I read, which I share in this blog, but I’m also going to tell you about some things I did with my kids when they got bored, that still work with my grandkids today.
We can blame boredom on routine and that’s probably why we love to go on vacation to break away from the everyday grind of routine. As a reformed slob I know that when I was in a pigpen, it was my disorganization and lack of a routine that put me there. But I must say I was never bored in those pigpen days!
I escaped the pen by creating a routine that had my kids and me up, dressed and fed by 7:00 and in bed with a clean and tidy home by 8:00. I love what Flylady says, “Routines and habits are the backbone of a peaceful life.” Routines and habits breed success, but they are also the perpetrators of boredom. When boredom creeps in, it’s time to shake things up.
There’s a place in West Yellowstone, Montana called Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center. The Center offers every visitor to Yellowstone a chance to uniquely experience the world of grizzly bears and gray wolves. All the animals at the Center are unable to survive in the wild
Animal behaviorists have discovered that bears in captivity get bored. Have you ever seen a bear pace back and forth at the zoo? (There’s a polar bear at the San Diego Zoo that does it and it’s heartbreaking.) A pacing bear is a bored bear. There are no pacing bears at the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center, because they experience change every day. When you think about it, Nature is always in flux. That’s why it’s so good to get out in Nature as much as we can.
At the Center, visiting children are each given a bucket of food for the bears and they’re allowed into the bear’s cage to hide the food (the bears are put in a holding cage while the children are hiding the food or else the children would be the food).So your first boredom-buster is:
Let the kids sleep in while you prepare breakfast. Whatever you fix, put it in a cooler along with utensils and hide it where you want everyone to eat. You could eat in the bathtub, the family room, under the dining room table with a blanket thrown over to make
Or you could eat outside someplace. Put a note at the table where you always eat that says: “Find breakfast.” (You could give some hints.) When they wake
up and expect to eat, they’ll find the note instead.
At the Grizzly Center, to change the look of the environment, they have excavating equipment to move
Let your kids take a shower with their pajamas on. Tell them
Get out paint brushes, rollers
Let your kids make something or write something to send to themselves in the real mail. You know how great it is to get real mail and it’s fun to expect something.
Make a bird feeder by rolling a pinecone in peanut butter, then in bird seed.
Have your kids design their own placemats. They could cut out shapes like a knife, fork, spoon, plate and glass in
Have your kids help you wash the car.
A twist to hide-and-seek: It’s called Sardines. One child hides and the other children
You don’t have to wait for the season to change
Thank you for taking the time to read my blog! If you liked it and found it helpful, I’d love for you to share it with any moms you know who need help busting the boredom.