Today’s topic is: “Share your favorite boredom busters for kids.”
I consider myself very lucky because my children don’t yet know the concept of ‘bored’. I have yet to hear “Maaaaaaammmmmaaaa, I’m bored!” but I’ll bet it will come up in the next year or so.
I’m grateful that, so far (at ages 2 and 3 1/2), they are pretty easy to entertain. Yesterday, my mom came to spend the morning with the girls and brought a couple of the plastic rings from the inside of a cream carton.
The girls literally spent hours running around with their new rings on, and at one time, I overheard them pretending they were paintbrushes. (Why not?!)
My girls could spend an eternity reading books and magazines. Sometimes by themselves or to each other, but if you really want to get them to hold still for a long time, agree to plop down on the couch with a large stack of books and they will always insist on one more.
Occasionally, I get out a box of washable markers or crayons so they can draw. However, the excitement of that usually wears off after about 10 minutes.
The ultimate offering is a bath. That’s a good half hour of free entertainment they have never (yet) turned down.
And if an everyday job, like picking up the sticks that have fallen in the lawn, involves a pair of hot pink beach buckets and a race, the girls can be surprisingly productive and helpful.
Please share your ideas in the comments.
~ Phoebe DeCook
Phoebe DeCook 