With the change of the seasons, the sun has disappeared from our skies and I have some very energetic children indoors. So I’ve decided to head boredom off before it arises and have a lot of fun with my kids at the same time. I hope you enjoy these ideas. Please leave me a comment to say how you got on with these ideas and leave me some of your own favourites!
Here are 5 brilliant boredom busting ideas to try out this week:
1. Indoor gardening
photo by briannaorg
Using glass jars or vases, fill with gravel or marbles so that a bulb placed on top will end up with its tip level with the top of the container. Use more than one bulb if using a wider container, or use one bulb per container and arrange a row of containers on your shelf. Fill in the rest of the space around the bulb with more marbles or gravel to support the bulb. Place in a bright spot, water to the base of the bulb and keep topped up to the same level with water. Paperwhites are a great one to use, bloom as quickly as 3 weeks and are wonderfully fragrant.
2. Make music
Fill small plastic bottles or cardboard boxes with uncooked rice, lentils or beans, sealing the ends well with tape. Using different grains in each shaker will result in different sounds. Let the kids paint them or decorate with stickers or pictures cut out of magazines and get shaking. Upturned pots and pot lids make great drums when hit with a wooden spoon and pot lids clanged together make great cymbals. For older kids, let them fold tissue paper over combs for mouth organs and get everyone adding their vocals too. The noise alone is bound to chase the blues away.
3. Record a bedtime story
Read a favourite story or make one up as you go along with everyone adding their bit in turn into a tape recorder (or digital mic if you have one). Let the kids use household items to make the sound effects too. Having them dress in character can add to the drama and help them play along. Then listen to the tape, or burn a CD for listening to, at bedtime.
4. Create an obstacle course
Use cushions as stepping-stones, chairs covered with blankets as tunnels to clamber through and chairs and stools to climb over. Depending on the layout of your house, you can make a circular course, or one that leads to a treat, like a cuddle, snack or story time.
5. Find a treasure
Try different sorts of treasure hunts. Hide things around the house and draw a map with picture clues to the treasure. Lead the kids around the house with word clues left at various points, each one leading to the next and the last leading to one great treasure. Or give them a list of treasures to find such as things beginning with a specific letter and have them take digital photos of them to bring back to you.
[...] reminds me of a post I wrote nearly a year and a half ago, but our range seems to have grown a lot since [...]