Dealing with “I’m bored!”
Figuring out how to beat boredom is a crucial life skill that kids have to learn. For little kids, there’s really no reason they should be bored. We have so much at our fingertips these days that engaging them can be as simple as pulling out some bowls and spoons from the cupboard or as complex as making a race track on the floor with tape for their cars.
Sometimes the problem they’re facing is not knowing exactly what interests them. Our job is to expose them to different activities, experiences and events so they can determine what interests them.
It’s easy to tell if a child is engaged in an activity or when an activity fails, so the key is to pay close attention to what captivates them and help create more of those experiences.
It’s also important to let them try and figure out something to do. When kids are feeling bored, it’s actually just time for them to try something else. This phrase can help them figure out how to solve their problem, replace “I’m bored” with “I need to find something different to do.” The sooner they learn this the sooner they’ll be able to fix this problem on their own. It’s not actually that there isn’t anything to do it’s that what they’re doing isn’t interesting them anymore. If they can fix this problem as children it’ll mean great things for them as adults. Who doesn’t feel bored sometimes? The key though is choosing things to do that interest you and keep you from being bored.
There is nothing I hate more than hearing “I’m bored” from my children. Because of my hatred for this phrase, I rarely hear it. When I do hear it though I often direct them to an activity I know that they enjoy, one perhaps they’ve forgotten about that’s tucked away in the closet.
It can be very enticing to throw all kinds of bells and whistles at our children when we worry that they are bored, but the truth is lots of simple things we have at the ready can often provide hours of fun and creativity. It’s also important to note that they do need to be bored sometimes so that they can experience figuring out what to do.
If the tools are there for them (games, materials for dramatic play, books, art projects, Lego) they just need to be directed to them.
Here’s a simple list of activities you can pull out at a moment’s notice to do with your children! Maybe some of them will come in handy over the March break:
Make forts with blankets around the furniture;
Conduct a science experiment;
Use cushions as rocks to avoid hot lava in the living room;
Use the furniture to create an obstacle course;
Play hide and seek/tag/frozen tag;
Sensory experiences are always a hit: Fill a large shallow bin with any of the following — Playdough, water toys, sand, snow, corn, pompoms, beans, pasta, rice. Add in some measuring cups, bowls, spoons, jugs and the kids are in Heaven.
Have a Lego building competition;
Art projects: art supplies are cheap to invest in. Hit up the dollar store and let them go wild creating. Add some old cereal boxes or shoe boxes and their ideas will be blow you away;
Make sock puppets and put on a puppet show;
Dress up in mom and dad’s clothes and put on a play;
Play outside;
Go for a hike/walk in an area you haven’t discovered;
Write a simple book, one word per page is still considered a book;
Tell stories: to each other, about the past, the future, the present.
This list is endless, I can go on and on, and so could you. The bottom line is helping your child figure out the things that interests them and teaching them how to pursue it on their own. Good luck!
