Boredom Busters

My kids are always bored. I've tried to provide a somewhat entertaining household for them to be nurtured in, but I have my limits. My kids have been exposed to the Blackburn Household - our friends who have a firepole, monkey bars, trap doors, beds that hang from the ceiling, and a climbing wall in their house, so everything short of that is just disappointing. We have a DI tumbling mat and a dishwasher box. Does that count for anything?

Today I was thinking about what I used to do as a kid when I got bored, and I decided to create a reference list of things I can tell my kids to go do without modern-day electronics or craft supplies. Now they never have to be bored again!

Idea #1: Count cars 

I lived on a busy street, and when I got bored I would go outside and count cars.

Idea #2: Sit in a tree

We had a big tree in the front yard and a big tree in the backyard, and I would go climb on a branch and just sit there. Sometimes I would hang upside down from a branch... ya know... when I felt a little wild.

Idea #3: Sit on top of the swing set

There's always something empowering about sitting on that top bar of the swing set. It's part rebellion/part King of the World.

Idea #4: Climb on the roof

I shouldn't really encourage this, but I was always on the roof. 

Clearly, being “up high” is great entertainment.

Idea #5: Pee outside

There's just something about peeing outside that makes you feel like you're some kind of warrior that has overcome nature with your inherent survival skills.

(Although… I wasn’t too pleased over the summer when my kids and their friends filled a five-gallon bucket full of grass clippings, put it behind the shed, and took turns peeing in it. So the rule… go ahead, pee outside! But don’t pee in any kind of vessel).

Idea #6: Chop up vegetables from the garden with a pocket knife 

I always liked picking stuff from the garden and chopping it up to make "salads" for the chickens. My step-mom told my sister and me to stop feeding all our food to the chickens, but c’mon! The more veggies we fed the birds, the less WE had to eat!

Idea #7: Lick all the flavor off sour cream and onion chips

They last longer that way.

Idea #8: Use a stick to fish things out of the irrigation ditch. 

Or better yet, just climb right in the ditch as if it’s the neighborhood pool.

We don’t have irrigation ditches near our house anymore, but we have a gutter and a storm drain.

Idea #8: Spray your back door neighbor with a hose.

Okay, that one ended badly. 

Idea #9: Pour water and dish soap all over the carpet to surprise your mom with nice, clean floors (and a warped subfloor which you can then place heavy furniture on to push back into place)! 

Wet, soapy carpet makes a great slippery surface to pretend ice skate on. 

Idea #10: Stick rose petals up your nose, and shoot them out.

It’s strangely satisfying. Don’t knock it til you’ve tried it. I did it all the time with my neighbor’s roses on the way home from school.

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And there you have it! Boredom busters straight outta my childhood. Don’t forget to pin this for later! Summer break is right around the corner!