Thursday, May 14, 2009

Summer Blues or the "Mom, I'm bored!"

Summer is coming! Which means our children will be on summer break and inevitably they will come to you saying that they are bored!

Here is a list of 13 free or low cost things that you can do with your children to help combate the summer boredom blues:
  1. play board games together

  2. go for nature walks--we have several area parks with nature trails.

  3. bake goodies

  4. visit grandparents(or if they are too far away, visit to a nursing home or senior assisted living center)--my parents live twenty minutes from us and they live in on an acre of land, which is great for exploring!

  5. pretend we are at the movies---stick in a movie and do up some popcorn.

  6. play hide n' seek

  7. read books together--don't forget to find those different summer reading programs like at the public library or at your local bookstore like Barnes & Nobles.

  8. brush up on the Math facts by quizzing each other. It always seems that my kids do a "data dump" when it comes to Math facts so we play the game who can get the most facts right in 2 minutes. :)

  9. if we do any traveling, I like to make up a backpack full of goodies for them to do on the trip. I use some of the many ideas over at Mom's Minivan as well to fill the pack.

  10. do a craft project together.

  11. when stuck inside due to the weather, using our imagination to play games from tea parties to hide n' seek to I spy. An article of ideas to have fun indoors.

  12. create an obstacle course or water park or a carnival in your backyard and together with your kids have a fun afternoon playing at the "park".

  13. work in the garden.


These are just a few things that you can do to help keep the "Mom, I'm bored!" saying at bay. There is also a few more suggestions here!

I am always looking for more ideas! I would love to hear what are some things that you do with your kids to keep the boredom at bay??

This post is linked at:


5 comments:

Sherry @ Lamp Unto My Feet said...

Great ideas! I'm keeping this one for future reference for our summer. :D I wish grandparents lived closer. :(

Aisling said...

At 14 and 17 my boys don;'t want to do anything WITH ME any more if they can avoid it!

momtofivekids said...

My 8 yo son likes to have one of us (usually me) read a story and the rest of of the family acts out the story. We video so we can watch it again. Also my kids like to make their own movies. They write the script than play the parts. Sometimes they have friends over to do some of the acting.

annies home said...

great frugal ways to entertain the family

Shanna said...

These are some great ideas. My three are 4 and under so most of these are perfect.