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Boredom Busters + Summer Schedule

Ah summertime. We make all these plans of playing and doing day trips and rainbows and unicorns… and then it happens. Summer drags on, kids are fighting. They’ve had too much TV, video games or sugar. Or maybe all of them combined. And then they say those dreaded words… “I’m bored!”. Yeah, like you have time to be entertaining the hooligans while doing your normal stuff, plus pick up after your boogers. Yes, they can and should be doing it themselves, but you’re tired of repeating, so you just do it and will resume the reminders tomorrow…. Maybe.

I have thought of things and searched for things that I want (meaning hope) my kids to do so they quit bugging me. Here kiddos…look at this lovely list of ideas to keep you busy… for 5 minutes.

 

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Outside:

Sidewalk chalk                                                                                          

Play outside

Blow bubbles

Scooters/bikes

Go to playground  (playground challenge! Visit all the local playgrounds)

Go swimming

Take a walk

Scavenger hunt

Mother may I

Red light, green light

Fox, fox what time is it!

Catch lightning bugs

Race around the house

Freeze tag                                                                                                                           

TV tag

Ball tag

Hide and seek

Sardines

Swing                                                                                                                   

Sprinklers

*Now obvs this is for summertime/nice weather.*

Inside:

Lava game

Walk walk walk- This is from the show Yo Gabba Gabba. We started doing this around our kitchen table when my kids were toddlers. Then we switch it up and instead of walk walk walk, we’ll say jump, jump, jump, or dance, dance, dance…use your imagination!

Steamroller

Simon says

Flash lights in bathroom (I don’t know, one day my kids went in the bathroom and used flashlights and their imagination and played for like a half hour!)

Scavenger hunt- Hey look! You can do this inside or outside!

Read                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

Puzzles

Board games

Chores (hehe)

Disney movie marathon

Fun YouTube videos

Legos (make a list of things to build)

Dance party

Charades

Balloon volleyball                                                                                                 

Monkey in the middle

Simon says

Play doh

Play cards

This inside list can be used year round. Woo hoo!

Now, hopefully, your kids can use these, ideas, on their own, and not bug you! Yay! Not.

 

I also started something new this summer. I saw this floating around Facebook and customized for our house. It’s a list of things the kiddos must do before any electronics (which ends up being video games a majority of the time).

 

To earn video game/TV time or swimming for the afternoon…

Breakfast by 8-9am

A.M. routine (i.e. brush teeth, get dressed, make bed, etc,)

Chores

THEN pick 3 (or more) for at least 10+ minutes…

Read

Puzzles

Write letters and numbers

Draw/color

Create with Legos/blocks

Play outside

Play games (board, card)

Practice piano/ sax (Liv only)

Be helpful (i.e. Help sibling with chore, help mom around house) Shocker this one does NOT happen often.

Write letter or draw picture to send to someone

Now, of course, not all things go as planned. We started doing this Monday through Friday, then changed Monday through Thursday. Most days they do good. But when they choose the same 3 things over and over (of course they don’t do more than 3!) Mom has to remind them to switch it up. I also didn’t want to “schedule” the whole summer, so I figured, for us, Monday-Thursday works well. Friday is usually a lazy day where they stay in pajamas most of the day. Which is awesome. Because sometimes you just want to chillax.

 

*So, because you are still hanging out, I included Printables for ya!!*

Boredom Busters printable

Summer schedule printable

**Hope they work for you, too!!**

 

How’s your summer going? Are your kids bored? I think most are at this point. Let me know what you did or still plan to do! Share in comments or on social media!!

Until next time…..

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