Many schools have already let out for summer, but this marks our first week of summer vacation. We are starting off the summer strong with plans for the first few weeks, but then the calendar is purposely wide open (less orthodontist, dentist and well-visits) so we can evaluate if we want to add stuff in, plan to do nothing or play it by ear.
I do have the kind of kids who can sit at home all day reading books, playing LEGOs, messing up junk in their rooms or playing in the yard. I’m at home with them, but I often have my own projects around the house going on by myself or with another child that not everyone wants to be involved with. So my kids do also get bored and whine about having nothing to do. My kids know to not to say it too many times or they end of up with new chores or forced to do whatever I’m doing, but this year I’m excited to roll into the summer with two new boredom busting books.
- Unbored: The Essential Field Guide to Serious Fun was sent by a friend with similar minded children and parenting philosophy. It’s rather awesome, and as I told her I currently am the biggest fan in the house. It’s big and thick and lots of texts and less pictures, so upper elementary and middle school aged kids might find it more interesting to read but the content fits a range of ages, so once “in” I can see my soon to be 7 year old loving just browsing through second most. The book covers a giant range of activities – building fairy houses, converting a squirt gun to into a remote controlled squirt gun, rules for four square, lists of movies, phone app reviews, community service ideas, and on and on. Some stuff you’ll want to do, some stuff will inspire to do other stuff, but personally, I think it’s just fun to sit and look through the book as a boredom buster!
- The second book, Try This!: 50 Fun Experiments for the Mad Scientist in You, is from the very popular (in my house and the school libraries) National Geographic Kids series. This book has science experiments. We just received it from the last Scholastic Book order of the year. The activities look super fun (to us) and easy with mostly stuff we already have around the house (took us a while to figure out, bute water beads are the same thing as Orbeez). Many of the experiments are things I’ve done before when I was a kid and it is fun to remember and will be fun to do again, like soaking an egg in vinegar to dissolve the shell. My middle came up with a system to get through pretty much all of the experiments that don’t require spending a lot of money on extra stuff, and also omitting one she thinks looks boring. One of my favorite parts of the experiments highlighted in the book (besides easy materials), is that the experiments can be completed as directed (my older and youngest are rule followers, who like doing and observing, but don’t at all appreciate the scientific process of learning through failure) and then variables can be changed and introduced and further experimentation can take place (for middle and me).
Do you have an answer to “I’m bored?”
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