Welcome to the final installment of boredom busting ideas for your summer. I’d love to hear how any of these suggestions have gone for your family. Or, you can share additional ideas in the comments, because uh oh… there’s a full month of no-camp summer left.
Idea 22: Make a Mini Sundae on a Spoon. Want the best way in the world to cheer up kids who are complaining that they are hot and bored and tired? Tell them you’re going to make sundaes. But not just any sundaes. The smallest sundae in the world. Travis was gleeful as we pulled out tablespoons to use as the “bowls”.
We scooped a tiny portion of ice cream onto each spoon. Top with sprinkles of course, or cherries or any other favorite sundae toppings. Then repeat, because these are so small you can tell the kids they get to have three sundaes. Seriously, the trick will work every time. Cue up the cooled off and happy kids.
Idea 23: Play with Dominoes. If I had to pick one activity from all 26 of these suggestions to occupy my kids, this one would be it.
A set of domino blocks in all the colors of the rainbow was so worth the purchase. The kids can literally play with them for hours!
Veronika is in her own world when I set them out. “Let’s build!” she says. “Rectangle!” She’ll build up a stack of them, then knock them down and scrabble them across the floor, and then start over.
Travis, meanwhile, loves the challenge of copying designs from the box, as well as seeing how long a line he can make.
By the end of his first night trying, he could line up 20 or more before an errant fingertip made the line come tumbling down.
Idea 24: Make a Mini Town for Trains and Cars. This was another Highlights prompt that went from simple suggestion to loads of play. First we pulled out the toy trains and a box of blocks. Both kids were immediately building.
Travis designed a “farm” as little sister set to work on a tall tower. Then we added a few construction vehicles to the farm site, so now it was a construction site! Travis moved the blocks like rubble and began making his design more sophisticated.
We needed a residential neighborhood down the road. Magna-tile houses soon followed!
Then we needed a train station for the train to pull up to.
Then all the toy cars came out, so we needed roads! Masking tape did the trick.
Pretty soon it was a thriving city.
It’s a good thing I got pictures when I did because you can guess what happened next to a 6-year-old boy’s city. It was destroyed by evil Lego snakes of course.
Idea 25: Make a Time Capsule. This was a suggestion we worked on over the course of a few days. First, you may need to explain the concept of a time capsule to your kids, something you’ll create now and then seal up to open at a later date. Travis was in charge of taking pix with our instant camera!
The Instax was half the fun, though I had to direct him towards photos of things that exemplified our summer, not just silly shots of his toys.
When we had enough photos, we decorated a shoebox. Travis proudly wrote Summer 2020, and drew flowers and bugs, and then we tucked all the photos inside.
I asked him if he wanted to add other summer mementos, but his answer was no. Your kids might consider tucking in newspaper clippings, tickets from museums, or anything else that reminds them of this time period. Now the shoebox is tucked on a closet shelf to open in Summer 2021!
Idea 26: Make Up Your Own Boredom Buster. Well after all that, it was now up to Travis to think of an idea! His answer? He wanted to chew bubble gum, a rare treat around here. If you have proper bubble gum, you could even turn this into a bubble blowing contest! Unfortunately, I’ve never found a vegan brand that works well for this. But wouldn’t you know it, just chewing gum kept him happy long enough for me to have a little moment of summer peace and quiet.
joyful parenting 