Avoid exclamations of boredom with these ideas

B.O.R.E.D

The summer holidays are near and you may be thinking how you can keep your child entertained and avoid their exclamations of boredom.  The acrostic below provides children with ideas of fun things to do.  In addition, many of the activities have great educational value, enabling your child to practise key learning skills, for example: maths and reading skills, creativity, resilience, fine motor co-ordination skills and physical activity.

BUILD, CRAFT, OR COOK.  If your child does not have building bricks, they could recycle empty boxes etc to build anything from castles to dragons. Baking, sewing, knitting and other crafts are popular at the moment.  Fabric, wool, paints, crayons and chalks, as well as craft kits can be purchased cheaply and you may wish to create a craft box for your child to use.

 

 

 

 

OUTSIDE PLAY.  Encourage your child to play outside in rain or shine.  Let them play in old clothes so that they can get dirty using chalks and paints, making mud pies or gardening, hunting mini-beasts (insects), or treasure hunting.  Challenge your child to find things in their garden that begin with every letter of the alphabet, or a particular sound or every colour of the rainbow.

 

 

READ A BOOK.  Many local libraries have workshops and reading challenges throughout the holidays which your child can participate in.

EXERCISE.  Exercise is obviously important; your child may wish to practise particular skills, for example, keepy-uppies, catch or simply play on their swings or trampolines.  Exercising as a family is great fun; whether it is participating in a sport, walking the dog, cycling or just kicking a ball around.

 

DO SOMETHING FOR OTHERS.  Ask your child to complete some household chores; you may wish to pay them for completing their chores satisfactorily. Your child may want to sell the cupcakes that they made (obviously they will need adult supervision) or organise themselves in a sponsored read to raise money for charity.

 

Specific ideas could be kept in a BORED jar so that your child is never at lost for things to do.