What to Do When Your Kids are Bored: 5 Ways to Beat the Summer Blues
It’s inevitable. You’re a couple months into the summer season, and all of a sudden: your kids are bored. They don’t know how to spend their time. They’re begging for more screen time. And as a parent, you’re exhausted. If the summer blues are hitting your household, here are 5 tips to help your family out of the funk!
5 Tips for When Your Kids Are Bored
#1: Celebrate boredom!
Making feeling “bored” more normal is important, especially if your kids are younger. Boredom fosters greater creative thinking and inner awareness that your child won’t get if they’re constantly being entertained.
As Dr. Vanessa Lapointe puts it, “Children need to sit in their own boredom for the world to become quiet enough that they can hear themselves.”
Rather than signing them up for another sports camp or switching on the TV at every quiet moment, encourage your child to get comfortable with quiet and grow in their own ability to think outside the box!
#2: Give Them Materials to Succeed
Your home is probably full of toys, materials, and things your child could use to fill their time. But if not, it’s worth thinking about!
Toys are the tools of childhood. These are the things that help them learn about the world around them and develop critical thinking skills that will serve them for life. If your kids are older, getting materials for hobbies or interests that intrigue them can help pass the time this summer!
If these tools are within reach, your child is more likely to gravitate toward them.
#3: Prompt Different Kinds of Activities
If your kids are bored, talk through some different possibilities (use this BORED acronym for some inspiration). Have they:
- B – been creative
- O – outside play or activity
- R – read a book
- E – exercised
- D – done something helpful
Maybe in your family, it would be motivation enough to have these boxes to check before they earn screen time for the day. Helping your child think through categories of free-time-fillers can help them develop the skill of doing it for themselves!
#4: Summer Reading
If your child is a struggling reader, they are likely resistant to using free time to practice this skill—but that makes it even more important!
Kids who participate in summer reading score better on future assessments. Struggling readers need this momentum to continue so they’re set up for success next school year!
If you have a few extra minutes in your day, encourage your child to expand their summer reading goal (and maybe come up with some creative and rewarding prizes when they achieve it!)
Check out this post for more tips to make summer reading more fun.
#5: Play Games!
Family games (or even independent ones) are great tools to fill time in the summer and exercise some brain skills. Instead of gravitating towards devices or TVs on summer evenings, pull out a brain-boosting family game that will have everyone engaged!
Check out this round-up of some popular games and how you can use them to target unique brain skills.
