“I am bored. What should we do now?” My kids tend to be bored. Just like any kids. And having MORE things to do does not remove boredom. Quite often the weather allows for cool activities. Other times we create the activities at home. Here are some fun things I did with my kids.
Ask me anything
I really allow my kids to ask anything. Sometimes I know the answer because I have good general knowledge. Other times we research together.
The goal for the kid is to ask a good questions. A question that leads to Guinness’s book of records may be quite interesting, but the child can search for the result without me.
If a question is stupid, like how many floors are in a particular building on a particular street of my home town, I ask directly: why is it interesting and what can we learn from it?
Some answers send me into a school-like explanations session. Especially history. “I am bored. Can I ask the next question?” is usually a cue for me. The goal for a parent is to interest and prime the child for independent exploration.
Calligraphy session
Calligraphy can be practiced in every weather, and all that is needed is a calligraphy set and a drawing table. Proper calligraphy improves handwriting and fine motoric skills, teaches attention to detail, and is artistically fun. Also during calligraphy sessions, some texts are written. We can choose quotes and discuss them.
To be honest, some kids will be too hyperactive to calligraphy or worse – may stain the furniture with precious ink. Girls are more likely to love calligraphy and excel in it.
When calligraphy with the dominant hand gets boring, try the ambidextrous practices. Discuss the difficulties and learn from them.
Musical improvisation
Guitars and pianos are tools often used by composers and ideally suited for musical improvisation. To be honest you do not need to be musical and know musical tools to improvise. For example, you can create songs or small stupid dances.
As a parent, I usually try to recognize some rudimentary musical development in the improvisations and find more mature musical pieces with similar development. It can be a similar subject, scale, rhythm, or simply an association. The idea is to listen to music approximately as much as improvise, getting new ideas for further development.
Based on the development level, other factors can be evaluated. For example, complexity, originality, theoretical soundness, technical performance, and so on.
Cooking together
Another fun activity that can involve the entire family. To be honest, my kids cook for themselves around 60% of what is needed, and I help with the rest. I talk mainly about teenage kids since cooking requires knives and fire.
During cooking, we can discuss different productivity subjects. For example, the best way to arrange tools, the best tool for each job, the best sequence of activities, how different ingredients work together.
Usually cooking together transforms into eating together halfway through. It is a lot of fun. Also, the kids become autonomous and can take care of themselves when the parents are busy.
Trivia game
How do you ensure that kids develop their memory and read? Exercising together is pretty boring. Trivia games are fun. Asking each other questions, and often repeating the questions over several sessions, forces the parties to learn the answers. In many cases, kids will teach us, as they have their own areas of expertise.
The idea is to learn the interesting areas between the sessions to improve the success rates in the sessions. The questions should ideally involve not just general knowledge, but also some deduction or inference.
Walking therapy
When walking outdoors, we are much calmer. This is a combined effect of nature, physical activity and detachment from common stressors. This is the best time for something akin to therapy. The idea is asking each other about things that bother us or things we want to achieve and brainstorming together possible alternatives.
The idea is to provide each other with a larger arsenal of perspectives and handling tools, not solving a particular scenario. It is important to be supportive and nonjudgemental.
Sports the military way
Usually, when we do sports it is a very organized and calculated activity, with trainers and equipment. It does not have to be. In the military a sergeant can ask “give me twenty pushups” or “run to the tree and back seven seconds” and soldiers do that. Kids also often love to do that. When should we use the athletic bursts?
It is a good way to pump blood and oxygen through the system. So when the child is bored and whining or aggressive and rude, some basic sports will wake the child up. It is less recommended to use sports as a punishment since you want your kids to love sports.
Indoors it is often fun to replace some sports challenge with dancing or flexibility challenge. The goal is once more to pump the blood through the system, so the challenge should be modified accordingly.
Political discussion
Everybody has a lot of hidden aggression. Group sports and politics are easy ways to activate these aggressions without causing any real damage. Politics often involve a lot of emotions. We love our team and hate the competition. At the same time, we are angry about the weak players in our team and respect good players in the competing team. And in politics, there are also agendas: healthcare, environmental crisis, war and peace, national pride, social justice.
This exercise is basically for the parent and the child modulates it. Try to explain respectfully and non-judgementally the agendas and key players of both sides. Consider possible development scenarios. Explain why the agenda of your side is better without catastrophizing. Justify your choice without referring to family traditions and ancient history.
To be honest, most adults fail miserably in this task one way or another. Usually, the position of the other side appears like a catastrophe waiting to happen and unforgivable stupidity. Yet somehow most nations are split almost equally on political agendas, and sports groups are often almost evenly matched.
Travel planning
Another fun activity to do with kids is planning the next travel. The planning is more important than actually traveling, but you will need to realize some of the plans. The goal is researching and planning together, acquiring important life skills and perspectives.
The first thing to consider is the theme. Why and where to travel? Is it for some very specific nature or sport? Do you want to visit historic locations or museums? Are you interested in local culture and history? Usually, the answer is a combination of the above.
The next thing to consider is the budget in days and in dollars. Some vacations will be long and expensive. Others will be short and cheap. Certain locations will involve simply a one-day trip, which is easy.
Within the place of interest, we draft itineraries. Common itineraries are
- A star. Staying in one place and going to a new destination and back every day.
- A ring. For longer travels. Completing a full ring around the country, starting and ending in the same place.
- A zigzag. For still longer travels. Typically traversing a country north to south or east to west. For example in New Zealand starting on one island and ending on another.
An additional bonus is learning together with the child the local culture and history, natural and manmade resources, infrastructure and limitations. And in the process, we also learn more about ourselves and each other.