Are you looking for some boredom buster activities for your little ones?
Do your kids come to you when they have a day or several days off with a ‘mom, I’m bored!’?
I actually have never heard that phrase, as of yet, lol, from my little one.
What I do hear is ‘mom, play with me!’
I think this is my son’s ‘I’m bored’.
Now, my son knows that sometimes we can’t play or that we need to play something low key.
But there are a few games that we love to play as a family that are not only boredom busters but also will help get everyone moving.
So without further ado!
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Boredom Buster Activities
First, let me tell you a few things.
One – all these activities take very little set up.
Two – none of them require you to buy anything!!!!
Yes, free 🙂
Three – feel free to think outside the box with these activities.
Remember, it’s about having fun.
Four – the little ones can and should help with set up.
Don’t worry, just tell them it’s part of the game/activity and they’ll never know the difference 😉
Snowball Fight
So, this is definitely one of our favorites and it has a few alternatives.
Find some paper you don’t need to keep.
Think newspapers, magazines, copier paper, envelopes, etc..
Then have everyone take a piece and crumple it up.
Keep going until you have at least, maybe, 5 snowballs for each person.
The more, the happier 🙂
Once you have your snowballs then go crazy!
My son likes to have them all spread out and then everyone grabs a few and starts tossing them at each other.
Typically he wants his Lola on ‘his team’, while Papa and I are on the other side of the room as the ‘other team’.
Besides trying to keep my son from getting to close to us when he throws, we don’t really have any rules.
This has truly been one of the best boredom buster activities we’ve ever found!
Alternatives
-Sometimes we’ll use our badminton rackets instead of our hands to toss or pass the snowballs back and forth.
-Don’t have badminton rackets?
How about tennis rackets, spatulas, notebooks, etc..
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Ballons
Now, this can be a lower key version of the above snowball fight 🙂
You know your little one, and probably even yourself, needs to get up and start moving around but are not interested in participating in a ‘full’ snowball fight.
Go grab some ballons!
My son started being able to blow up our balloons sometime after turning 5.
So get everyone involved, although this time you really only need one or two 🙂
Then have fun.
We do a couple different versions.
Our Versions
1- Simply tossing it back and for to each other.
2- Playing keep away. Although this isn’t totally fair for my son because he is shorter than us.
3- Keeping it off the floor.
4- Keeping it from touching any furniture and/or the floor.
5- Using our badminton rackets to pass it back and forth to each other.
Flashlight Tag
This is a recent one for us.
Lola actually introduced this one and it’s been so much fun.
We’ve been using our cellphone flashlights and a empty paper roll.
You’ll shine the light through the paper roll to concentrate it into a smaller circle of light.
Then, like a cat chasing a light around, shine the light on the floor and have fun.
We typically just try to catch the light with our foot but have fun and see what other options you can come up with 🙂
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Forts
This is an oldie but a good one!
I’ll be honest, we’re getting my son a fort building kit for Christmas.
Not only will we be able to build forts, but also spaceships, igloos and other totally fun structures.
With that being said, we made due just fine using walking sticks, chairs, blankets, sheets, etc..
I’ve seen people even use their kitchen table.
So go ahead and have fun.
Let your little ones test out their building skills.
Side note: my son wanted to have ‘s’mores’ one time and so I just cut up some construction paper and cardboard boxes and made s’mores.
He loved it!
And there you have it!
A few easy boredom buster activities that you can do as soon as you hear ‘I’m bored’!!!
