Projects To Keep Your Kids From Being Bored

Summer projects for kids and teenagers helps prevent this scenario.
"Mom! I'm bored!" Those dreaded words can be hard for a mom to hear especially during the Summer months. It is up to us parents to enrich our child's mind and teach them. It doesn't have to be a science lesson. Kids learn from all of their experiences so it is up to us to give them the best ones. There are a lot of fun projects we can do with our kids that will keep them busy and teach them a thing or two.

As long as the weather is nice, take your kids outside. Make sure to apply sunscreen to your kids 30 minutes before hand.

Go to a local park - The park has swing sets, slides, and even walking trails. It's not the same as your own back yard to a child. It's a treat (a free one). You could also pack a picnic lunch and a blanket.

Have a treasure hunt - You can make a list of items that would be found in your yard and give the kids a baggy to go find the items. Set a time limit and see who finds the most.

Plant a kid's garden - Go the your local home improvement store or nursery and pick up a couple of small annuals. Let the kids pick out their favorite colors. You can get then plastic tools and gloves if you want to. Go home and let them have their own section of the garden to plant. You can even put up a little sign on a stick in it that says "Kaitlyn's Garden" or whatever your child's name is. They will love to show it off to all of your visitors.

Sometimes the weather doesn't cooperate and the kids are stuck indoors. You just have to get a little creative about how you let them spend their time.

Do an art project - You can let the kids go crazy with this. Give them crayons, water colors, finger paint, or markers and let them be tiny Picassos. You can print off free photo frames and put the pics on the fridge or your child's wall. If you start to accumulate too many pictures, you can put a line strung across your child's ceiling or along the wall and hang up their pics with laundry clips. Just rotate them out over time.

Start a summer scrapbook - Take snapshots of all the things you and your kids do this summer. You can add pics of their garden, foods they cook, the pictures they draw outside, anything. Be creative. Then you can add captions and stickers and enjoy it all summer.

Go to the library - Not only are the books free, but some libraries check out movies too! They also offer free story book readings and toddler classes. Just check out the bulletin board for a schedule.

Have a family movie night - Pick out a movie that you and the kids will enjoy, throw some blankets and pillows on the floor, and pop some popcorn or make ice cream sundaes before hand. My family does this every week and it never gets old.

Make play dough - Here is a colorful and great smelling recipe:

Kool-Aid Play dough

2 1/2 cups flour
1 cup salt
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 cups boiling water
2 packages unsweetened Kool-Aid

Mix dry ingredients. Add oil and water. Wearing gloves, knead for 10 minutes. Store in zip lock bag in refrigerator.

Make an activity jar - You can put some of these ideas or some of your favorite things to do on separate pieces of paper them put them in a jar. You can even have fun decorating the jar if you want to. Whenever your child comes up and says "I'm bored", reach for the jar and let them pull out an activity. Problem solved.
Some more tips-
Get big boxes from appliance shops for fort making. Let them paint and decorate it.

Use a portable carpenter’s tray to carry markers, scissors, and rulers. Makes for easy cleanup and moving around the house.

Melt broken crayons into foil lined muffin cups for mosaic crayons.

Have a decoy drawer of real, unused, broken items that are old cell phones and keyboards that they can play with.

Have a bedroom dresser with drawers for storage of art materials: old bits of wrapping paper, string, tubes, egg cartons, paints, brushes, magazines, paper scraps. Or have an easy to reach craft box of odds and ends: ribbons, cards, paper, markers, scissors, glue or glue sticks, glitter, paint, rulers so the children can help themselves and create a craft that is unstructured and entirely of their own imagination.

Have a board game day.

Any small gadget or appliance that is broken is wonderful to take apart and unscrew with parent supervision. Check out second hand shops and garage sales for free stuff.