Summer Boredom Busters

Here is a list of summer activities that my kids can do when they’re bored – which seems to be every spare minute. (Beans is nine, Lou is twelve and Bug is fourteen.)

Play tennis at the park
Ride your bike to your grandparent’s house
Catch snakes along the canal
Play balloon volleyball
Fill water balloons and play games with friends
Organize a water fight
Make a smoothie
Walk the dog
Learn a magic trick
Ride your bike to the store with a friend or sibling
Borrow some Spanish language CDs from the library or a friend
Create a computer slide show with music, photos and captions
Teach the dog a new trick
Check out a book at the library
Play racquetball at the rec. center
Call Grandpa Hansen see if you can go for a boat ride
Plan a banana split party
Play board games
Go to a movie
Do a secret act of service
Go swimming
Take a nap
Call Grandpa A. and ask to use the archery equipment
Take a hike!
Research a topic just for fun
Re-write the lyrics to a familiar song
Set up the tent and sleep out in the backyard
Read up on basic first aid (Practice on your mom)
Write a letter to a friend or relative
Make pizza with what’s in the cupboard & fridge
Make paper airplanes (have a distance contest)
Learn to play Grandma Kofoed’s hand organ
Play catch
Sketch the outside of our house
Work on Faith in God, Personal Progress or Duty to God
Organize a neighborhood Olympics
Give each other rides in the wheel barrow (have races)
Play marbles
Play croquet
Create a masterpiece from sculpting clay
Play with Legos (recreate our house)
Create a treasure hunt for friends / family
Plan a BBQ for friends
Plan a game day with friends
Look through Mom and Dad’s old yearbooks (don’t die laughing)
Make breakfast for dinner
Have a squirt gun fight
Write in your journal
Play horseshoes at the park (Bug’s Eagle project)
Using toothpicks and mini-marshmallows, have a sculpting contest
Play a card game (Rook, Canadian Salad, Cribbage)
Pack a lunch and bike to the park with a friend
Play “day games” – hide and seek, freeze tag, etc.
Play the piano / recorder / penny whistle
Call Grandma A. and go make jewelry
Call and arrange a cousin get-together
Go to a noon concert at the Tabernacle
Make greeting cards
Select a pattern, choose fabric and learn to sew something
Plan a drama and video tape it (use dress-ups)
Catch butterflies and other insects
Weed in the garden
Play kickball
Color on the driveway with sidewalk chalk
Read a book at the library
Sing karaoke with the cousins
Go for a run with or without the dog
Color with crayons (make underwater scenes)
Clean the house (I wish!)
Paint your fingernails / toenails (don’t spill)
Play “spa treatment”
Make flannel Capri PJs
Practice jump roping / double dutch
Play hopscotch
Have a bubble gum blowing contest
Write a story or poem
Throw a Frisbee (to the dog)
Make and frost a cake
Tour a museum – USU art museum, DUP, etc.
Go to the ice arena
Call and offer to play with a young child in the neighborhood – read them a book or push them on the swings
Make and distribute babysitting fliers (Lou)
Play UNO Attack
Sew something
Weed the flowerbeds
Go canoeing
Explore a new place (tell Mom where you’re going)
Work on your scrapbook
Buy art supplies (acrylic paints) and learn to paint
Do math puzzles (Sudoku)
Do crossword puzzles or word searches
Blow bubbles
Do a science experiment
Press flowers
Play with Barbies / Littlest Pet Shops / Stuffed Webkinz
Make paper beads (then jewelry)
Play spy – use binoculars, a notebook, sunglasses; file a report
Make bread
Do an activity from one of our books
Do a cross-stitch project
Go bowling
Listen to music
Make origami
Play sand volleyball at the park
Create a sand village in the sand volleyball pits
Dig a hole and play in it (get permission for location first)
Play lightning with a basketball
Make mud pies
Identify shapes in the clouds
Water the flowers
Do shrink-e-dinks
Weave with yarn
Play a game at Grandma’s – see if hers are more fun than ours
Play ultimate Frisbee
Play pool
Swing on the equipment at the elementary school
Go to the Willow Park Zoo
Feed the ducks at first dam
Practice with a yo-yo
Play tetherball
Play a game from The Encyclopedia of Games
Play a game from The LDS Game Book