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Wednesday, June 06, 2007

Works-For-Me Wednesday: "Mom, I'm bored!" Edition

Today's WFMW has a theme on what to do when your kids are bored. Since my kids aren't really old enough to complain about being bored yet, I was stumped. Toddler occupies himself pretty well by making messes, watching cartoons, or coloring. And Baby just follows us around and wants to be held a lot. So no real complaints of boredom yet. So my little tip is one I'm sure you've all heard before. I know my parents used it a lot! When a kid comes up and says they are bored and can't think of anything to do, mention that you can think of many things they can do and start listing off chores. Guaranteed they will say "Nevermind, I'm not bored!" and find something else to do pretty fast!

Since I was the oldest girl in a large family I was usually in charge of taking care of the kids and a few things I did when the younger kids were restless were have coloring contests and cleanup races. For the coloring contest we would all get a coloring book page and color, then everyone would get a prize for fastest colorer, stayed inside the lines best, most colors used, etc. And for the cleanup races we'd set the timer for 5 mins, give each of us a room to work on, and see who got the most done in that time (this was especially good for me when I was babysitting and the parents were due home any minute and the house was a mess lol). It's amazing how much kids will clean up if you make it sound fun and like a contest.

For more boredom busters and WFMW tips check out Shannon at Rocks In My Dryer.

2 comments:

Michelle said...

Now that is a clever idea! Smart woman you are! :D

Lorie said...

Neato!