Article submitted by Jim & Jamie Loker, Regional Directors in Mexico
Last summer we stayed in Mexico until we flew up for our son’s wedding. To alleviate any possibility of boredom, I filled a big jar with 99 slips of paper with the following ideas. If a child complained of being bored, they had to pick one of these and do whatever it said. Sadly the summer went too quickly and they never got bored enough to choose even a fraction of these.
Some of the ideas I gathered from different online sources, but I’ve lost track of where I got them. Many were my original ideas. Looking over the list now, it’s obvious I’m not a very artsy kind of mom, or I would have included more art projects.
Feel free to borrow any of these that might appeal to you. (Some can only be done in our little corner of Oaxaca, Mexico.) Better yet, make your own! It’s like insurance or carrying an umbrella. You’ll never need it when you have it. Consider it “Blah” prevention.
• Buy a bag of ice and make real homemade ice cream.
• Learn about camping. Go to http://camping.about.com/cs/advicetips/a/campingbasics.htm
• Pick out a video at the children’s library
• Shoot hoops
• Play corn hole
• Set up Hillbilly golf and play it
• Listen to Adventures in Odyssey episode online
• Wash all the doorknobs and light fixtures in he house
• Walk all 3 dogs
• Improve your vocabulary and help end world hunger. Go to http://freerice.com/
• Organize and plan a ping pong tournament
• Direct and film a mini movie with friends
• Put together some photo puzzle blocks http://content.photojojo.com/tutorials/photo-puzzle-blocks/
• Write a letter to yourself to be read at your high school graduation or wedding or 50th birthday party. What would you tell yourself?
• Find a calligraphy course online and learn the basic tricks
• Learn a magic trick
• Dye your hair with Kool-Aid
• Become a mad scientist. http://chemistry.about.com/od/chemistryforkids/tp/kidprojects.htm
• Work a jigsaw puzzle in less than 3 minutes. http://www.digischool.nl/en/jigzone/us.htm
• Take an online Bible quiz http://www.bible-quiz.co.il/quiz/index.php?96a2b50601f3f38618600c8a3347b211
• Play Mad Libs on http://www.eduplace.com/tales/
• Find a hobby and read about it. http://www.jr.co.il/hotsites/e-hobby.htm
• Take a short course in digital photography http://www.shortcourses.com/
• Learn about floral designing, flower arranging, orfloristry. Do a Google search.
• Learn about candle and soap making http://candleandsoap.about.com/hobbies/candleandsoap/
• Go to town and buy a game of jacks for Mom. Challenge her to a game. (You will lose)
• Make paper airplanes
• Do a pay job. (Ask Mom or Dad)
• Go to http://familyfun.go.com/
• Play Ticket to Ride at http://www.daysofwonder.com/en/games/
• Plan an outing to the Yaguar Xoo (zoo). Call friends to invite them.
• Sort mismatched socks
• Weed the garden
• Bake cookies or brownies
• Go to Mitla zocalo and sit and people watch. Write a story about the people you see.
• Memorize the Pledge of Allegiance (Embarrassing to admit my children still have to read it every 4th of July)
• Clean up after the dogs in yard
• Dust one whole bookcase
• Climb up hill of the cross and bury a treasure. Have a sibling or friend use yourtreasure map to find it.
• Organize the school supply drawer.
• Wash one window inside and out. (Maybe I stuffed the jar with five or ten of these just to make sure some of the windows would eventually get washed.)
• Kill 5 flies
• Read ten chapters of a book of your choice
• Go to the artisans market by the ruins and buy 5 things
• Bake something
• Sweep carport
• Volunteer to babysit Caleb for 2 hours (the youth leaders’ toddler)
• Plan five worship songs to sing for church at our house on Sunday
• Learn a solo on chimes
• Make a welcome-back banner for the Wagners and have peoplesign it
• Think of a wedding gift for Mike and Amy you can make or buyyourself
• Plan a photo scavenger hunt for your friends
• Make an origami figure
• Watch the juggling video
• Watch one educational movie Mom selects
• Listen to a sermon on tape
• Sweep under Mom and Dad’s bed
• Sweep under Jonny’s or Debbie’s bed
• Iron three shirts
• Vacuum the furniture in living room and wash slipcovers fromfamily room
• Wash all the mirrors in the house
• Clean all the ceiling fans thoroughly
• Take everything out of upper closet in big bathroom, dustshelf and everything before putting it all back.
• Get the glass: http://www.gettheglass.com/index2.html
• Take a virtual tour of the White House: http://www.whitehousemuseum.org/ww0.htm
• Gather rocks, stones, and bricks, and make an inukshuk withyour friends. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inukshuk
• Go to the store with siblings and friends and buyingredients needed to make spaghetti dogs. http://myplumpudding.blogspot.com/2009/05/spaghetti-dogs.html
• Spend the afternoon learning Morse Code. http://www.wikihow.com/Learn-Morse-Code
• Become a tattoo artist. http://www.addictinggames.com/life-style-games/tattooartist2.jsp
• Learn how to tie a necktie. http://www.tieanecktie.com/
• Take pictures that look like each letter of the alphabet
• Upload a photo to the DailyMakeover and try out celebrityhairstyles and makeup trends. http://www.dailymakeover.com/virtual-makeover#/home
• Rearrange the furniture. http://www.bhg.com/decorating/arrange-a-room/
• Become a super hero! http://cpbherofactory.com/
• Create your own Marvel Super Hero. http://marvel.com/games/cyos
• Make a diet Coke and Mentos rocket. (check out you-tube videos)
• Increase your typing speed with this online game: http://play.typeracer.com/
• Do these 11 brainteasers. http://listsgalore.blogspot.com/2008/08/11-brain-teasers.html
• Learn to tie sailor’s knots. http://www.troop7.org/Knots/
• Do three random acts of kindness today
• Play 20 Questions http://www.20q.net/
• Make limonada or naranjada all by yourself
• Set up the hammock under the carport with Dad’s or Filiberto’shelp.
• Buy materials you need to make some sponge balls for a bigwater fight http://blog.betzwhite.com/2008/06/sponge-balls.html
• Make a bucket list. http://www.wikihow.com/Make-Your-Bucket-List
• Get your friends to help you pick up trash along our road orthe airstrip
• Plan a drive-in movie night on the side of our house. Invite the neighbors, pick a movie inSpanish, pop popcorn and make Kool-Aid, and show it with the video projector
• Record a funny voicemail message on your cell phone. Put it in Spanish and English. http://www.creativevoicemailmessages.com/vm/funny1.htm
• Watch a movie of your choice – in Spanish!
• Make a list of things to do when you are bored. Add them to the Boredom Blaster Jar.
• Make a sandcastle or other structure down in the bigsandbox http://www.sandcastlecentral.com/
• Clean out your closet
• Make a sundial http://www.squidoo.com/sundial
• Whatever you do, do not press the red button http://www.85qm.de/up/BigRedButton.swf
• Make up a fresh batch of play-doh and invite friends (youngand old) over to play. Or justinvite little kids to come for a couple of hours. You can play marble works, train set, or anything you mightotherwise feel too old to play.
• See how many of these perfect pushups you can do. http://fitness.mercola.com/sites/fitness/archive/2011/04/08/for-killer-abs-try-some–pushups.aspx
• Do a science experiment: http://www.wikihow.com/Category:Science-for-Kids
• End poverty by playing a Geography Game: http://www.freepoverty.com/
• Invent a game to submit to http://www.sporcle.com/