April 29, 2016
Summer Boredom Busters : No Screen Required
As the school year winds down I/we get really excited for the summer. For me, I love the relaxed mornings, trips to the pool, a little vacation time, and less structure. I also know that we need a couple boredom busters to carry us through the summer because everyone needs a little downtime/ rest time, right? Best thing about this list? It doesn’t require a screen, an outlet, or a cord – hooray! You could re-purpose this for trips, things to do with a sitter, rewards for extra chores, etc.
Here’s what you need to do:
- grab a basket, a bucket, a bag to gather your boredom busters – look for something that you have and can reuse.
- collect existing coloring books, workbooks, and other resources that you already have around the house that you know your kids will enjoy during the summer.
- add some new activities – I like to keep things in a couple categories to captivate the kiddos for an hour or so. Art, strategy, brain exercises, tactile activities, puzzles….
- put together the bucket or basket and HIDE IT until summer – it’ll be a great surprise when the ‘I’m bored’ comments start!
These are all items that we have, have used, or have bought for the summer – I know you and your kids or grandkids, or friends’ kids will love them. This list is best suited for the elementary-aged crowd, but there are definitely some preschool, pre-teen and early teen crossovers here as well.
Kids go crazy for this fun book that contains 50 3-D models of creative and silly monsters. The pages are perforated and tabbed to make construction easier. Papertoy Monster
Star Wars meets paper airplanes. What’s not to love? Star Wars Folded Flyers
Step by step directions make paper airplane making easy and fun! Klutz Book of Paper Airplanes
This book is full of various brain games and puzzles to stump and challenge all minds. Kids Big Book of Games
This puzzle book is so fun! Various mazes, word games, visual and logic puzzles, and more will keep kids busy for hours. Brainiest Insaniest Ultimate Puzzle Book
Fun facts and challenges encourage kids to use their brains in new ways as they learn and solve puzzles. National Geographic Kids Brain Games
These intricate dot to dot puzzles range from 300 to 1400 dots. Intricate and challenging to encourage high level thinking skills. Extreme Dot to Dot Animals
Great for a variety of ages and skill levels, this book is full of fun and thought provoking problems that are sure to engage and challenge. Word Winks
Intricate color by number artwork that is ideal for building concentration and encouraging relaxation. One for animal lovers : Color Counts: Animals
And one that would be great on a road trip : Color Counts: Travel the USA
The element of surprise in this coloring book makes it extra intriguing. Mystery Mosaics: Book One
Who doesn’t love a good maze? The details and twist and turns in this activity book make it extra fun. Extreme Mazes
These simple but intriguing water toys are a blast from the past. Tomy Pelican Water Game
Encourage higher level thinking with this ingenious puzzle cube. ThinkFun Adams Cube
This gravity powered logic maze is wonderfully versatile for various ages and skill levels. Gravity Maze
Encourage spatial thinking and logic with this addictive and challenging game. Rush Hour
Mesmerizing and challenging, this three dimensional maze is fun for any age. Perplexus Epic
And of course there needs to be one for me – The Inspired Room Coloring Book – it comes out July 1st, just in time for some lazy summer day coloring 🙂
Have any other favorites to add? Here are a couple more posts that might help you get through the summer!
Tina Says
I love this idea so went to the shopping centre and bought some as school holidays here and my 6 year old grandson and 4 year old granddaughter have different tastes! One dives straight to the computer and the little one likes TV and Netflix! They know how to get to both without help and there is a kid guard on computer and also TV. But this time around no tv or computer, they can dive in the bucket and we will see what happens, hahaha! Their Mum and Dad would like us to be pseudo parents but they forget, we are grandparents and don’t do educational things with our grandkids, we have fun and laughter ! Blowing bubbles, planting in the garden, play in the mud and spray granddad and all those things we never allowed our kids to do we now do with them! So much easier being a grandperson rather than mum and dad! They still have the same rules of safety and cleanliness and me being dutch born order hahahaha!
Michelle Says
Love these! Bought several, can’t wait for summer 🙂
Kelly Says
This is AWESOME! We’re going glamping at the end of the month to somewhere with no electricity or Wifi so trying to think of activities to keep the kids entertained and this is the answer! Thank you thank you thank you!!