Don't EVEN say the "B" word...

Tell me… is this something you can relate to? For 9-10 months out of each year, you schedule lessons, activities, crafts, field-trips and more for your children. Then you decide that it is time for a much-needed summer break. After about 2 days of unscheduled lazy summer days playing under a golden sun, your child waltzes up to you and says, “I’m bored” with a huge sigh of dissatisfaction.

Your first response? Well, let’s not say it and instead look to some solutions. My mom always said, “If I hear the word ‘bored’ come out of your mouth, I will find something for you to do – chores!” And strangely, my kids will often hear that coming from my mouth too. And frankly, it probably always will. But, we also have a nice stack of 3×5 activity cards that the children can consult first. And now, we have this too!

Someone posted this great idea on Facebook (which we shared on our page too – www.facebook.com/KnowledgeQuest). I think this is a great reminder for our children that there are certain things to consider before declaring boredom. What do you think?

Question: Should kids have unlimited amounts of unstructured time? How much is too much?

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Posted in: Parenting

Tags: bored, summer break

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 16th, 2013 at 1:48 pm and is filed under Parenting. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Tammy

These days kids don’t have ENOUGH unstructured time. They’ve been structured to death. So they have no clue how to fill unstructured time let alone well. They are so used to spending copious amounts of time on electronics as well, that they no longer have a clue what to do with themselves if those devices are taken away or stop working. I think kids need to have enough unstructured time that they are forced to figure out something to do on their own. Great learning experience.
Esther Ward

I heard Carol Barnier say that if even one of her kids used the B-word, she would declare “Boredom Day” and shut off ALL electronics for the entire day. These days often ended up being their most creative, enjoyable and MEMORABLE days they had.
- / Terri Johnson
  
  Ha! That’s a great idea! I find that when my kids spend zero time in front of a screen, they are much more content and creative. Why do I forget that so often?
Julie Martin Hooker

Around here saying “I’m bored.” will be sure to find you working! My daughter has been taught from an early age to entertain herself. Her first choice is usually TV but since we limit that, she always manages to find something to do.
Tee

My kids have also been taught early that we don’t use the “B”word in our home. Unstructured time is a must in this overly stimulated society we live in. Kids have not been given much opportunity to use their imaginations any more. We limit tv shows here and provide ample time outside making mud pies, playing hand ball, drawing on the side walk, hope scotch, you know that good ol’ fashion kind of play pre-video games. My kids don’t game at all! I have an 8yr old son and a 5 yr Daughter. I say put the DS in the trash parents and lets get back to the basics!
- / Terri Johnson
  
  I love this Tee! Thanks for sharing!