Pull out these tips next time bored whine sets inApril 30, 2002 Children complaining of boredom may need only a little inspiration to find their next activity.
Baptist Memorial Health Care's Internet Magazine, Baptist Online, offers some suggestions for parents to give to kids who think they don't have anything to do. Go to: http://www.bmhcc.org/baptist online/home/index.asp, click on Family & Living and then on Children's Health. (Save the following tips and pull them out this summer when you hear the dreaded whine.)
A few ideas from 1001 Things to do With Your Kids by Caryll Waller Krueger and "Baptist Healthy Picks" are:
Go through closets and find items to donate to thrift shops. At the thrift shop, look for dressup clothes and costumes and ask about volunteer opportunities.
Open a lemonade stand.
During the summer, let the kids organize a small party. Invite classmates from the past school year for games, burgers and ice cream.
Read. List the books each child reads and offer a prize for every 10 books read.
Visit the public library during story time.
Let children design their own work shirt to wear for chores. Use an old or inexpensive solid color shirt and markers. Have children first draw the design on paper.
Audition for plays at a community theater.
Organize a toy exchange. If children are tired of their toys, let them select two or three toys and swap them temporarily with a neighboring family.
Get mail, water flowers or dog-sit for vacationing neighbors.
Take fresh-baked cookies to a sick or elderly friend.
For parents with busy schedules who keep their children even busier, two writers are "prescribing" a regular dosage of boredom for children. Child psychiatrist Dr. Alvin Rosenfeld and longtime family-issues journalist Nicole Wise have written The Over-Scheduled Child: Avoiding the Hyper-Parenting Trap. They explain why it's better for parents and children to slow down and do less, which can help children succeed.
Some psychologists advise parents to not use TV and computer time to solve the boredom dilemma and to limit children's use of both. For more information on what some say are the effects of too much computer use, family psychologist and columnist Dr. John Rosemond recommends the book Failure to Connect by Jane M. Healy.
Healy, a longtime educator and administrator, debates the use of computers in the classroom and presents evidence that computers can "help children disconnect intellectually, emotionally and socially."
- Katie Shaw
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