Preschool Boredom Busters

WARNING! Super-long post!

My friend Jenny did a post today asking for ideas for things to do with your preschoolers when you run out of things to do.  By my very nature, I am not a spontaneous, come-up-with-something-fun free thinker.  My poor children suffer a great deal because of my apparent deficit in fun finding.  I can play along with something they think is fun or use existing toys as they are meant to be used, but I seriously lack in creative, out-of-the-box solutions to boredom.  Which means we usually all get grouchy with one another and start bickering, or perhaps worse yet, we go out into the world with our boredom and spend money.

Over the past few years, I have compensated for this dearth of free-flowing fun with a skill that comes as naturally to me as breathing...making lists.  My mind makes lists in my sleep.  I make lists in the shower and have even been known to write notes to myself on the bathroom mirror lest I forget that important nugget before I walk the twenty steps to my kitchen, which we all know is the incubator of all great lists.  I shared my master list of boredom busters with Jenny and she said I had to do a post on it.  Et voila!

I have tried several different methods of incorporating the "idea list" into daily life (i.e., the idea jar from which a child gets to draw ideas written on slips of paper).  But the current method seems to be working really well.  I have a "Today" page posted on a bulletin board in our kitchen and it has a checklist of things we need to remember to do like get dressed, brush our teeth, feed the fish, look at the calendar together.  It has four blank lines for Mommy's to-do's.  I try to write in my most important tasks for the day so that A gets an idea that my "chores" are not nebulous, vague and ongoing; they will end and I can check one off and come play.  Then I have a row of four big squares where I tack activity ideas that the girls can do on their own; another four squares for ideas we can do together; and finally three squares for ideas that C can do while I do lessons with A.  I typed up all of my ideas into a table in Word and cut them apart.  Each evening, I pull off the ones we did or that we turned our noses up at, and put on fresh ideas.  I get to control a little bit what we do based on the other demands of our day or my capacity to crawl about on the floor like a baby turtle.  But A gets some choice in the matter and enjoys seeing the new ideas come up.  I get the benefit of not having to think of things she can go do on her own.  I just suggest the choices for the day and she can do one of those or find something else.  When I take down an idea we've done, it goes in a separate envelope.  I won't dig in the "used" envelope until we're done with the "new" one so that the ideas stay fresh and are fun when they come around again because we haven't done them in awhile.

All of that explanation is to cover my insecurity over being so incredibly Type-A about having fun with my children.  I really wish ideas came to me naturally and I could sit in imaginary worlds for long stretches of time and be a kid with them.  Instead, I make lists.

The following list has been compiled from blog posts, parenting sites, books, other mommies, etc.  None of these ideas are mine.  Remember?  I don't do original.  Some of these ideas may seem obvious to you, but I frequently need the reminders.  Brace yourself; it's a long list.

• Plastic (or cardboard) coins and a piggy bank- bought or home-made.(Pringles can, slit cut in top)
• Chalk or light color crayons on dark construction paper.
• Scissors and paper (no other objective in mind!)
• Easy-to-use paper punch and strips of paper.
• Shallow bucket on a towel on the floor. Add water, boats, plastic fish, measuring cups, etc.
• Bucket of water and a paintbrush for outside painting. Works best on wood or concrete.
• Chalk on sidewalk or steps.
• Let them "wash" a few plastic dishes. Put an egg beater, measuring cup and baster in the water.
• A cup with non-toxic soapy water and a straw to blow bubbles. You may put it on a sheet of paper and add food coloring to the water.
• Make a necklace or snack chain with yarn (masking tape on end) and any cereal with holes; Fruit loops, Cheerios, etc.
• A plastic bottle (clean milk jug, well rinsed detergent bottle, etc.) and items such as clothes pin, straw, penny, etc., to drop in and then shake out again.
• Ice cube on a sidewalk. Works like sidewalk chalk, but requires no cleaning. (Also useful for cooling down.)
• Tape a sheet of freezer paper or newsprint to the floor and trace around the child (have them lie still on it with their arms and legs a little outstretched) and then let them color their self portrait.
• Cut (or tear) out fun pics from old magazines.  Use clippings to decorate a shoe box house, zoo, farm, city, school, park, etc.  Or make a theme collage (people, cars, letters, numbers, animals, etc.)
• Go through the house or yard or neighborhood and collect items to make a texture book/wall/gallery (focusing on touch...).
• Fill one side of the sink with water and add dish soap to create a place for objects to hide under. Give you toddler a pair of tongs and let them "fish" for the objects and drop them in a bowl on the other side of the sink. You could use all kinds of things as the treasures to be found: army men (could it be a rescue mission?), dice, canning jar rings, large legos, etc.
• Cut out some circles from cardboard and cover them in foil. Them put them in a bag to make a coin purse.
• Build with big cardboard blocks or boxes (city, roads, tallest towers, castle, etc.)
• Pull each other around the house on a thick blanket
• Play with beanbags – toss into boxes, toss to each other; “ring toss” – set up three different size boxes/cans at greater distances from the standing line.  Try to toss bean bags into each of the goals.  Outside, draw a “target” with chalk.  Toss bean bags into different sections of the target (can be bulls-eye or pie-shaped).
• Balloon basketball – take turns trying to throw a balloon into a pop-up hamper
• Play hide and seek
• Play duck, duck, goose
• Play Simon Says
• Play Mother, May I?
• Play foursquare outside
• Laundry basket boats – sail around the house collecting crew and treasure
• Play computer games – pbskids.org
• Button box, dry beans – sort, count, trade; in/out of different size boxes/buckets
• Beads, noodles – sort, count, trade, lace
• Poker chip money – sort, count, trade; in/out of different size boxes/buckets
• Play restaurant
• Play grocery store, toy store, book store, department store
• Play with play-dough
• Make art with stamps
• Work a few pages in a preschool workbook
• Rice bucket – pour colored rice into large empty plastic bin; put toddler in bin with scoops and cups
• Throw a party for a stuffed animal
• Throw a party for Daddy
• Play dress-up
• Play house/family – take the different roles of each family member
• Play doctor
• Make a tent indoors
• Music time – every one gets an instrument and take turns picking songs to sing and play along with
• Easel art
• Ball/car ramp –lean a long board onto a stack of books or table to make a ramp for cars and/or balls
• Draw a city on butcher paper (or on the sidewalk outside), then let cars and people play in the city
• Make lacing cards together by gluing pictures from magazines to card stock.  Laminate and punch holes.  Lace with yarn or shoe strings.
• Make a paper chain from strips of construction paper.
• Put on a puppet show.  Use curtain rod to drape a sheet across a doorway. 
• Make family puppets.  Use old photos of family members; glue to popsicle sticks.
• Make a puzzle out of front picture on cereal box.
• Cotton balls to play with – in buckets and cups, pinch with tongs, carry on spoon
• Hide puzzle pieces around the room and let the other person find and finish the puzzle.  Use hot/cold to give clues.
• Sew with yarn on plastic canvas
• Make a marble maze in a box lid or shallow box (or use a small ball)
• Work puzzles together
• Play a card or board game
• Go on a magazine scavenger hunt, finding the listed items in an old magazine.
• Use rope or long sticks to mark the two sides of a “brook”.  Have kids run and jump the brook.  Widen the brook with each successful attempt.
• Play follow the leader.
• Build and complete an obstacle course
• Play “monkey in the middle” trying to pass the ball to a friend while the friend in the middle tries to get it.
• Make shapes on sandpaper with various lengths of yarn
• Use different colors of felt to make faces – cut out eyes, ears, noses, mouths, jewelry, hair, bows; like Mr. Potato Head with felt
• Make a felt board by covering scrap wood with felt.  Cut out felt shapes to stick to the board.
• Scavenger hunt - Give children verbal instructions to collect a list of items (something smaller than your hand, something red, something soft, something longer than your arm, etc.).  Have them collect their items in a plastic bag or on-hand basket.  When enough items are collected, the children can compare their items, then return the items to their homes when finished.
• Flashlight tag – try to catch the other’s light with your own
• Tie a jump rope or long ribbon between two chairs; make a clothesline for doll clothes
• Big magnet – explore what is magnetic, what’s not (paper clips, washers, nails, etc.)
• Save a few paper towel and toilet paper rolls to make ball and car tunnels
• Color on sandpaper
• String together several empty boxes of various sizes for a stuffed animal train
• Stick rough side of Velcro to scrap board and attach soft side of Velcro to cast-off small toys (think Happy Meal toys)
• Wash the windows with a squirt bottle full of water
• Indoor tetherball (foam ball or balloon hung from a doorway; cardboard tube to bat at it)
• Paper cup pyramids
• Skate around the house in shoe boxes
• Make and climb a pillow mountain
• Use a toothpick to punch holes in black construction paper (put a dishrag under the paper).  Do a freeform design or trace a simple line drawing torn out of a coloring book.  Hold up to the light for a sparkling picture.

Hope it's helpful!  And if you have go-to ideas that work at your house, please, please share.  I need all the help I can get!  Obviously.