Beating Holiday Boredom with Boredom Bowls

So, we have just a couple of days until school closes and until I know I will hear the incessant 'I'm bored' from my little ones.

The thing is, even though I will be home with my little ones, I will be working too- and I anticipate a big work load in the next few weeks with a big project starting next week. Chances are, I will not be able to take them out much in the first two weeks of school holidays and too much television is a recipe for disaster. So, I have decided to prepare boredom busters in advance- things my little ones can enjoy at home with minimal parental involvement.

First of all, I have created a boredom bowl- where they can dip their hands in and get an idea for something simple to do. I think my children may have too much toys- so much so that they forget what they can play with and just play with the obvious cars and dolls. Often, my children are creative and come up with their own imaginative games. However, at least once a day I get nagged because they have nothing to do. Typically, this is when I am in the middle of something deemed more important by the adult brain and can't come up with good ideas. So now I decided to give some though to simple ideas for when this is needed. The first bowl contains basic ideas like riding bikes, hide and seek, playing with Lego, Play-Doh or drawing pictures (with ideas of new things to draw or build). It also lists ideas with new things to do with their toys. 

For the idea tags, I cut up bits of foam. You can put ideas on both sides of each tag. 

The bowls are recycled yoghurt tubs. I have drawn patterns on it with permanent marker and will let Noodle colour these in or paint these on one of the 'bored' days.

 

Then I have a second bowl with more structured activities- mostly craft ideas which I found on Pinterest or Instagram or ideas of things to make in the kitchen. The ones that I think my little ones will like best are making brown paper gingerbread men (Noodle's favourite sweet treat), rock painting and a paper plate fish bowl (as our pet goldfish is such a prominent feature in our home right now). I have gotten the resources needed to make the craft ones together so that this can be done with minimal effort when the time comes.

How do you keep holiday boredom at bay? Please let me know!