Boredom Busters - Revisted for Covid19 Season

Hey, kids, remember this?  Whenever someone would complain of boredom, I used to have them pick a random suggestion slip from the Boredom Buster Jar.  Ha!  I wonder how many of these ever got implemented.

In light of the current season of Enforced Social Isolation, maybe these will help parents to develop their personalized Boredom Busters.  Sadly, some of the links no longer work, but maybe you can find new ones.  Just skim over the ones that were Loker-specific or Mexico-specific.  I left them in just for kicks, as a memorial to a time when life was simpler in our household.

Killing flies - ha!  That alone tells you something about summertime in our old adobe abode. And for the record, we were sanitizing light fixtures and door knobs before it became a "thing."

I have no idea where I got many of these ideas, so I cannot give due credit, but I would if I could.  Feel free to use them and pass along the useful ones.  Rereading these, I'm going to suggest some of these to the three 20-somethings living stuck in my house these next few weeks!  Already we have returned to read-aloud times together.  Ah, bringing back the best of home schooling!

Here you go....
 

• Get the glass: http://www.gettheglass.com/index2.html

• Take a virtual tour of the White House: http://www.whitehousemuseum.org/ww0.htm

• Gather rocks, stones, and bricks, and make an inukshuk with your friends. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inukshuk

• Go to the store with siblings and friends and buy ingredients needed to make spaghetti dogs. http://myplumpudding.blogspot.com/2009/05/spaghetti-dogs.html

•  Spend the afternoon learning Morse Code.  http://www.wikihow.com/Learn-Morse-Code

• Become a tattoo artist.  http://www.addictinggames.com/life-style-games/tattooartist2.jsp

• Learn how to tie a necktie. http://www.tieanecktie.com/

• Take pictures that look like each letter of the alphabet

•  Upload a photo to the DailyMakeover and try out celebrity hairstyles and makeup trends.http://www.dailymakeover.com/virtual-makeover#/home

• Rearrange the furniture.  http://www.bhg.com/decorating/arrange-a-room/

• Become a super hero!  http://cpbherofactory.com/

• Create your own Marvel Super Hero. http://marvel.com/games/cyos

• Make a diet Coke and Mentos rocket.  (check out you-tube videos)

• Increase your typing speed with this online game: http://play.typeracer.com/

• Do these 11 brainteasers. http://listsgalore.blogspot.com/2008/08/11-brain-teasers.html

• Learn to tie sailor’s knots. http://www.troop7.org/Knots/

• Become a mad scientist. http://chemistry.about.com/od/chemistryforkids/tp/kidprojects.htm

• Work a jigsaw puzzle in less than 3 minutes. http://www.digischool.nl/en/jigzone/us.htm

• Take an online Bible quiz 

• Play Madlibs on http://www.eduplace.com/tales/

• Find a hobby and read about it. http://www.jr.co.il/hotsites/e-hobby.htm

• Take a short course in digital photography  http://www.shortcourses.com/

• Learn about floral designing, flower arranging, or floristry.  Do a google search.

• Learn about candle and soap making  http://candleandsoap.about.com/hobbies/candleandsoap/ (another dead link)

• Do three random acts of kindness today

• Buy a bag of ice and make real homemade ice cream.

• Learn about camping.  Go to http://camping.about.com/cs/advicetips/a/campingbasics.htm

• Write a letter to yourself to be read at your high school graduation or wedding or 50^th birthday party.  What would you tell yourself?

• Find a calligraphy course online and learn the basic tricks

• Learn a magic trick

• Dye your hair with Kool-Aid

•  Play Ticket to Ride at http://www.daysofwonder.com/en/games/

• Play 20 Questions  http://www.20q.net/

•  Make a bucket list. http://www.wikihow.com/Make-Your-Bucket-List

• Record a funny voicemail message on your cell phone.  Put it in Spanish and English. http://www.creativevoicemailmessages.com/vm/funny1.htm

• Make a sundial  http://www.squidoo.com/sundial

• Whatever you do, do not press the red button  https://www.boredbutton.com/ 

• Make up a fresh batch of play-doh and invite friends (young and old) over to play.  Or just invite little kids to come for a couple of hours.  You can play marble works, train set, or anything you might otherwise feel too old to play.

• See how many of these perfect pushups you can do. http://fitness.mercola.com/sites/fitness

• /archive/2011/04/08/for-killer-abs-try-some--pushups.aspx

• Do a science experiment:  http://www.wikihow.com/Category:Science-for-Kids

• End poverty by playing a Geography Game: http://www.freepoverty.com/

• Invent a game to submit to http://www.sporcle.com/

•  Watch a movie of your choice – in Spanish!

• Pick out a video at the children’s library

• Shoot hoops

• Play corn hole

• Set up Hillbilly golf and play it

• Listen to one Adventures in Odyssey episode online.

•  Wash all the doorknobs and light fixtures in he house

• Walk all 3 dogs

• Improve your vocabulary and help end world hunger.  Go to http://freerice.com/

•  Organize a ping pong tournament

• Direct and film a mini movie with friends

•  Put together some photo puzzle blocks  http://content.photojojo.com/tutorials/photo-puzzle-blocks/

• Go to town and buy a game of jacks to buy for Mom.  Challenge her to a game.  (You will lose)

• Make paper airplanes

• Do a pay job.  (Ask Mom or Dad)

• Plan a zoo day.  Call friends to invite them.

• Sort mismatched socks

• Weed the garden

• Bake cookies or brownies

• Go to the Mitla zocalo and sit and write a story about the people you see.

• Clean dog poop in yard

• Dust one whole bookcase

• Climb up hill of the cross and bury a treasure.  Have a sibling or friend use your treasure map to find it.

• Organize the school supply drawer.

• Wash one window inside and out.

• Kill 5 flies

• Read ten chapters of a book of your choice

• Go to the ruins and buy 5 cheap things

• Bake something

• Sweep carport

• Volunteer to babysit Caleb Merchant for 2 hours

• Plan five songs to sing for church on Sunday

• Learn a solo on chimes

• Make a welcome-back banner for the Wagners and have people sign it

• Think of a wedding gift for Mike and Amy you can make or buy yourself

• Plan a photo scavenger hunt for your friends

• Make an origami figure

• Watch the juggling vide0

• Watch one educational movie Mom selects

• Listen to a sermon on tape (now it would be online)

• Sweep under Mom and Dad’s bed

• Sweep under Jonny’s or Debbie’s bed

• Iron three shirts (that was before we had a clothes dryer!)

• Vacuum the furniture in living room and wash slipcovers from family room

• Wash all the mirrors in the house

• Clean all the ceiling fans thoroughly

• Take everything out of upper closet in big bathroom, dust shelf and everything before putting it all back.

• Make a pitcher of limonada or naranjada 

• Set up the hammock under the carport

• Buy materials you need to make some sponge balls for a big water fight http://blog.betzwhite.com/2008/06/sponge-balls.html

• Get your friends to help you pick up trash along our road or the airstrip

• Plan a drive-in movie night on the side of our house.  Invite the neighbors, pick a movie in Spanish, pop popcorn and make Kool-Aid, and show it with the video projector

• Make a list of things to do when you are bored.  Add them to the Boredom Blaster Jar.

• Make a sandcastle or other structure down in the big sandbox. http://www.sandcastlecentral.com/

• Clean out your closet