WFMW – the “Mom I’m bored” edition

June 5, 2007

WFMW – the “Mom I’m bored” edition

Check out Rocks in My Dryer for more ideas to keep the kids busy in the summertime.

At our house, here are the favorites:

-watering the lawn – turn the water on to a trickle, get out a few cups or buckets, lay out a blanket or lawn chair for yourself and let the toddler have a little fun while keeping the plants alive.  We also sometimes plug in the Elmo squirter in and aim it into the flowerbeds while Peyton runs through and around.  I put my towel only slightly out of the way so I can still enjoy the mist.

-painting – a bucket and paintbrush and water and walls or sidewalk or anything else that can be “painted”

-cooking – preferrably no-bake stuff, but Peyton loves to help me measure and stir, and it takes up quite a bit of time.

-reading – Peyton loves reading, and he could easily sit for an hour next to his section of our library if I send him there.  He also likes going to the big library, which happens to be air-conditioned for the extra-hot days 🙂  Our city’s library has a nice children’s section with comfy chairs.

-Go to MacDonalds for a small snack (milk or fruit to keep it cheap), but stay for the play.  Being an only child, my son loves to get out and play with other kids.  During the school year he goes to a sitter for 2 hours each day between Dad going to work and Mom coming home, so he gets just the right amount of time to play with other kids.  During the summer, though, he’s stuck with Mom, so we sometimes visit MacDonald’s to play and visit with other kids (although the other kids aren’t always well-behaved, so sometimes we end up leaving earlier than later).

-Walk/bike/scoot to the park…there are three near us, so the means chosen to get us there decides which park we’ll visit.  There are also plenty of other kids to play with there.

-Chalk is cheap.

-The dustbuster is Peyton’s new favorite toy.  “Go vacuum the couch, sweetheart!”   He also [still] loves cleaning of many other types, and I will definitely take advantage of that.

-Forts.  Need I say more?

-The internet actually has some great websites!  Here are some that Peyton loves, and they really promote learning (well, at least some of them do):  Playhouse Disney, Disney for older kids, boohbah, and his favorite, Preschool Time Online, which we pay a monthly fee for (I think it’s less than $5), but it teaches numbers and letters and adjusts the games to his abilities, so it’s way better than any preschool computer game you could buy. 

WARNING!  some of those sites have much-too-easy-to-print buttons, as this post describes 🙂

If all else fails, there’s always the menacing “find something to do or I’ll give you something to do.”

*EDIT:  a friend also told me to check out literacycenter.net.  She said her daughter loves it 🙂

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