I have been bombarded with cries of boredom from my four children and we are only a few days into summer break. Whether your kids are tired of traveling or weeping the woes of winter, here are a few simple games to keep them entertained and busy. Let my experience help you get a break from the boredom blues.
Simple games seem like fun to the kiddos, but they can also be educational. Shhh! Don’t tell them that they are using their brains or that will take the fun right out of it.
You do not need to have fancy gadgets with all of the high-tech beeps and buzzers. Get back to basics with a few sheets of paper and a pencil.
Give the children a word or two that you have selected. Tell them to write this word or phrase at the top of a piece of paper. It can be fun to choose a word or phrase of the day such as “responsibility” or “telling the truth. Keep your children entertained and busy on a long road trip using the words “road trip”, “vacation”, “travel time”, and “destination. Instruct the kids to find as many words as they can using the letters in the selected word. This will not only be fun for them, but will keep them occupied for longer than you may think. The added bonus is that your child will be practicing language skills. Sounding out words and letters will practice spelling and phonics.
An example of this game using the word “travel” would include answers such as:
Ate, eat, rave, rate, late, ravel, vet, rat, tar, let, avert, veal, and many more.
See how much fun this can be for everyone? This game gets addictive. Just when you think you have found all of the answers, another word pops right into your head.
Another brain teaser is unscrambling words. Think of a list of words and write them down. One word at a time, mix up the letters and write them on another sheet of paper for your child. Now, let them unscramble the letters to find the word that you were thinking of and have on the answer sheet. You may be surprised to find that sometimes your son or daughter will find a different word in the letters than you had in mind. It can be especially tricky when the scrambled up letters make a word. Here are some examples:
Scrambled letters: trap
Answer: part
Scrambled letters: ssdre
Answer:
Dress
Cliepk
Answer: pickle
A letter scavenger hunt is a great way to pass the time. This simple activity kept my four children busy for nearly two hours one rainy afternoon. Simply choose a letter from the alphabet and send the kids off to find as many items in the area with that letter at the beginning of the word. The letter “b”, for example, could include any item in your home from bananas to banjo.
Create a secret code. Give each letter of the alphabet a number. Write messages using numbers and have the children decode the messages. Kids love sending secret codes to one another. Once you get them started on this idea, they will take off with it and make many codes of their own. They can even practice some math skills during this process. If the number one equals an “e” and the number two equals a “t” then e plus t equals a number three or the letter s. It can get complicated or stay as simple as you wish. The options are open.
Everyone loves a silly story. Either you or your child can create a short story. Leave a few words blank such as a name, place, food, adjective, or verb. Children can fill in the blanks with whatever word they wish to create a very funny story to share with the entire group. Here is an example of this activity.
The story originally would read:
Sally and Fred walked to the beach. They swam in the ocean for an hour when they decided to have a snack. They bought a sandwich and a cookie from the vendor. After they ate, they build a sand castle.
Fill in the word Sally with the child’s name. Have your child pick a liquid for the word ocean. The word sandwich should be replaced with a noun. The word built needs to be changed with another verb in the past tense.
Your silly story may read:
Eric and Fred walked to the beach. They swam in the Pepsi for about an hour when they decided to have a snack. They bought a bicycle and a cookie from the vendor. After they ate they flew a sand castle.
These fun activities will keep your kids busy and entertained for hours. If you can scrounge up some paper and a pen or pencil, you will be in business. You may even have fun joining in, too.
