School’s out! Summer’s Here! … “I’m bored”
A friend of mine came up with a great idea for her middle school aged kids to keep them occupied during the summer, while taking care of some household jobs.
She wrote down on slips of paper things to do around the house – such as pick up room, do one load of laundry, sweep patio, unload dishwasher, water plants, vacuum for 15 minutes, etc. Most of the jobs could be done in under 20 minutes, or she put a time limit on them. The idea is to keep them easy enough that it’s tough to complain about.
Then she also put in “jobs” such as: sit and eat a Popsicle, walk to the store and buy a Slurpee, watch your favorite movie, make plans to go to a friend’s house, etc.
She put all of the slips in a jar, now once a day the kids get to pick something out of the jar, and whenever they say “I’m bored” she directs them to the jar. What makes it fun is that they might get a job to do, or they might get a treat.
Published by Robyn Howisey on June 27th, 2007 Tagged Parenting
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