Summertime List.

The thrill of being off for the summer has worn off, I think, at least for the 2 younger kids. My older son has been keeping busy with working with his Dad, biking, reading and doing a lot of drawing lately. The younger two haven't been keeping themselves busy very well. My daughter wanted to watch televison all the time and my younger son wanted to play video games all the time. I put limits on the screen time and then I got to hear those famous words "I'm bored." So today, I made a summertime list for them of things to do. Instead of just pulling it out when they say they're bored, I just will assign a random number of these things that have to be done each day, they can choose. Today, since we were going to the park this afternoon, they had to do 4 of them before we went. It worked out very well.

Here's the list:
Reading Treasure Hunts. (from the book by the same title)
Board game.
Active game.
Build something with Zomes, Atollos or Legos.
Make a piece of art, sculpture, painting, etc.
Swing on rope 5 times. (We have a rope swing outside.)
Ride bike around house 5 times.
Jump on trampoline 5 minutes.
Toss a ball around for 5 minutes.
Play Badminton.
Play Frisbee.
Play with marble run.
Play "Guess who" game.
Play "Guess Where" game.
Dance to music.
Read a book.
Swim (our pool isn't up yet, so they can't do this one yet!)
Wade in creek.
Dress a doll.

These are just for the younger 2 kids, really, as my oldest has been keeping himself occupied. It went really well this morning. The first thing they chose was a Reading Treasure Hunt. My daughter hid the clues and my younger son read the clues and did the hunt. My daughter dressed her dolls and played with them for quite a while. They played a game of "Guess Where" together. I'm not sure exactly what else they did, but I know one very important thing: while I was working this morning, I did not hear "I'm bored" even one time (other than from myself, lol!)