Summer Activity Themes for Bored Geeklets

I don't know about any of the rest of you, but the time that's hardest for our geeklets is the time when school lets out.  They don't sing about lack of pencils and books at our house.  Nope!  They moan and complain about how bored they are and no amount of chores and jobs tends to help the situation.

However, we came up with a solution at our house that we call Summer Activity Themes.

First, I took a couple of pieces of blank white card-stock and taped the narrow ends together, then divided it into seven sections and labeled them with the days of the week, Sunday through Saturday.  Then, together, the kids and I came up with seven different ideas for a theme of the day.  Your themes will depend on what interests your geeklets.  We wrote our seven ideas onto pieces of card-stock but you can use 3 x 5 cards to great effect.  I think colored ones would probably work really well for this, but we used white, this trip.  Our theme ideas were Church Day, Craft Day, Park Day, Library Day, Court Club Day, Inside Games Day, and Movie Day. You might also have Anime Day or Cooking Day or even RPG day, depending on what interests you and your family.

Next, we called a family meeting and decided where in the week each of our activities would go.  Some of these were dictated by our schedule.  For example, Church Day, perforce, came on Sunday and, as my husband and I generally attend a water aerobics class at our local health club on Thursday, Court Club Day came on Thursday.  The rest of the theme locations can be voted on by your family.  Should Movie Day be on Monday or Saturday?  Will you have Craft Day on Tuesday or Friday? When would be a good day for Park Day?  Keep discussing it until all seven themes are in position.  If you're really ambitious, you can come up with more than seven themes or even sub themes.  For example, maybe the first Park Day of the month will involve visiting the local water park, while the second Park Day of the month might involve visiting a local playground.  For Movie day you might decide to visit a theater one week, to watch a cartoon or anime film at home one week and/or to watch a documentary one week.  It's up to you.  It all depends on how old your children are and how easily they become bored. Craft day can involve cooking or scrapbooking or any number of other things. It depends on your family.

After that we decided on a specific time of the day that activity time needed to happen.  Our family tends to need a pretty set routine.  I let my children figure out how the schedule should be set up, as well.  After all, having a schedule means less boredom for them since they now know when to expect things.  We included Chore Time on our schedule so that I wouldn't have to coerce work out of them.  As to how to decide who does what, we came up with a Chore Lottery, but that's a subject for another post.

Finally, with the themes all chosen and placed and with a specific activity time chosen for every day, we proceeded to put it into practice.  Now, here's where I'll confess to you that routines aren't my strong point.  I tend to be happy just to let things happen, so putting your theme schedules into practice may or may not be easier for you than it was for us.  We put the schedules we made up in the kitchen where it would be most likely to be seen.

As I said, keeping your geeklets occupied over the summer can be a challenge, but it doesn't need to be the end of the world.  Come up with a way to help your geeklets stay occupied so you don't have to listen to them moan, "Maaahm, I'm bored!  Isn't there anything to do?"  Anyway, who says school time is the only time kids ever learn?

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Tags: Summer, boredom, routine, schedule, theme

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Comment by Nathan Barry on June 25, 2012 at 4:14pm

I must say, we've never really had the 'I'm bored' cry around here, but one thing I know for sure is it's much better to embrace the mess. After watching the Caine's Arcade video and finding myself crying at Caine's creativity, imagination and passion, I vowed never again to chastise my daughter for leaving a few bits of paper lying around after making some wonderful piece of art.

Comment by Randy Slavey on June 23, 2012 at 12:31am

Mine are 12 and 10, so yes, they do have a little more independence than I would think yours would.

I totally understand. I grew up dirt poor. As a matter of fact, the reason I was disassembling my bike was because it was a hand-me-down baby blue garage sale bike, and I was stripping it down to the bare metal with steel wool. My stepfather worked in the stockroom at K-Mart, so I was lucky enough to get all kinds of damaged cast-offs as a kid, which sparked my interest in how things work. Boxes are awesome as well.

Like I said, everyone is different. My wife has a hard time with messes as well. I love walking into my office and seeing a half dozen projects on my worktable, but it kind of stresses her out. We've come to an arrangement that, as long as the projects stay in my office, and not for too long, we're all good.

Don't get me wrong, I think it's wonderful that you are spending so much time with your kids. It looks like you're going to have a great summer. I would just say don't worry too much if your kids get bored from time to time. Boredom can be a great catalyst for unstructured play time. I've seen my kids spend a week playing "Patrick Ball", a game they invented using a Patrick Star (from Spongebob) pillow, a Nerf sword, throw pillows, and lots of imaginative rules. They play, they laugh, they argue, and my wife and I listen from the other room with goofy smiles on our faces.

Comment by Julie A. Pratt on June 22, 2012 at 10:56pm

My kids are 10 and 5, we live in a quiet neighborhood way out in the back of beyond.  We are super poor and we don't own a basketball hoop so, unfortunately, they do spend an inordinate amount of time indoors, though I may slip down to the hardware store and see about refrigerator boxes.  One of my children's teachers suggested giving them a box to build a play house with.  Also, poor as we are, we can't really afford a dog, so...  In any case, generally speaking, when they get bored, Mom and Dad end up with a new mess to clean up. I'm trying to teach them to clean up their own messes, but it's an uphill battle.  Anyway, I'm hoping I have managed to answer most if not all of your questions.

Comment by Randy Slavey on June 22, 2012 at 9:26pm

I'm curious how old your kids are and what kind of neighborhood you live in. Do they ever have days where they just play? Burn leaves on the back porch for an hour, shoot baskets, create new games with other kids, roam the neighborhood on their bikes, play in the creek, smash aluminum cans with a cinder block, climb trees, blow bubbles for the dog to chase, work out, whittle sticks, shoot unsmashed cans with a slingshot, draw on the driveway with chalk?

I'm all for doing things with my kids, but I think it's actually a good thing when they get bored. Obviously every family is different, but nearly all of the best memories of my childhood happened without an adult around, and usually happened when I had nothing better to do (e.g. "I'm bored, I wonder what the inside of this old radio looks like." or "I'm bored, I think I'll take my entire bike apart and put it back together." or "Well, nothing to do today. Think I'll go see if the hardware store has any refrigerator boxes out back.") I want to make sure my kids have those same opportunities.

One day I came home from work and walked into my oldest's room to find him trying to tear apart an old Blackberry for the vibrator motor and an optical mouse for the LED. As a former 11-year-old boy myself, I know that moments like that are the ones he'll remember forever.

Hmm. I think I see another blog post in my near future. :)

Also, I couldn't agree more that school time is not the only time for kids to learn. If you're not familiar with http://www.khanacademy.org/, check it out. I put both my boys on the math sessions, and they love it! Set myself up as a coach and I can watch their progress.

Comment by Patricia Vollmer on June 22, 2012 at 1:11pm

This is a great way to keep the kids engaged...I like how you set up each theme on a card so they can be changed as the kids' (or parents') tastes change.

Comment by Patricia Vollmer on June 22, 2012 at 1:10pm

Here are some ideas for you to fill in those activities now that you have themes set up: http://www.wired.com/geekmom/2012/06/30-project-ideas/ and http://www.wired.com/geekmom/2012/06/outdoor-summer-fun/

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