Bored Jars to Combat Summer Boredom
“I’m so bored!” seems to roll off the tongue more in the summer. Bust summer boredom with this simple jar full of boredom-buster ideas.
What is a Bored Jar?
Combatting summer boredom can be a bit easier with a Bored Jar.
This is a jar that is full of ideas that kids can do to alleviate being bored.
It can be as fancy or as simple as you would like. It’s entirely tailorable for your kids and your lifestyle.
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Why are Bored Jars Helpful?
Even though the kids are off school, that doesn’t mean their parents are off work.
Because of this, parents sometimes need the kids to be occupied (and quiet, at times) while working.
Bored jars can be colored-coded to help kids know what strips they should be grabbing during quiet time, what stripes are outside activities, the strips that are crafts, etc.
Kids have much more free time in the summer, which results in summer boredom.
However, there are too many things to choose from (or that slip their minds), so a Bored Jar helps them decide what they should do.
When to Use a Bored Jar
Summer boredom bored jars can be implemented at a particular time of each day or used any time when the kids are bored.
How to Use a Bored Jar
Have the kids pick out an activity from the Bored Jar and have them do it.
The kids can choose specific colored paper depending on what they feel like doing (crafts, outside activities, quiet activities, learning activities, baking activities, etc.).
More than one activity can be completed a day, depending on how bad the summer boredom gets.
Decide as a family if the item gets placed back into the jar or if it is put into a new jar so there aren’t repeats.
How to Make a Bored Jar
1. Come up with activities your kids like doing. This can be anything from baking a cake, reading, playing outside or having outdoor challenges, having a dance party, making a secret code, etc. Find activities they can do independently.
2. Decide on categories for the activities. Think about if there are times that it needs to be quiet. You may want to add a quiet activity section where your children can listen to a poetry podcast for kids or something. If they need help with any activities (like if there are some cooking with kids projects), make all those activities a specific category.
3. Assign each category a different color.
4. Cut out strips of paper of the chosen colors.
5. Write the different activities for the bored jar on colored paper according to their category.
6. Fold the paper and place it inside the Bored Jar.
7. Create a key for the different colored papers and place it with the Bored Jar.
8. Try out the Bored Jar.
Summer Boredom Buster Category Ideas
-outside activities
-crafts
-quiet activities
-activities needing help
-energy busting activities
-learning activities
102+ Bored Jar Activities
- Create a scrapbook
- Play board games
- Go on a nature walk
- Make homemade popsicles
- Have a picnic in the park
- Build a fort
- Paint rocks
- Make slime
- Write and act out a play
- Do a puzzle together
- Have a dance party
- Make friendship bracelets
- Learn origami
- Create an obstacle course
- Bake cookies or cupcakes
- Play hide-and-seek
- Draw with sidewalk chalk
- Watch educational videos online
- Write letters to family members or friends
- Build with LEGO bricks
- Write and illustrate your own comic book
- Go on a scavenger hunt
- Play dress up
- Make paper airplanes and have races
- Play with water balloons
- Watch funny animal videos
- Make your own pizza from scratch
- Create your own music video
- Have a tea party
- Invent your own board game
- Read books together
- Go roller skating or ice skating
- Plan and stage your own talent show
- Play mini-golf at home
- Make homemade ice cream
- Learn magic tricks
- Host an indoor Olympics
- Create your own photo booth
- Make bird feeders
- Play hopscotch
- Write stories together
- Go on a bike ride
- Make jewelry out of beads or string
- Sing karaoke
- Build sandcastles in the sandbox
- Have fun with face painting
- DIY science experiments
- Do yoga or meditation together
- Draw portraits of each other
- Build model cars or planes
- Research something you’re interested in
- Make a home cinema
- Play with dolls or action figures
- Make homemade playdough
- Learn a new language together
- Do some gardening
- Build an indoor tent out of sheets and pillows and read some kids camping books
- Create a family tree
- Make a time capsule
- Learn to knit or crochet
- Paint with watercolors
- Host a book club for kids
- Star gaze at night
- Go on a virtual museum tour
- Build a birdhouse
- Cook dinner together
- Learn to code
- Turn old shirts into tote bags
- Play with playfoam
- Create your own pillow out of a t-shirt
- Draw pictures of your house
- Try baking bread from scratch
- Play games on devices
- Make a secret code
- Do a sensory scavenger hunt
- Design and create your own t-shirts
- Learn to make paper boats that can sail
- Go on a virtual field trip
- Have fun with balloon tennis
- Practice origami animal making
- Create an indoor hopscotch course
- Play “I Spy”
- Make paper chain garland for decoration
- Create your own comic strip series
- Watch documentaries about animals
- Learn how to draw cartoons
- Solve riddles together
- Have fun with bubble painting
- Complete a virtual escape room
- Go on an imaginary adventure.
- Take photos of nature in your backyard.
- Make homemade soaps
- Create personalized bookmarks
- Make a sugar scrub
- Play dress up and put on fashion shows
- Make DIY snow globes
- Play “Two truths and one lie”.
- Learn some new dance moves
- Have fun making papier-mâché
- Make your own Tic Tac Toe game with chalk.
- Make tissue paper flowers
- Make a mask
- Learn how to write your name in Morse Code. (This one is so cool!)
- Make a summer mobile
Bored Jar Freebie
There is a free printable of the 102 boredom buster activities listed above to help make your bored jar a bit easier. To access it, go to the Freebie Library. It’s under Family Activities!
Summer Boredom
It can be challenging for kids to decide what to do with all their free time in the summer.
Help minimize summer boredom with bored jars.
The free printable will help to get your bored jar quickly started.
