I guess it comes with the territory of a five year old. Lea has been saying to me, "Mommy... I don't have anything to do!" a lot lately. So, I went to my favorite go-to for ideas, Pinterest, and found that this is actually an issue with a lot of moms and kids!
That's where the "Bored Jar" comes into play. I have come up with 39 different things for Lea to do when she can't seem to think of anything on her own. Here's the catch... half of them are fun things and the other half are not-always-so-fun things. ;) When she comes to tell me she's bored... she has to get a piece of paper from the jar.
Included in this list are...
- Choose five books to read
- Have a dance party
- Draw a treasure map
- Clean all the doorknobs in the house
- Water the indoor plants
- Choose two toys to donate to someone in need
I'm sharing the
PDF file I created that lists my "bored" ideas. I printed the list twice so I could fill up the jar well. If you have any cool ideas to add to my list, tell me in the comment section!
There are a couple that might be specific to our family... "Play the Party Game", this is a reference to our Xbox 360 Kinect which has a "Party Game" that gets the girls jumping and moving. The other one is "Take the dog outside and brush her hair". Obviously, if you don't have an Xbox or a dog, just leave those two out of your jar!
One last note... There are several items in my list that say to clean something. I have a spray bottle that's filled with a 50/50 water & vinegar mixture. This is a great, non-toxic solution that can be used to clean and disinfect lots of things. I added several drops of lavender oil so it smells better. This is the only cleaner I let the girls use!