Are you on a holiday break? Are your kids whining about how they’re so booooooored?(I’m all in favor of a little boredom, but sometimes my kids need a suggestion or two.) Do you need some ideas for how to keep your children happily occupied without a screen? Okay, a few of these involve screens, but only for how-to advice.
- Throw them out into the snow. Make forts, angels, etc. Have them shovel all your neighbors’ sidewalks and driveways.
2. Teach them how to make paper snowflakes. Or better yet, have them figure it out with a handy internet video. Here’s a link for making them six sided. My kids are learning all sorts of things from how-to videos: crochet patterns, dance steps, card tricks… As always, just be smart and keep your computer in an easily-visible spot in your home so you can see what they’re clicking.
3. Turn up the music and have a dance party.
4. Pay them to clean out your basement. Or garage. Or junk drawer.
5. Make and decorate cinnamon ornaments. (Hands down, these are the best homemade ornaments we’ve ever made. We made some in 2011 and gave them to friends who still tell us how well they’ve held up.)
6. Bake treats. If you can’t bear to eat more sugar now, freeze them for a snowy day.
7. Better yet, make some dinners ahead and freeze them for January.
8. Have a rope-skipping contest. Or push-ups, sit-ups, pull-ups, cartwheels…
9. Pull out the sewing machine and part of your fabric stash and let them have at it.
10. Have a singalong. (It doesn’t have to be Christmas carols.) There are a whole bunch of apps for your smartphone that let you turn any song in your music library into karaoke, without an expensive machine.
What’s your favorite holiday break boredom buster?
Learning As We Go 
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