The fabulously talented blogger Steph from Somewhat Simple is here to save the day with a, “Mom I’m Bored Jar.”
Steph writes…
By about the second week of summer, moms all over the world have one thing in common- we are all sick and tired of the age-old phrase, “Mom, I’m bored!”
Last summer, my friend told me that every time her son said he was bored, she would give him a baby wipe and pick a room of the house and have him dust all the baseboards in that room! It didn’t take him too long to find something else to do and stop telling his mom he was bored!
I loved this idea and decided I needed to make my own go-to jar with lots of ideas on how to keep my kids busy. Some of the ideas are fun, some of the ideas are not, so before my kids decide to have me entertain them, they really need to decide if its worth it or not! They might get “Make cookies with Mom”, or they might get “Pull weeds.” They could get “Play in the sprinklers”, or they could get “Do a chore of Mom’s choice!”
Here is how I made it:
• I simply took a plain cookie jar- you could even recycle something from a spaghetti sauce jar or something you already have.
• I filled the jar with strips of paper with printed “activities” on each of them. Here are the activities I used. Feel free to print them out and use them if you’d like! (click on the photos to enlarge)
• I tied some ribbon around the neck of the jar for some added color. (Tip: You’ll notice in the picture below, I tied only 1 thin ribbon around the entire neck of the jar so that the lid will still close and the ribbon won’t be in the way. Then I tied other ribbon onto that 1 ribbon just at the top.)
• Lastly, I added this image to the top of the lid.
And that’s it!
The perfect Summer Boredom Buster!
For more great ideas please visit Somewhat Simple. You also don’t want to miss Steph’s new blog, Crazy Domestic!
A
Find all the kid’s crafts in the craft camp series by clicking on the Craft Camp button on my left sidebar.
Fantastic idea!!!! Perfect for the summer months, but I think this would be great all year round! Hmmm… I need to start thinking up chores AND fun stuff to add.
Thanks for the inspiration!
Here is another idea that I found last year for the I’m Bored Jar. There’s a PDF download. We use ours all the time. http://www.homespun-threads.com/hp_zencart/download/bored.pdf
I love, love this idea! Thank you for sharing!
This is a great idea! I love that you included such a wide variety of activities…including some “around the house” chores.
I originally came to this post because it was linked to over at Habits for a Happy Home. I especially appreciated Kendra’s “rule” for her family’s jar: http://habitsforahappyhome.wordpress.com/2010/07/12/im-bored/.
What a GREAT idea and while we don’t allow the phrase “I’m bored” to be used in our house, the feeling certainly shows up and I think I’m going to have to make one of these for the kids.
Wow, what a great idea! I’m sharing this with all my mommy friends!
Wow, I love the idea!!!! I’m going to prepare it all through the week, on recycled paper.
We tell sometimes our daughter to dust the book and magazines on the library but thanks to you we will have more ideas now 😉
You inspired me to blog about my Summer List, so I included your Mom I’m Bored Jar at the bottom with a link back.
http://mommamindy.blogspot.com/2010/06/mom-im-b-o-r-e-d.html
Would love to have you stop by since you provided the inspiration!
love te idea printed it out now im on the hunt for the perfect jar!! thanks
This is great! Especially with the printable ideas! I am featuring this at somedaycrafts.blogspot.com.
LOVE this idea so much that I printed it up to send home with my Kindergarten students. I figure that their parents might be looking for some ideas of what to do very soon. 🙂
Love this, definitely going to have to do this! 🙂 Thanks for the great idea!
Oh such a cool idea 🙂
I keep a list of activities to do each week with my kids for when they seem to be entering into the cranky, unmotivated area.
http://bylittlehands.typepad.com/by_little_hands/2010/06/summer-plans.html.html
I love it!!