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Holiday Boredom Busters Ideas – Creatives
By Chan Hoi Ki on 27/05/2022
Finally, school’s out! The June school holidays are here and there’s never a more opportune time than before to unwind, relax, get out there as a family or even travel overseas now that most travel restrictions have been lifted.
One thing that parents fear during this break period is having to listen to their children complain endlessly about how bored they are.
Fret not! Here are some holiday boredom buster ideas to help you and your kids tide through any form of boredom – it all starts with a plan!
You may start by drawing up a plan called “Boredom buster planner”. A sample boredom buster planner will look something like this:
In a nutshell, it spells out the daily planned activities for the week, including several categories of activities on the side eg. crafting, reading, outdoor activities, family activities, school work. Weekends can mostly be saved for outdoor family outings, whilst most of the creative indoor activities & school work can be aimed to be completed during the weekdays.
Creative Indoor Activities
Being creative can be a really broad category. This includes but not limited to: baking, art & crafts and even cooking!
- Homemade Playdough
(Source: thebestideasforkids) 
(Source: divascancook)
There are several recipes for homemade playdough out on the internet like in the above source links. It is a no-cook recipe and can be stored for months in a zip lock bag. Textures are soft and easy to work with. Colours can be added via food colouring to look attractive and for role-play. The recipe calls for food ingredients, therefore it will be non-toxic for the child if there is some form of accidental consumption. As pre-school kids & toddlers thrive on sensory play, this is perfect to keep them busy.
- Homemade Lemonade
This is the well-known refreshing drink ideal for the hot weather that is to come. Lemonade only calls for 3 ingredients – lemons, water & sugar. Kids can assist in the squeezing of lemons, pouring & mixing. Afterwhich, the drinks can be decorated in pretty cups, mint leaves, rose petals and cute straws before enjoying this delicious refreshing drink! Lemonade can be stored in the fridge for up to 5 days.
- Making sponge bombs
This easy crafting guide linked above takes just a few minutes to do with only 2 materials! Mix up differently coloured sponges to create a rainbow colourful sponge bomb. You can get creative in the type of activity with these sponge bombs – one way is to create a mini competition to toss soaked sponge bombs into a bucket a distance away. The one who gets the most sponge bombs to land in their bucket wins! Of course, you’ll get wet – so this is best played outdoors. Alternatively, you can involve your kids in your next car-washing chore using these sponge bombs.
- DIY Pet Pals
With little materials and a wide imagination, your kids can craft up their own animals with this easy to follow tutorial linked above. The guide attaches a printable for the animal heads and its accompanying accessories, but your kids can also create, draw, colour and cut out their own designs as well! These colourful critters are easy to play with, pose and roleplay.
- Sewing cards
(Source: auntannie) 
(Source: childhood101)
Using a blunt-end yarn needle, yarn and a graphic/pattern, the edges are hole-punched and the kid will thread the yarn through each holes tracing the outline with yarn embellishments. You can use pre-made patterns available online or your child can simply draw, colour and cut out their own masterpiece done on card paper. Alternatively, you can reuse old greeting cards like birthdays/Christmas and cut out the cute graphics on it. To assist your child in sewing, you can tape one end of the yarn to the back of the card. Teach them how to perform a running stitch – threading over and under whilst pulling the yarn taut. This helps develop their fine motor skills with hand-eye coordination.
In my subsequent blog posts in relation to the holiday boredom busters – I’ll be back to suggest more ideas on other categories such as outdoors, quiet time/reading, family outings etc.
Featured image source: Fiona Dalton / Flickr
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