Boredom Buster Jar for Kids (GREAT for Cold Days!)

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If your kiddos are looking for something to break up a cold or rainy day, check out these Boredom Buster Jars. They're easy to make and fun too!

How to Make a Boredom Jar for Kids

These Boredom Buster jars are a great way to keep kids entertained over school breaks (spring break will be here before we know it!), snow days, or anytime you are tired of hearing the phrase “Mom, I'm bored.” They're easy to make, and use supplies you might already have on hand. Here's how to make them:

What is a boredom jar?

A boredom buster jar is a list of activities that your kids can pull from when they're not sure what to do with their time or you want to avoid screen time. Each jar has a theme: learn, help, explore, bored.

Supplies needed:

To make four boredom buster jars, you will need:

• Four clean, empty jars (you can pick these up at the Dollar Tree or Walmart)
• Large popsicle sticks
• Scrapbook paper or label paper
• Acrylic paint in four separate colors
• Paintbrush and Sharpie marker
• Tape

How to make this boredom buster jar:

1. Start by painting your popsicle sticks with the different color paint. I would do 5-10 sticks per color.
2. While the sticks dry, label your jars. You can either print labels or write on paper and tape the label around the jar.
3. Once the sticks are dry, you can write a themed activity on each stick.

Using boredom buster jars:

To break up the day and bring some organization to the jars, I chose four different themes.

Help Jar: This jar contains age-appropriate chores for your kids to complete. Some ideas might be: vacuum, make bed, take out the garbage, dust, empty the dishwasher, tidy up their bedroom or playroom, sweep the kitchen, wipe the bathroom sinks.

Learn: This jar contains activities that use your kids' brain power while still being more fun than homework. Some ideas: play a math game, learning app, learn to knit, draw a butterfly, learn to bake cookies, research a topic, get a home-lesson from a parent.

Explore: This jar contains out of the house activities (that might require a little planning on your part and are great for school breaks) that help your kids experience new or unique things. Some ideas might be: farmers market, camping, go to the zoo, go to the beach, hiking, trip to the museum, road trip.

Bored: This jar contains a variety of fun activities. These might be: create art, read a book, plant flowers, build legos, make a scavenger hunt, create a fort, play a board game, play outside.

Depending on your kids and the day, you can use boredom buster jars in a variety of ways. Maybe they have to choose one stick from each jar and do that activity before they get screen time for the day. Or, you can have them pull a chore to complete. You could wait until someone is feeling bored and have them pick at random for a burst of fun – there are lots of different options.

Need more ideas to help keep kids active?  Here are some fun activities to try! 

• DIY Lego Table
• Homemade Sidewalk Chalk Paint
• Orange Bird Feeder
• Valentine's Day Scavenger Hunt for Kids