Boredom Buster!

UPDATE/MORE IDEAS!

While doing my blog surfing I came across Skip To My Lou with a similar idea to my Boredom Buster!  Some of you have asked for the items I put in my canister, I didn't have a list to share (I totally winged it!) but there is a list here!  Go check it out!

"Mom, I'm bored."

Sound familiar?

Way too much 'boredom' going on around here!  And with summer here (we still have a month of school left because we are year round ) I knew I needed a solution to beat the boredom.

A couple of weeks ago I made no bake cookies (yum!) and used up the last of a canister of oatmeal.  Now, being the person I am, I couldn't throw it away!  My hubby looked at me like I was a nut-so, but what's new? :)

Then came my idea!

I covered my oatmeal canister with fun paper, typed up a label, and girlied it up with a flower and ribbon.

 

What will it hold? 

I have a whole stash of tags from scrapbooking; I wrote ideas of things to do on them.  Some are fun ex. 15 min. of Computer time, Paint a picture.  Some are not as much 'fun' ex. Read a Book, Write a letter to send to someone.  Some are Chores ex. Empty the Dishwasher, Fold Laundry.

The tags go into the canister and the girls are allowed to draw an idea out whenever they are 'bored'.  One more thing - if they draw it out, they HAVE to do it!  It makes it more interesting! :)

So that they can't cheat and see what they will pull out I made a lid with foam.

I took my exacto knife and cut right around the plastic seal of the lid (bye bye Mr Quaker Oats!)  I traced the lid on some fun foam I had.  Then I made a whole in the center and cut a slit 'star'.  Then I hot glued the foam into the plastic lid ring.

Do you get it?  My girls can put their hand in and pull out a tag and not see what they are getting!  It actually works fabulous!!!!  (Gotta love it when it works as well as you hoped it would!)

I did hot glue the lid on, but it isn't a completely tight seal.  If I need it to come off it will easily peal off.

It has worked out great so far!  The girls don't want to complain about being bored as much!  And when they have been bugging me about it, I have gotten dishes cleaned and laundry done!  It's a win win situation! :)

What have you tried to keep kids from being 'bored'?  I would love some more ideas!  The novelty of this will wear off soon, I am sure!

Linking Up With These Great Parties!