Fighting the "I'm Bored" Syndrome

Summer is officially here. Yesterday was June 21st. June 21st was the official date of this year's summer solstice. Therefore, by definition, June 21st was officially the "longest day of the year."

Some of us felt it.

Summer can be a doozy. Don't get me wrong. Summer is a ton of fun and we are soaking up every minute of it here at the Teach and Tickle house, but summer has a tendency to run amuck if we don't keep it in check. When the temperature reaches into the 90s or even (gulp) the 100s here in Oklahoma, we tend to want to do one of two things: 1) spend the entire day at the pool OR 2) spend the entire day indoors (with the air conditioner cranked up!) While both of those things sound like great fun, too much of either one of those can result in...well, let's just say... NOT so great fun. (Just imagine two tired, sunburned, whiny children laying on the floor of our living room speaking those famous words "I'm bored" and you'll have a picture of what I would very much like to avoid this summer.)

So. In order to combat the "I'm bored" syndrome, I tried a few new things this summer. I've instituted a chore chart for the kids. (I know. I should have started it long ago. Better late than never, right?) I've also created A to Z notebooks for the kids. We are working our way through the alphabet and all the kid's toys. For example, "A" day, we played with "A" toys (Astronauts, Airplanes and Army guys). Then we used the notebooks to draw pictures and practice writing "A" words. "B" day we played with Barbies and Bakugan. "C" day we played Candyland and got out all our cars. (You get the idea.) Each day, the kids use the notebooks to color or write about the toys of the day. We don't do it every day, but every once in a while it provides something for us to do.

Computer games have also helped combat the "I'm bored" syndrome this summer. As Jonah has gotten older, he has grown more and more attracted to electronic things. He often asks questions like "Can I watch T.V.?" "Can I play on your iPhone?" "Can I play on the computer?" One day when my answer to each of these questions was "no," he responded with "Please just let me do something electronical!" Cute. That kind of tickled me.

We have, however, found a few sites online that provide not only great fun for the kids, but also some pretty great educational material. One of those sites happens to be Jumpstart.

Jumpstart has been around for a while creating educational software for children. They now have a website that provides all kinds of fun for kids ages 3-10 in a virtual 3D world. Let me just say this - it rocks. After Jonah's second time to play on the site, I asked him what he thought of it. He said, "It's awesome! I love it! It has jet packs!" According to him, jet packs = awesome. He is his father's son. That tickles. But the teaching part of Jumpstart is what excites me. (See how I worked "Teach" and "Tickle" into those last two sentences? I love it.) The kids can create "jumpees" (avatars) to look like themselves and then wander through the exciting 3D adventure land. They can play games that encourage math, letter recognition, reading and of course, the very rudimentary skill of operating a jet pack.

I have created a link to Jumpstart on my sidebar. Feel free to jump over there and check it out. Anyone can register and play for free. Memberships are also available. The memberships have a cost, but they offer even more games, special features and even downloadables.

The kind people at Jumpstart have offered to give away one of these memberships to one lucky reader of this post. If you are interested in a FREE three month membership to Jumpstart, just leave a comment below and I will let random.org pick a winner on Friday, June 26th.

UPDATE: The winner was comment number 6 - Congrats April!

A chore chart, A to Z notebooks and Jumpstart - these are a few ideas that work for me. For more ideas from other moms on things that work for them, visit Works for Me Wednesday HERE.