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!
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About Steph from Somewhat Simple
This is a great idea!
Love it!!
This is a fantastic idea! Loooooooove it and I'm so gonna copy it!! LOL. Thanks for providing the downloads! What a treat!
One of my kids is done with school as of last friday, and another will be done at the end of this week. This idea jar could not have been posted at a better time! Thanks!!!
I've been meaning to make such a jar. Thanks for showing how you made yours so colorful! I already have a list of ideas I came up with last year, "69 Ways to Get Outside and Play." You can google it if you want more ideas. =)
Beautiful jar and awesome idea!! Thank you!!
Love this idea! We have banned the "b" word in our house.
Great idea! I'm sure this time of year lots of moms will be hearing those exact words
)
I came here via Met Monday. Hope you can visit me sometimes over at Pittypat Paperie.
Great idea! I have been hearing I'm bored since they walked out of school last Tuesday. I wish the weather was better, it would make it a lot easier. Thanks for sharing your idea.
Have a great week.
Jessica
Very clever!
super love & utilizing!!
Loved this idea so much I put this link in a blog post. Thanks for sharing!
Loved this idea so much I put this link in a blog post. Thanks for sharing!
I made a summer fun jar with activities for us to do this summer. I never thought to make a I'm bored jar with some chores in it. Our girls are still pretty young, but I'm going to keep this in mind for future summers!
Cute idea! Going to send it along to my sister who has four kids!
very creative!! love your work
WOW! I love this! and I am going to let my girls make it…
Thank you for the tip…
Becci
http://www.Something2BragAbout.com
I love this idea and am totally going to do this!!!!! So glad to have stumbled upon your blog!
Jen
What a great idea! I may be copying this!
cool idea! Happy Transformation Thursday <3
I'm visiting from Jen's site…great idea. I am so doing that tomorrow!!
hey I saw your idea on that the tatertots and jello blog (i think) and I made one today! I hope you don't mind I put a link on my blog to yours. Thanks for the idea. Blogland is a wonderful place.
hey I saw your idea on that the tatertots and jello blog (i think) and I made one today! I hope you don't mind I put a link on my blog to yours. Thanks for the idea. Blogland is a wonderful place.
This is s asuper cute idea! I wonder if it would work for my husband =) Love the concept. Thanks so much for joining the Sunday Showcase Party! I greatly apprecite it. Hope you are enjoying your week. ~ Stephanie Lynn
I'm just now coming back to this post to actually copy your ideas and try this idea out for the summer. Thanks for the great lists! I really enjoy your blog- your simple, thoughtful ideas really fit real life!
This is gold. Thanks for sharing! Holidays start in 2 days!!!
loved reading this, it reminded me of my childhood. My mother made a bored box for me, and before we complained we had to choose 3 from the box and try them.
LOVE IT! I will sooo be using this idea!
We did a picture printout of each of the kids toys & they draw one when they’re totally bored & then go play w/that toy. Somehow it makes it more exciting. Your idea is GREAT & we’ll certainly use it this summer. Thanks for sharing!
I wanted to thank you for this idea. I was so happy when someone pointed me to your blog. I just made a boredom box and blogged about it here…
http://amkreations.blogspot.com/2011/06/boredom-box.html
Thank you again! =)
This is great! I’m adding chores to the activities too!!!
I think this is very clever. I giggled when you gave the dusting solution – my mom would totally have done that! My daughter is too young for this now, but I’ll certainly do this when she’s older.
I did a similar thing when my hubby and I were dating. I made slips with little things we could do on the cheap, decorated a recycled jar and gave it to him for a gift. He still has that jar on his desk 6 years later. Really cute idea. Thanks for sharing.
That is such a cute idea! I am always looking for ideas for me and my husband to do!
Steph – if you’re interested you can email me stacy{at}slmpetersen{dot}com and I’d be happy to send you the doc I created for the slips.
I would like a copy of that cheap dates list… It sounds great.
Love your ideas and lists for this. Just blogged about an “I’m bored” jar on our blog. Linked your project on the post. Check it out:
http://sistersplayinghouse.blogspot.com/2011/10/im-bored-mom_24.html