Summer Boredom Busters

With the kids going back to school soon

we won't have to rely on these as much anymore

but I thought I'd list some of the things we do

to keep boredom at bay

during the summer months

Now, granted, my kids are far apart in age

so I had to come up with some things

suitable for an 8 year old and a 13 year old

Here are our top picks:

*Outdoor Fun-Watergun Fights

The boys get their water guns and try to kill "the alien" (me) while I try to shoot at them with the hose's super duper nozzle!! They hide behind boxes, trees, the porch. I have to hit them first before they hit me. The catch, I can't move from my spot!!

If I do hit one of them, they have to stand in that spot until the next round and be the alien!

*Board game week-pick and play a different board game every night of the week

Monopoly games last all week!! We love Monopoly, Scrabble, Pictureka,

*Learn new card games

This one is lots of fun as I teach my boys to play the same card games my grandma and grandpa taught me. One of them is like dominoes and another one is called "Loteria". (word of caution, this game has a mermaid on the cards that is topless. So what I did is I drew a bikini top on each and every card to cover her..ahem..shells) This one is like Bingo except with Cards. It is loads of fun as the kids read the back of the card in Spanish!

*Learn to speak Spanish-I teach my boys three new phrases each day (the aforementioned game "Loteria" helps a lot!!

We've been doing this since last year and the little guy is REALLY starting to pick it up!

I do this by letting them watch some funny Spanish shows on youtube or TV.

Our favorite family show is one I watched as a child called "El Chavo"

It's about a homeless little boy (really all adult actors "acting" as children) and his adventures in his "vecindad" or neighborhood. It is very funny. Look for it on youtube!

*Make a different snack every night

This one was especially fun! We took apples and other good stuff we like and embellished them

to make them yummier. You can read about the candy apples HERE

Another favorite is licuado de platano.

Or Mexican Banana Shake. You can read about it HERE

Basically you take a fruit and try to come up with yummy and inventive ways of eating it!

*Another one is LEGO challenge night! (notice all these are night? I work a full time job so the kids are with my daughter and/or dad during the day)

We come up with a theme--such as cityscape

and we all try to make a cityscape out of legos, wood blocks, whatever we have! We oooh and ahhh and the kids come up with a name for their city, who would live there, the currency they'd use, etc. You'd be surprised at the conversations that result because of this!!

That is what I call fun! You can take all these and incorporate them to one of each per night! You'll never get bored. We also like movie night, where we pick out a good family FOREIGN movie to watch on Netflix and discuss afterwards.

Again, these are geared towards older kids. I often see cute things to do with the littler ones but I needed stuff to do with my boys. Hence, my list.

Hope you can incorporate some of our family's ideas into yours!

Enjoy what's left of Summer.

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