Lynn Gordon - 52 Boredom Busters for Kids

Materials: Sidewalk chalk or masking tape; Small rock or beanbag for hopscotch marker.

Gather friends and siblings for a more challenging version of your favorite game.

1. Add some new colors to the classic game of Red Light, Green Light: red means stop, green means go, black means one step backward, orange means turn around and walk backward, purple means spin around and run.
2. Make a hopscotch board with sidewalk chalk outside or with masking tape inside. Try jumping with your eyes closed or making a new hopscotch pattern.
3. Play tag, but anyone touching wood is safe. Or try creating smaller boundaries, such as one room of a house or a smaller area of a yard or park.

Materials: Tomato sauce, cheese, pepperoni, olives, peppers, and other toppings; Flour tortilla; Cheese grater; Pan; Oven or toaster oven; Hot pad

Check with an adult before using the oven or toaster oven.

1. Spread the sauce on top of the tortilla. Pizza sauce, ketchup, spaghetti sauce, and tomato sauce all work well.
2. Shred the cheese with a cheese grater. Add the toppings. Try using more than just pepperoni and cheese.
3. Place on a pan. If using an oven, turn it on broil and broil pizza until cheese is melted, about 5-8 minutes. In a toaster oven, toast pizza on the medium-darkness setting until cheese is melted.
4. Carefully remove pizza from the oven with a hot pad.

Materials: Empty plastic bottles or milk jugs; Paper-towel tubes; Medium rubber ball; Yardsticks or long cardboard tubes

Instead of just recycling that empty soda bottle, collect a few to reuse for a bowling set.

1. Gather ten empty plastic bottles and wash them out well. Alternately, use ten paper-towel tubes. For an outdoor set, fill the bottles with water and replace the tops.
2. Set them up in a bowling pin formation and roll the ball at the pins. Try a variety of formations for different bowling games, such as setting the pins up in letter or number shapes.
3. Try creating a bowling lane using yardsticks or longer cardboard tubes, such as wrapping-paper or mailing tubes.

Materials: Markers, crayons, or colored pencils; Card stock or thick paper for menu; Scissors; Old magazines/newspaper ads; Glue; Notebook or notepad; Ingredients for your final menu selections; Tray

Make your own restaurant by creating a menu of food to offer. Prepare a special menu for a birthday or other celebration.

1. Create a menu of easy-to-prepare foods, such as peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwiches, applesauce, yogurt, fruit, and cheese. Write the names of the foods, draw pictures, or find pictures from magazines or newspaper ads and glue them to the paper.
2. Take orders from your family or friends, writing down the orders in a small notebook.
3. Use a tray to carry the food to the table, one item at a time.

Materials: Empty ice-cube tray; Edible liquids; Freezer; Small pieces of fruit

When water freezes, it makes ice. What happens when other liquids freeze? Make a variety of ice cubes and find out.

1. Fill the ice-cube tray with a variety of safe-to-drink liquids. Choose fruit juice, milk, water, or any others you can find. Carefully put the tray in the freezer and freeze the liquid until solid, at least 2 hours.
2. When the cubes are frozen, remove them from the ice-cube trays. How do they compare to a standard ice cube? Try them in your favorite drinks.
3. For another fun activity, freeze small pieces of fruit, such as berries, in water to make ice cubes to add to juice or water.

Materials: Small objects to blow; Masking tape; Straws

This game combines a science experiment and a competition into one. Gather a variety of small objects to test, such as cotton balls, small toy cars, raisins, crumpled paper, small blocks, and paper clips. Be sure to have at least one item for every person playing. Make start and finish lines with masking tape on a countertop or table. Place the items on the start line and begin blowing on go, aiming for the finish line. The first item across the finish line wins. Try the race again, but this time use a straw to blow. Pay attention to which items are harder to move by blowing with your mouth. Do any of them get easier when using the straw? The person who wins the most races is the winner.