Discover the Boredom Jar For Kids

The boredom jar is an ideal technique to have activities on hand to entertain children when they feel bored. Do you want to know what it consists of? Keep reading!

Surely, more than one of you will remember when you were little and the afternoons when you were bored because you’d already played almost everything. Children often get bored because their attention span is limited. For this reason, we’re going to talk about the boredom jar to combat the moments when children get bored.

Although parents sometimes believe that boredom’s a bad thing, quite the opposite is true. In fact, it’s very positive for the psychological development of little ones and stimulates their creativity. Children need activities that motivate them. Otherwise, they’ll end up bored.

For boredom to be truly beneficial, it is important that they know how to manage it in a healthy way. That’s why the boredom jar can become our best ally. Do you want to know what it’s all about? Keep reading!

How to end listlessness with the boredom jar?

Sometimes, parents, in order to prevent their children from spending their afternoons bored, sign them up for workshops, extracurricular classes, academies, etc. But it’s not good for children to be over-stimulated either; they need to be bored. The mind develops imagination, creativity, helps us dig deeper into ideas, and resolves conflicts through boredom.

In addition, we also have to teach children to learn to manage their boredom without having to resort to screens through activities that are much more fun and beneficial for their development.

We can use the technique of the boredom jar and have it as a resource during those afternoons when we want our children not to be bored and develop their imagination with other activities.

How to make a boredom jar for children?

Let’s see what the boredom jar is about and how to make it. As its name says, it consists of a glass jar in which we’ll put many different papers with different activities to do when we’re bored.

You can take advantage of the moment of using it to spend some time with the family. Kids can decorate the jar however they like and, together, you’ll look for options of activities to do in those moments of boredom.

How do you make it?

• First, you’ll choose a glass jar. It can be one that you have at home, like a canning car, for example… Or you can buy a thicker one; it is up to each person’s preference. If you don’t have jars and you don’t want to spend money, you can use a box or any other container you have on hand.
• Then, you’ll ask your child to write some activity or craft that they’d like to do on each of the papers.
• Next, you’ll put all the papers with the different activities in the jar.
• When your child’s bored, you’ll draw a paper out of the boredom jar at random, and luck will decide what fun activity for them to do at that moment.

What fun activities can we put in the jar?

Perhaps the most difficult part of this technique is to choose activities, as we want them to be entertaining for your children. But, at the same time, we want them to promote some kind of learning, or to help them practice different skills.

Here are some examples of activities that you can include in your boredom jar. These are just ideas, so you can adapt them or find others that are more appropriate for your child.

Activities to put in the boredom jar

• Make a theater out of a cardboard box and puppets.
• Bake a cake, pie, or pizza.
• Organize a treasure hunt at home with clues.
• Make picture frames out of cardboard and decorate them.
• Paint with watercolors.
• Draw pictures for each family member.
• Play music that everyone likes and dance.
• Dress up and put on a play.
• Make an obstacle course in the hallway or in the garden, if available.
• Model figures with clay and then paint them.
• Make flowerpots with plastic jars and painted vegetables or pasta.
• Make a fort at home with sheets and pillows; if you have LED lights, you can put them inside.
• Color pictures or a coloring book.
• Make a calendar and decorate it with important dates.
• Build a house for dolls with the help of the parents.
• Make pinwheels with construction to put them in the flowerpots on the balcony or terrace.
• Read stories.
• Develop family photos and making a collage.

• Make little boats with half a walnut shell, toothpicks, and white paper.
• Make necklaces and bracelets out of macaroni and then paint them.
• Play a board game.
• Find stones and then paint and decorate them.
• Make shadow puppets on the wall, imitating animals.
• Make an autumn painting with leaves and sticks.

With the boredom jar, your kids are guaranteed to have fun!

Surely, the boredom jar can get you out of more than one tight spot when your child’s bored. These are just some of the activities you can include in it, but you can invent many others, adapt them to the age of your child, etc. The main thing is to look for alternatives for those moments of listlessness.

Now you just have to find the time to organize a family meeting and draw up the list of activities that you’ll include in your jar. So now it’s time to have fun making it and then have fun doing the different activities. Let’s get to work!