I know I’m not the only parent who hears, “I’m bored,” on a regular basis, especially during the summer. While being bored is a good thing, and I think it’s a skill kids need to learn, making a bored jar is a fun way to give kids a bit of autonomy and help with solving their boredom.
We’ve included two pages with bored jar ideas along with a page that’s a blank template so you can customize it for your child or make it specific to their age and interests. You could have them help make a list of ideas to include too! This download including 30+ ideas plus blank cards is a great way to kick off your boredom jar project!
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What Is a Boredom Jar?
A boredom jar is simply a jar filled with ideas to combat boredom. Creating a bored jar is a fun tech and screen free activity. You can always add in a card about watching a show or include game time but boredom is a good thing for kids to learn and this makes a game out of finding things to do next!
How to Make a Boredom Jar
To use our printable, print either the idea template or the blank page and fill it out. Cut out the cards, fold up and add to a jar. You can set your own rules on how to play, including whether you can put a card back and draw again, or how many you can do in a day!
Printable Boredom Jar Activities
Want to brainstorm a bit more? Here are some of our favorite ideas split apart by age. Keep in mind you’ll need to help toddler and pre-schoolers read the cards and decide what activities to include.
Toddler Ideas
- Read a book together
- Go on a walk
- Make a blanket fort
- Play with a sensory bin
- water table play
- Play peek-a-boo
Preschool Ideas
- Go on an outdoor scavenger hunt
- Build with blocks
- Dance party
- color a picture of your family
- Play hopscotch
- Play hide and seek
- Read a book together
- Play a board game or charades
Elementary School Ideas
- Make rubber bracelets
- play tag
- Make some snow slime or sand slime (supervised)
- Play charades
- Create a story or comic book strip
- Make a scavenger hunt or go on an outdoor scavenger hunt
- Try a skittles science experiment
- Milk painting
- Read for 10 minutes
Tweens and Preteen Ideas
- Make an origami box or learn an origami butterfly
- Create a puppet show
- Make a lemonade stand
- Read for 20-30 minutes
- Make rubberband bracelets
- Invent a board game then play it
Boredom Jar Printables
This boredom jar printable set includes 2 pages pre-populated that you can print, cut out and add to your boredom jar. It also includes one page of blank cards you can print and fill in.
