Bored? Are you sure? (Mwahahaha)

So, I don't know about your children, lovely readers, but my children seem to start up the "I'm bored" chant, almost as soon as they walk out of the school gate on the last day of term.

It could kinda drive a mum a little batty, right?
Bored? Really? So, that room full of toys - useless? That bike? The humungous backyard with adventures awaiting? Apparently there is still  N O T H I N G  T O  D O :-P

So, I made up a little jar full of things for them to do....(this is where the mwahahaha comes in)

Now, it's full of a combination of family chores/helping out, projects and maybe a couple of fun things but mostly things that are helpful.

The lesson was to hopefully make them stop and think before bellowing out those ever-annoying chants of "I'm bored" and if I had a jar full of fun things to do, they would think it was fabulous, and would chant away.

No, definitely not what I was after. What I do want is for my children to be able to entertain themselves most of the time (well, the oldest two who are 6 and 8 - I'll give the 2 year old a couple more years ;-)) and to think about things before complaining, and to be proactive in fixing the situation...possibly even a bit of a life lesson.

So I filled the jar with things such as :
* Tidy your room (this is one of their jobs, but they tend to put it off but then again, what children don't?) (oh and to increase the odds of their picking this one, it may be written out maybe 4 times among about 25 things :-P)
* Unload the dishwasher
* Ride your bike
* Do a 2 page project on your favourite animal
* Put away all the toys in the living area
* Read a chapter from a novel
* Rake the driveway
* Do 10 laps up and down the stairs
* Draw something
* Play/Build blocks with Levi

And a few more things.

Funnily enough, after the first round for both of them, they seem to have kept themselves busy enough this school holidays.

That equals success! (I think)

How do you deal with 'I'm bored'? Would love to hear any other ideas.

xxx