Keep Kids from Getting Bored During Christmas Break

Christmas vacation is getting under way across America and many kids will at home. If you are unfortunate (or fortunate!) enough to have a big snowstorm hit, they may be stuck in the house running out of things to do. Within a few days you will mostly like hear the inevitable, "Mommy, I'm bored, there nothing to do around here." And you will find your kid sacked out in front of the TV or computer playing video games all day.

Arguably, kids have become more sedentary in recent years. The CDC recently performed a study and found that 16 percent of America children can be classified as obese. They also found that this number has tripled in value since 1980. Kids a becoming fat and lazy. You want to get them off of the couch and get them moving. Having them playing Wii Fit all day is great, but it really will not help. If they hang around the house eating holiday sweets, cookies and candies, there is a good chance your kid could put on another couple of pounds and continue to pile on the CDC's statistics.

So here is a tip or two to get them off the couch and moving. These will likely get you moving too!

One obvious tip is to tell them to clean their room. But kids hate cleaning their room! Many children think this is the worst chore in the world, right up there with dusting or washing dishes.

You can provide a little incentive to clean their room. You can alway pay them, but this is not needed as there are other ways to get children motivated. Kids like things that are new and interesting. So, instead of just telling them to clean their room, tell them to come up with a new design for the furniture layout in their room. Tell them they can totally re-design there room, moving the bed, dresser, and toy box to there liking. If your kids are smaller, then they may need help.

Perhaps they may want to go all out and do a little painting. Instead of painting the walls you can scale down the project by using cork bulletin boards. Buy some cork bulletin boards, paint the background all white. Then let your kids place a nice design on the board. Then you can hang it without actually painting the walls of the room. A new lamp or reading light are always a hit for kids as well, and usually are not too expensive. With a little creativity, they just may end up with the coolest room in the neighborhood.

In the colder northern climates, a popular activity for kids is do go out and earn money clearing your neighbors driveway of snow. Or, perhaps there are some elderly in your area that they can help. Shoveling snow can be physically challenging, and if your kid is not in good shape, they may need some parental guidance and help. In addition, make sure they help people that you are familiar with. You never know what can happen these days. With the money that they earn, you can teach the the gift of giving by purchasing a gift or two to donate to children at a local shelter.

Also, if you are lucky enough to have fresh snow on the ground, get out to build a snowman together!