What to Do when Summer Becomes a Bore

You may think that you will never have to worry about what to do when summer becomes a bore. Really can kids get tired of sleeping in, watching their favorite movies, going swimming or spending time with friends at the local recreation field? The answer is quite definitely yes. It happens every year at different times for different families, but yes it can and often will happen.

A suggestion that may help to get you through a time when summer seems to become a bore is to organize a kind of calendar switch. After all, if the problem seems to be that your kids (and maybe you too) have become tired of one season, why not sample another.

Start by handing your children 9 pieces of paper, one for each month of the year that is not in the summer - every month besides June, July, and August. Let your kids work together or separately filling in on each page the activities that they most enjoy during each particular month. Tell them to remember what holidays or other special days occur in the month as well as the things they best like to do.

Next collect up the pages and fold them multiple times so that the interior of the page is no longer visible. Place all the ffolded papers into a box or a top hat should you happen to have one. Ask for a volunteer or randomly select one of the kids to draw out a folded page from the hat. And then let the fun begin.

For the rest of the day you will try to act as if you are living in a the month you have just selected. The possibilities are tremendous and will of course be different depending on the month you choose. But suppose for example that you choose the month of January, what kinds of things might you do? How about putting together a whole new list of New Year's Resolutions or having a New Years Day Party. If it supposed to be January, how about digging out the skates or renting some at a nearby ice skating arena.

Yes they really are open in summer. There are birthdays to celebrate too, starting with Martin Luther King, Jr. but why not take a little time and see what other historical figures should also be honored while you are celebrating, again, the month of January. You will start to see the cobwebs dropping off the minds of everyone in the family as they search for fun things to do consistent with the new month they are pretending to occupy.

Or what if the hand that goes into the hat draws out October. What fun it can be in the middle of summer to suppose that it is time to go trick or treating again. Spend the day putting together great costumes, cooking up some Halloween cookies or even offering a few neighbor friends a spontaneous costume party with traditional Halloween games like bobbing for apples, kind of a fun thing to do in the middle of summer, don't you think ?

The best thing about this calendar switch is that it doesn't have to be a once in the summer opportunity. You have a bag with 8 more options for blowing off the boredom that can sometimes beset even the happiest of summer vacations.