When you were a child, what did you do when you were bored?
And what have you become today?
My husband explored and got into trouble. I lay in bed and dreamed up imaginative worlds.
We are big believers of boredom – and we want our kids to get bored, feel bored and experience the frustration associated with it. Have you read this article that correlates boredom with creative thought? We want our children to be forced into solitude and edged into a mode of discovery.
When we first started, it was hard. It was hard for me too, by the way, to NOT structure and plan something for them to do.
So Ben comes and says, “I’m so bored, can I watch TV?”
Becks says, “It’s so boring I don’t know what to do.”
Nat says, “So boring. I want you come be with me.”
And I would say, “Go and find something.”
And after many rounds of being acquainted with boredom, my children have…
Found the guts to leave the confines of our house to peek at what the neighbours are doing. At one point, they even go around to greet them. Now, Ben is offering our neighbour, Aunty R, to throw her trash for 20 cents a day.
They also invented Running Man games…
Built…
And built…
And built some more…
And drew…
And made many somethings out of nothing – all because they were bored.
They learned how to handle boredom and find something to do and exercise that little muscle I call the little creativity joint.
2 Comments
I love this! Especially the throwing trash part. And I love your Lego collection too!
Bumble Bee Mum, thanks! Throwing trash is my son’s “burden” every day which earns him 20 cents!