We all have days at home that are boring.  You can’t think of anything to do that’s fun and exciting.  You just feel like just hanging out in bed watching videos on your phone. After all, what else is there, right?  Wrong. You don’t have to fly across the country or spend lots of money to have a fun, interesting time.

No matter where you live, bored kids can enjoy creative fun activities that will also bring world of adventure into an otherwise boring day.  All you need to do is use your imagination.

Here are a few ideas. Once you start thinking about the world around your home, you’ll see other activities that you can do to have fun without spending any money. By the way, you still get to use your phone when doing these things.

1. Take something apart.

This is really cool, but you need a parent to help you. Ask for a broken machine. It can be a lawn mower or a tower computer or an old toy or bike. Then ask your parents for the tools you need. Before you start, go online and read about the safety steps you need to do the work. You might need eye protection or gloves. Then grab a screwdriver and get going!

You’ll see how gadgets do what they do. You’ll learn about the insides of machines and maybe even figure out what is wrong with them. This also a great way to learn how to use tools, something everyone needs to know. Taking something apart is perfect for when your parents are doing a task beside you.

2. Become an ornithologist.

That long word looks terribly scary, but it means that you study birds. This is so easy and doesn’t cost much. All you need is a book from the library on local birds and a pair of binoculars. You could even use your phone. Just take pictures of any birds you see then go online to find out what kind of birds they are.

Warning: bird watching can be surprisingly fun and lead to a life-long hobby, not just something to do when you are bored.

3. Custom Stickers

Who doesn’t love stickers?  Least of all kids!  Did you know that you can create your own custom stickers that can be put on just about any thing you can think of?  It’s a great way to express your individuality. Stickers can be put on skateboards, leather items, water bottles, binders, phone cases, makeup cases, helmets, pencil boxes, and even car windows.

First, make a list of images you would like to put on a sticker, such as cartoons, a school sports team, or a personal sketch drawing of your. Stickers can also be created to display meaningful quotes, either written by the you personally or by a famous person.

4. Create a Treasure Hunt!

You can go online and read about the different ways that you can arrange the hunt. The best way to get all your friends together and ask a parent to hide the treasure. It could be a batch of cookies or a gift certificate for a pizza or each child could bring one small toy to make up the treasure. Or you could be the treasure master, stashing the prize and making up clues that you hide in advance.

Clues could be something like “Look for the tree with the home-made swing,” or “Find the big grey rock and take three steps south.” Each clue leads to another clue and at the very end, the treasure. Maybe each of your friends could pick a day and hold their own treasure hunt. The hunts can be as long or as short as you want.  This is fun activity you could also do as a family together, outside or in the house.

5. Make a movie.

For this, call the friends who, like you, are bored. Get together and talk about what kind of movie you want to make. It could be a documentary, where your movie is about something real. It could be a drama, where you write a script and play pretend. Then start recording videos. You will need to learn how to write a script, how to talk clearly, how to question people and how movies really work.  Get inspired from watching family friendly movies, which is also another thing do to when you’re bored.

6. Color

It’s a lost art for many.  Coloring books.  That’s a funny little play on words since we are referring to the lost “art” being actual “art”.  Anyways, whether you use pencil crayons or wax crayons, it’s easy to find free coloring pages online of your favorite cartoons or drawings.  From animals to cars, princesses to superheros, sports themes to nature, what better way to spruce up your room’s decor with you very own artwork?

With coloring pages, you can also make a colorful wall montage.  Choose from all sorts of drawings and cover one of your bedroom walls with your own colorful creations. It will be like a wall mural but made up of individual pictures.

7. Have a Box Sculpture Contest!

This is easy.  Just ask your parents to get empty boxes from a grocery or chain store. Make sure you have a lot of them in a lot of different sizes. Then you need strong tape, glue and markers to decorate what you make. You could even decide on a theme, like box spaceships, box forts or box cars.  You can also get creative and spruce up your sculptures with items egg cartons, ribbons and show boxes.

There are so many things a kid can do when he or she is bored.  You just need a few ideas.  Creativity often works that way. Often, you first need to get the creative juices flowing and soon you’ll be coming up with ideas of your own.   Our activities list for bored kids came from brainstorming ideas.  It make be one of many art projects you’ve done in school, or new ideas you want to do at home.  Start by thinking about them.  Then perhaps share them with your friends and see what they think.

8. Build a bowling alley.

You need some outdoor chalk and a flat place—like your patio or driveway or the paved area around the school. With the chalk, draw the place where the “pins” will go, then outline a lane, with a line where you roll the ball. Get some empty plastic pop bottles and fill them about one-third full with water. Then get a ball—a baseball will do.

You will need to practice throwing the ball to make sure that the lane is the right length. The bottles may need more or less water. Play around with your bowling alley until the ball rolls right and the bottles are filled so that they need a good hit with the ball to tip over. Once you start building your bowling alley, you might be surprised by the people who stop to watch you and play.

9. Learn How to Fly a Kite!

Kites are relatively cheap to buy, but many kids prefer to learn about kites online and make their own. This activity requires you to follow the weather and look for good places to catch the wind, usually a park or a hill. This takes those reflexes that help you play video games and uses them in the real world. And it’s fun.

10. Put on a Kids Clothing Swap!

Ask your parents what they think about this. It would be a good way to clean out closets as well as encourage everyone to recycle. Just make sure that all clothes are clean and mended when they are brought to the swap.

How to Create Your Own Fun Activities

This list is just the beginning or all the fun things you could do when you are bored.  Pick out a couple and ask your parents if you need help to get the fun rolling.  Whenever your faced with boredom, try going for a walk in the fresh air and use your imagination.  You may just find that the adventure will never stop.  It may not feel like it right now, but there is so much fun waiting for you just around the corner.  Finally, when you’re bored out of you mind and don’t feel like putting much effort into anything at all, bring up this page of funny jokes for kids and tell them to your family members.

Did you know that all children are born with intrinsic attributes of a successful scientist? It is in their nature to experiment with new things, seek answers to endless questions, and they are always curious about everything within their sight. Young kids pick-up everything they find and show genuine interest in the world around them. That is basically what scientists do.

But what happens when they join the school to the extent that they lose their interest in science? The obvious guess would be that as they grow up, they stop seeing the world around them being as important as they initially thought. They go to school and hate everything about it, including the science tasks they so readily undertook as toddlers. Everything seems complicated, boring, and completely out of touch with their lives. If you remember correctly, at one point, you too probably thought that most science projects at school were unnecessarily tiresome.

Replacing Disinterest with a Love for Science

As a parent, what can you do to ensure that your kid doesn’t lose their interest in science even after joining the school? Simple answer: By creating a science-friendly home and encouraging kids to experiment, ask questions, and take part in all science programs in the community.

There are plenty more techniques that you can apply if you wish to inspire your own child to fall in love with science. If you are a parent that works and you find it difficult to manage their time, we believe that finding out where your time goes and how to manage it, will be beneficial to you and to your kids. However, here are 6 of those techniques:

1. Take them to science camps

 On top of providing your kid with hands-on learning opportunities, science camps bring together hundreds of young scientists who can influence your kid positively through one-on-one interactions. When kids come together to explore and analyze science, learning becomes fun. Science camps are easy to find within your locality but in case you have no idea where to begin, you can visit one of the universities in your hometown. Most science camp organizers liaise with local universities to run science programs.

2. Allow them room to explore

Many parents don’t warm up to this idea because of the mess kids make when they explore, but there isn’t any way around it if you want your kid to love science. Even the greatest scientists became who they are today through experimentation, sometimes through trial and error. Allow your kids to try things out on their own. If they want to observe a pool of water under the microscope, let them be. If they want to build something using dirt and water, the best thing to do is to dress them appropriately. Make it acceptable to get dirty in your household and while at it, buy them a science kit in order to make their work easier and more fun.

3. Allow them to play video games

Video games such as Minecraft will introduce the virtual world to kids and nurture their interest in the science of coding. Not all games will teach your kid the language of programming, but there are many that will. Help your child choose the right ones.  You may also want to check out these game applications that can help boost their mind.

Skills such as negotiating, customizing player qualities, and different game levels equip children with the needed skills for progression to higher levels. Such qualities come across as necessary in later life.  Therefore, video games come across as an excellent way of enhancing your child’s problem-solving skills.  The key to a healthy well rounded life is balance between work and play.  This includes a balance between computer play and physical play, developing both mind and body. 

4. Help them keep up with the latest discoveries

Kids are naturally eager to learn about how the earth came to be and how it operates. Topics such as Earth’s rotation and how day/nights came to being are very interesting for everybody. Now build on that interest by letting kids follow breaking news about major scientific breakthroughs. Now build on that interest by letting the kids follow breaking news about major scientific breakthroughs.

5. Go hiking

By walking through nature, you will be igniting curiosity in regard to the world around them. You will create a terrific environment for kids to bring up scientific questions on their own. For example, hiking can arouse curiosity about photosynthesis, how plants eat, breathe, and grow. Besides, you will be seeing lots of animal species, birds, and insects, all of which you can photograph and try to research their adaptations. Your kid will love doing that. He won’t even realize he is learning.

6. Quash science-related stereotypes

Many kids have the wrong impression of science, especially girls. Make it your job to demystify these stereotypes and change your kid’s attitude towards science. Explain to them that physics is as simple as building with blocks, or that chemistry is as basic as baking or doing laundry, or that the simple act of breathing and excretion is biology. The key here is to make children see that he/she uses science every second.

Conclusion

We cannot emphasize this enough: Learning, especially in science, is founded on curiosity. It is your job to create a climate for discovery for your kids. Don’t force kids to love science. Just answer their questions and stimulate curiosity. Teaching science in a fun way and making it something interesting a child can relate too is key.  Everything else will naturally fall into place. 

Stuttering is a socio communicational problem which is a common problem among adults and children. Undoubtedly, it has negative effects on individuals’ mental, social and emotional aspects. Its causes are often numerous but mainly they are precipitated by accidents or head injuries or are simply presented during childhood.

Due to its effect on social life, it is advisable to seek help and overcome the issue as its damages become more severe. Stuttering is very common in kids, but it is not entirely in-existent in adults. This involuntary fluency disorder is known to precipitate socio communication problems in toddlers. The question many people ask, however, is whether or not the disorder has an impact on the Quality of life (QOL) in adulthood. What is its effect on individuals’ mental and emotional health?

To answer this question, we must look at stuttering from a multidimensional perspective and we must look at different aspects of a stutterer’s life. Of course, there are tons of studies that try to investigate and estimate the impact of stuttering on QOL, but most of them have registered little to no success.

One thing is certain, though: Stuttering has a negative effect on most quality of life (QOL) dimensions in adults. It is important that additional research is done in order to get the exact extent of the negative impact for better treatment planning. This will also be instrumental in preventing any future mental, emotional, or social disorders that could stem from adult stuttering.

Causes of Stuttering In Adults

Understanding the causes of stuttering in adults is the key to understanding a stutterer’s quality of life. Some speech issues start in childhood while others are precipitated by head injuries after an accident or a prolonged illness. People who suffer from neurological diseases sometimes find trouble producing sound and developing speech. They often find themselves making a slurred speech or lacking the right words to form complete statements.

There are qualified speech and language pathologists who help such people to improve speech. You can sign up for speech therapy for adults, for example, to have a professional help you deal with language issues. Speech therapy for adults also applies to patients with cognitive difficulties, particularly short-term memory.

The Impact on Socio‐Emotional Development and Quality Of Life of Language Impairment

Adults with severe speech impairment tend to have a worse QOL compared to those that stutter just a little. Research shows that as an individual tries to regulate and manage his/her speech impairment, his/her quality of life improves.

People who struggle with speech and language problems right from childhood have a normal QOL. Studies show that such people get used to the life of stuttering, since they know no other life, so they don’t really care how others think of their stuttering. That is different from people who develop speech impairment in adulthood, say due to stroke or any other illness.

Poor social interaction skills sometimes precipitate shame, embarrassment, and frustrations. People with speech impairment are easily irritated and are more vulnerable to depression. Note that speech impairments can be very isolating, so you must do all you can to prevent that from happening.

Studies also indicate that many people who struggle with speech issues through school are affected negatively in their academic life. Without positive emotions towards their time in school, such kids have problems making friends and establishing healthy relationships with teachers. If not addressed early enough, this problem can adversely affect an individual’s later life, say in terms of limiting their career options.

Speech issues can also affect your ability to obtain work or to relate well with colleagues, bosses, and clients. That can reflect in a bad way your work performance, hampering your chances for promotion. The good thing is that with speech therapy for adults, you can successfully reverse the effect of speech impairment on your professional life.

Problems with stutter are problems that also impact the student’s academic and social life within the school premises. Especially for teenagers, such a problem may impact their social life considerably. Thus, it is very important for teachers to know how to behave in such cases and help the student overcome the challenges.

There are several steps that teacher can do to help students such as:

• Talk slow so that the student feels comfortable when he then speaks slow.
• Do not tell the student to relax or slow down.
• Convey to the student that you are listening to the content said rather than the way it was said.
• Look at them with interest when they are talking.
• Repeat and rephrase what the student said to let them know your understood what was said.
• Research new technology available for students who may need additional resources.

As well, if the student is already visiting a speech therapy specialist, the teacher must coordinate with the speech therapist and let him/her know where the student is struggling most, so that practices are made in that context. Provide the speech therapist with classroom materials so that they can use them as part of the practice sessions.

The speech therapist and teacher must also coordinate on the technique they want to follow to push the student because it would be confusing, ineffective and unsuccessful to use different approaches to push the children to talk normally.

Final Thoughts

It is advisable that you seek medical attention as soon as possible in case you experience a sudden onset of impaired speech as that could be a sign of an underlying health condition. As we have mentioned, impaired speech in adulthood is in most cases a product of illnesses such as stroke, or severe head injuries. These conditions can be life-threatening if not addressed early enough.

Explore the top benefits of speech therapy for kids.

Getting braces can be a huge deal for many teenagers. It can affect you both physically and emotionally. There is an adjustment period that you must ride through. There will be food restrictions and you may have some speech issues as your mouth adjusts to braces.

From your child’s first check up at the dentist to possible wisdom teeth removal at the dentist, proper oral care is a process through our entire lives.  One of those things that many children face is the need for braces.  Here are 7 tips for braces that will help you navigate this journey as a teenager.

Embrace the Braces

Braces are quite common amongst teenagers but that doesn’t mean you would necessarily feel comfortable with having them. The first step in coping with braces is to accept them whole-heartedly. If you look around, you will notice quite a few people who have braces. This should help you feel less conscious about them.

However, if you still feel embarrassed by your braces, draw attention away from your mouth. For example, skip the lip gloss that will draw attention to your teeth, get a new haircut, put on cool accessories, or go for trendy eyewear. 

Focus on the End Goal

Getting braces as a teenager can seem like the end of the world and cause anxiety. What can help is focusing on the end goal – which is to have straighter teeth and a better smile.

Ask your dentist for an approximate end date. If you know when the braces will come off, you will focus more on the end date than anything else. It will help you realize that braces won’t be on your teeth for as long as you would imagine.

Schedule Regular Dental Appointments

Regular appointments with the dentist will help in tackling various issues that you might have.

Your braces can make you prone to plaque and tartar accumulation between your teeth. You may need dental cleaning to clear them off. Regular dental appointments will help in keeping your teeth clean and tackle issues like tooth sensitivity, bad breath, or cavities.

Consider Painkillers

Over-the-counter medication helps in relieving some pain. Ask your dentist to prescribe you some if necessary. However, keep the use of painkillers to a minimum. Take them only when the pain becomes unbearable.

Follow the directions for the painkiller you are taking. If you rely heavily on painkillers, there will be side-effects. Take the dosage as per your age and weight.  

If your dentist appointments are painful, you can take one painkiller before your appointment. Inform your doctor about the same.

Apply Dental Wax

The brackets of the braces can rub against your lips or cheeks. This can be quite irritating and painful.

To avoid this from happening, use dental wax to create a barrier between your braces, and lips and cheeks.

Roll a small piece of wax to make a small ball. Cover the area that is irritating your mouth by flattening the wax over the metal. Even if it comes off and you swallow it by mistake, don’t worry as it is non-toxic.

Request for Invisalign

If braces are an option that you just do not want to consider, ask your parents if you can opt for Invisalign.

They are much less noticeable than metal braces but equally effective. Due to their transparency, Invisalign is becoming a popular choice amongst teens.

Check with an orthodontist if you are the right candidate for Invisalign. You may need some adjustment before they are fitted.

Understand What to Avoid Eating

There are certain foods that you should absolutely avoid when you have metal braces. Sticky foods and hard, crunchy foods top that list.

Sticky foods like gummy bears, caramel, licorice, and chewing gums are an absolute no-no as they can get stuck between the brackets. Taking them off would almost be impossible.

Hard foods such as nuts, apples, corn on the cob, and candy must also be avoided. The hard foods can bend the braces wire, break a bracket or even pop it off. Moreover, hard foods will make your mouth sore.

Maintain Oral Hygiene

The final and most important things to do is maintain good oral hygiene. This will help in preventing dental issues like cavities and tooth decay. Brush and floss after every meal. This will wash away the debris and prevent bad breath too.

Well, now you know how to prepare for braces. Just follow these tips and the braces will come off before you know it.

Author Bio:

Emily Taylor found the perfect fit for herself as the Online Marketing Manager at Thurman Orthodontics in Fresno CA as she believes that a great smile does more than just make a person look great – it makes them feel great as well. The power of a smile has always been a mystery to Emily, and she loves researching and writing about it. She writes about everything to do with a healthy bite and a beautiful smile – whether is it ways to achieve it or the importance of it in the various aspects of life. What brings a big smile on Emily’s face is her family and surfing. She also likes to bake, and her children and co-workers call her the cookie fairy!