Things to do with the kids to help stop boredom!!

Kids bored? Uninspired about what to do with them?
Try our mostly FREE selection of fun activities
to do with your kids whatever the weather.

Make a jigsaw
Stick a picture or poster onto some card. Cut into pieces and you've made a new jigsaw puzzle.

Make a paper plate mask
Cut out some eyes, a nose and a mouth and decorate with glitter, coloured tissue paper and pipe cleaners. Use thin elastic to secure the mask; make a small hole either side of the face and thread elastic through.

Put on a play
Using your new masks, you could stage a play.

Make a magic picture
Draw a picture with a white wax crayon then paint over it. Use this method to create secret messages.

Do a collage
Using lace, feathers, ribbon, sweet papers and sequins make a collage using a scene from a favourite story.

Make shakers
Use yoghurt pots or plastic herb containers to make your own shakers. Fill these with rice, seeds or paper clips to make different sounds.

Make a jangly stick
Put a groove in each end of a piece of 10cm dowelling and fasten bells on each end with ribbon.

Make a pairs game
Stick pictures from magazines onto card (2 pictures for each object, ie, cat, bicycle etc). Label each card to encourage reading skills and cut out. If you place them all flat on the ground each player gets to turn over two cards in turn. If they reveal a pair they have another go. The object of the game is to start to remember where certain cards are to enable you to find pairs.

Make a scratching stick
Cut notches all the way down a 30cm piece of dowelling and run a teaspoon up and down to make scratching noises.

Make a letter book
Punch holes in paper with card for the front and back, making sure that you have 26 pages. Each page represents a letter so cut out pictures of objects beginning with each letter to fill the scrapbook.

Make some drums
Using an old coffee tin, make some drums to be played with wooden spoons.

Make a mobile
Natural objects suspended from a two pieces of wood nailed into a cross shape can make a stunning mobile.

Make a picture of your house
Using collage bits and pieces, make a picture of your house. You could do this for a friend or relative as a present if you can remember what their house looks like.

Make a stained glass window
Cut a church window out of black paper and cut out the glass bits. With sweet wrappers or tissue paper, make the stained glass windows by sticking them on the back.

Make a number poster
Number 1 to 10 down the left hand side of a piece of card in bold writing. The appropriate number of objects can then be stuck next to each number with even spacing between each. Try shells, bottle tops, beads, buttons, used matchsticks, seeds, lentils, macaroni, paper clips and leaves.

Make some modelling dough
Then you can create some creatures etc which you can paint, varnish and keep.
1 cup cornflour
2 cups baking soda
1 1/4 cups of water.
Cook until thickened. Knead well. This dough hardens after a while and it can be painted with acrylic paint and varnished. Store in an airtight container.

Use a different mode of transport for a trip.
If you usually go by car, try the train or a bus and get your child involved in the journey, buying tickets etc.

Make a slide/balancing plank
A sanded plank of wood can be a slide when the end is balanced on the sofa, a balancing challenge when either end is supported by cushions or strong boxes, or a seesaw when the middle is balanced on a big cushion. It also makes a good ramp for toy vehicles.

Draw a whole body
Using a large piece of paper or by sticking bits together you can draw round your child's outline and they can fill in body parts and colour it in.

Produce a tape together
Choose all lots of favourite tunes, record them on a tape, name it and design a personal cover.

Start a collection
Try postcards, stamps, leaves etc.

Turn a big cardboard box into anything!
Make a train, car, boat or plane with paper plate wheels and paper plate steering wheel. Foil makes a radiator grill and cut in circles can be used to make lights. A boat needs a broomstick mast and a surrounding sea or blue fabric. An aeroplane needs two wings made from the lid of the box cut into points and a control panel with bottle tops and corks.

Play at being a shopkeeper
Two boxes with a plank of wood across make a counter for a shop. Use old packets stuffed with newspaper for food and a pair of scales allows rice and pasta to be measured out and served in paper bags. Make paper money by doing coin rubbings and mounting on card.

Start a dressing up box
Fill a cardboard box with silly hats, old clothes and costume jewellery from charity shops and homemade masks.

Make jewellery
Painted pasta threaded onto wool makes great colourful jewellery.

Make a dolls house or garage
A shoe box can be used to create a dolls house or a garage. Carpets can be made from bits of felt, curtains from bits of material or lace and furniture from match boxes. For a garage, petrol pumps can be made from matchboxes, trees and hedges made from sponges and brown pipecleaners.

Make clothes peg/pipecleaner people
People made from wooden clothes pegs or pipe cleaners can live in the dolls house, or use the dolls garage.

Make puppets
Using an old sock or glove create puppets such as a donkey, spider or an octopus. Sew on beads for eyes, felt for ears, mouth etc.

Write a song together
Using percussion instruments such as saucepan drums and shakers, make up a silly song and sing it together.

Have a concert
Sing along to favourite songs on tape, sing the silly song, play a few tunes on a musical instrument. Invite friends and family to join in or spectate.

Cook a meal together
Choose a simple family meal which you can cook together. Design a menu card and place settings. This is even more fun if you choose a particular type of food such as Indian or Italian.

Make up stories
Take it in turns to make up stories. Or try starting a story and asking someone else to finish it.

Make a book
Write a story and illustrate it in a hand bound ribbon book.

Customize a t-shirt or bag
A rocket, butterfly, star or initial sewn onto t-shirt or bag in a different coloured material looks really striking. For added effect, sew beads and sequins onto the motif.

Make up a code
Write down the alphabet, now write down the alphabet backwards underneath. Use this code to write secret letters to friends.

Calculate the shopping bill!
Make a trip to the supermarket fun by using a calculator to add up the weekly shop.

Visit a museum
To make the trip more interesting make up a quiz of 10 simple questions to answer at the museum and offer a prize for getting it right.

Go somewhere different
Visit an airport or a harbour, a train station or a farm.

Read a special book
Try one of your favourites or a lengthy one you've not tackled before. Split it into chapters and read a chapter a night as a bedtime story. You could record this to be listened to later on, perhaps on a long car journey.