Beating Christmas Holiday Bordom

Child, “Mum, I’m bored.”

Mother, without pausing the DVD to pay attention to the child, “I know sweetie. There’s only 4 weeks left of the holidays. It won’t be long before you’ll be back at school.  Now go and play.” 

Wrong

response Mum!  Bored unsupervised children can very quickly get into all manner of trouble – and usually do.  Giving a child attention means more than just listening to what they say. Keeping a family active and entertained doesn’t need to cost a fortune and requires only three things:

1. A sense of humour.
2. A sense of adventure.
3. A willingness to make time for your family.

If you have these things, you have all the tools necessary to beat the holiday blues and keep your family safe, happy and active.   Here is an abbreviated list of things that you could do as a family:

• If you have one, walk the dog together. If you don’t have one, offer to walk the dog of a relative or friend. There is not reason why only one person at a time should walk a dog. Along the way you can teach young children about crossing the road safely, as well as give them a sound knowledge of what is in their neighbourhood. Knowing their way around will help them greatly if ever they get lost. If they start complaining that it is getting boring, walk the dog in a different area. You may be surprised at the different places you can discover. “I never knew there was a little shop here!”
• Visit a library together. You can teach your children how to use the library facilities as well as gain an appreciation for reading. Pick a subject and see who can find the most useful information about it. You can also use this time to plan your next activity if you make the topic appropriate. “What crafts can we do at home together next weekend?”
• If you have a family member that has an interest in music, why not encourage everyone to have a go at learning an instrument? There are many music teachers that will be happy to instruct a whole family, and many teach-yourself resources available. You can learn, practise and perform as a band as well as a family. Many other hobbies and interests can also be done in this way.  If eveyone learns to sew, you can make a family quilt together. The idea is simply to adopt a team effort. “Hey, it’s so much easier and fun to do this with everyone else supporting me.”
• So you take another family trip to a playground. This time, instead of sitting at the table by the barbeque, get up and play with the children.  Kick a ball, play cricket or chasey.  Find a playground that provides play equipment that is large and strong enough to support and be used by adults as well as children. When was the last time you went for a ride on a flying fox or slid down a giant slide? “That was scary! Let’s do it again! Race you to the top!”
• A trip to the beach often has the children playing in the shallows and hunting for shells while the adults sit on the shore and worry about who is going to get sunburned. Get active. Get in the water and play with the children. This also makes going to the beach much safer for them. Too much seaweed for a decent sandcastle? Make a seaweed monster together. Explore the shores with your children to see if you can find interesting shells and sea critters. “I don’t know what kind of creature lives in that shell. When we go to the library again, let’s make that our topic to find out about.”
• Parks, picnics, bushwalks, camping, and fishing are great for children. You can teach them how to be safe in these environments, teach them new skills, and give them an appreciation for the natural environment. “Don’t stick you hand in to that hollow log. You don’t know what could be living in there. There it is, it’s an echidna! Crikey!”
• There are always many activities that can be done as a family with a little bit of travel and a some money for entry fees and purchases if necessary. Zoos, museums, botanical gardens, art galleries, cinemas, tourism bus tours, concerts, fetes and sporting events are the start of a good list. There are also many places where participatory activities can be enjoyed by the whole family, such as slot-car racing, minigolf, bowling, ice skating, swimming and water slides, cycling, paddleboat riding, laser skirmish, indoor rock climbing, and mini-bike motorcycle riding are just a few of the things that can be found just by having a browse through the yellow pages. “I’m winning! I’m winning! I… ahh, you beat me! Let’s have a rematch!”
• For the homebound, it takes a lot of effort to make a new garden patch, a pond, or a cubbyhouse. But with everybody helping, the effort is reduced dramatically and it can be done in no time – and with a little bit of imagination and forethought, it doesn’t have to cost a fortune to do, especially if you are willing to use second hand materials or grow plants from cuttings and seeds. There is always backyard cricket, football, volleyball, and any other sport you care to adapt the rules for to accommodate being in a small yard instead of a large oval. For those rainy days where getting out of the house is not viable, there is always fun to be had in games and crafts. It doesn’t matter how old you are, a day of playing hide-‘n’-seek, fancy dress-ups, and making things with play-dough is a refreshing change from the mundane of working, watching television, surfing the internet, and doing housework. 
• Lastly, there is not reason why a family activity has to only include your family. Your children’s friends are mostly at your children’s school, and thus most of them live in the same area. It isn’t hard to find out who they are, and get in touch with their parents, and organise for their families to join you in getting family-active. One family can have a lot of fun with backyard cricket. Would it be more fun if your family played against another in opposing teams? If you make it a regular thing with a few different families, you can play for a Family Cup, presented at your end of season celebration barbeque at the park, where all the families are invited to bring their own food. “My children introduced me to some of my best friends. Our children were friends at school, and one day we decided to invite their families to come over for a barbeque and a game of backyard cricket, and that’s how we got to know each other.”

Children learn most of the skills they need for life from their parents. One of those important skills is the ability to work as a team. Some families are just a group of people that happen to be related. Some families are a team, a unified body of people that can achieve almost anything because they know they can rely on each other. These families do things together, and every member of the family participates all the way. Driving your children somewhere isn’t enough. Maybe you could go and join them in having fun!