My husband has taught me many things in 10+ years of marriage. Somethings I had never considered before, others were things I wanted to learn, and then there are things I learned about even though I wasn’t really interested.
About 6 months ago we had a discussion about boredom. Our son is one of the older kids in his class and mentioned he was bored by a few things. That makes him a bit wiggly, and my husband suggested boredom is actually a really wonderful tool. When we become bored, our creativity takes off.
Being someone who can always find something to do or think about, this didn’t really occur me at the time. During our trip, I saw it first hand. I wanted to make sure we had things to help get us through a day and we used them for sure, but the kids tired of them and became bored. What happened next was remarkable.
We were in Yosemite, and their creativity took off, or maybe we just have HGTV on too much at the house. They found all sorts of sticks and rocks and lichens and were designing their own houses.
They used little bits of garbage (we like to say “finding and using resources” around here though!) to create tables and beds. They used pine/sequoia/fir cones as trees.
They made main houses and gardens and guest houses and helicopter pads. The trees are my absolute favorite! They used tree needles as carpet and fencing.
They worked together for hours, discussing and planning. Nothing was impossible. Helicopter pad? Sure! Why shouldn’t our house have one! When they were finished, they called us over and I stood in awe of their creations. They stood there beaming! And then came, “so mama, are you going to love it or list it?” We might be cutting back on tv time!
Everything was found on the ground – that was one rule. The second rule was it all had to be put back when they were finished, since we were in a national park. We were only taking the pictures with us.
Don’t tell my husband, but he was right, and with that I pass along this tip: let your kids get bored sometimes, especially outside. Let them have to figure out what to do. Let their imaginations go wild. You might just be surprised what happens.
Kids learn to think creatively by thinking creatively! That takes unstructured, unplanned time to kick a rock and and be alone with their own thoughts.