With the school holidays just around the corner, and the predictability of the great British weather when it comes to any time children have off school, let us give you some great ideas for banishing boredom while your child is stuck at home.
It's always the way, isn't it? You have all these visions of some great downtime and planned activities during the school holidays, and quite often it then rains or some other thing gets in the way and plans have to change. Children get bored... and they are very vocal about it with cries of "I'm SOOO bored, there's nothing to do". It's ok, we have your back parents!
But first, a little disclaimer or 2.
Firstly, boredom is a good thing. While a lot of people may feel that boredom is a negative thing, through boredom, creativity can blossom, and better problem-solving skills can be developed. Dr Shahram Heshmat, writing for Psychology Today, listed 5 benefits of boredom as being:
- Boredom can improve our mental health
- Boredom can increase creativity
- Boredom motivates a search for novelty
- Boredom motivates the pursuit of new goals
- Boredom and increased self-regulation and self-control skills
Secondly, let's talk screen time. Some parents may be reluctant to increase it to stave off 'boredom', and some may resort to it. Some may be fine with increasing screen time. I think that depends on the individual child and how screen time is normally used within the home. If you are increasing screen time to compensate for the unexpected, yet almost-inevitable, change of school holiday plans, you could tie this into something that has an increased educational value to it (if you've read our other articles on Gaming, for example, you'll see we have given many different ways gaming can be super-beneficial for children).
Taking classes on Outschool is included in that screen time. Let's take a look at some of the ways Outschool can help as a boredom buster for your family, and be beneficial to your child who needs something to do. (Another disclaimer: This list is great for boredom-busting ideas off of the Outschool platform as well, but with Outschool, the amazing Outschool teachers do all the organising and teaching for you, so you can have a bit of a break too!)
1. They can learn a new skill or topic
One productive way to use that downtime your children have is for them to learn a new skill. In December and January, teachers on Outschool will be offering Winter Camps around a topic or skill that they can develop over the course of normally 2-5 days and over 1-2 weeks. This might be learning basic coding skills, learning robotics, learning about dinosaurs, playing a D&D campaign, learning how to invest in the stock market or creating a performance. You can check out all of Outschool's Winter Camps here.
2. They can make new friends
Making friends is always a great thing to do. Whether you have a child who loves a more 1 on 1 friendship with another child, or a child who has a lot of friends, it is always nice to add to that circle, no matter how big or small it is. On Outschool, there are social clubs that meet regularly around a topic of interest, be that art, history, gaming or reading books or something else. As Outschool is a global platform, you will often find, depending on the time of day you take the class, that there will be children from other parts of the world (Morning classes tend to have friends from Asia, Australia, Africa and Europe, afternoon and evening classes tend to have friends from the Americas). These social clubs are great to dip in and out of as you want each week. Take a look at some social clubs here.
3. They can have some fun
There are lots of classes on Outschool that can be taken for fun. Many of these are one-time classes, such as escape rooms, a D&D one-shot adventure (one campaign played in one session), trivia games and one-off gaming classes. You can find one-time classes here.
4. They can pick up a new hobby
School holidays are an ideal time to try out and start a new hobby. If you've ever taken a look at the Outschool website, you will find such a wide variety of class topics on there - it is actually one of the reasons parents choose us over and over, because they know they can find a class they're looking for on Outschool, and even on the rare occasion they can't they can reach out and request classes which can normally be met by one or more of the Outschool teachers. So, whether that new hobby is taking up playing a new instrument, learning chess, becoming an entrepreneur, starting needle felting, learning to create stickers on Procreate or something else, take a look on Outschool for ideas. If you or your child needs inspiration, you can take a look at a whole range of class and topic categories here.
5. They can be curious
If you're needing an idea for something to do last-minute to fill those gaps that need filling (remember, it is most definitely OK to be bored), you can always head to the Outschool website and take a look at the classes that are 'Starting Soon', and just pick one your child is curious about. This is how we found fun classes like The Poop Museum - Learn Many Fantastic, Fabulous and Fun Facts About Poop! (and Susie's other classes like The Fart Factory and the Imaginarium!), Marine Biology: Sharks, Sharks, Sharks, and how we also found Teacher Josh's Minecraft History classes. 
6. They can catch up
I am going to admit, this is probably not the first thing that would come to mind during a break from school work - more school work. However, the school holidays can be a great time to catch up on learning some skills in the core subjects if it is needed. You can always look for a non-traditional approach to understanding those skills or a 1:1 tutor who can provide some individualised learning for your child.
7. They can make something
It's always fun to make something new over the school holidays, and once the method of how to make that one thing has been learned, it can be repeated over and over if they enjoyed it. Crafting classes, classes on how to use polymer clay, trying out origami, baking classes and even game design classes can all engage that creativity and help your child to produce something they are excited to share with others after the class has finished.
Well, there you go... Seven different boredom-busing ideas for the school holidays. We would love to know if you have any other ideas or class recommendations over in our UK Outschooling community on Facebook. Come and share them, or ask for recommendations from other parents, over in that community. We look forward to hearing from you!
