My Advice to Children: Things to do when you are bored

I hope that the following Things to Do list will be helpful to you when you feel bored:

(1) Pretend you are a fiction writer. Write the first chapter of a novel featuring yourself or a friend or relative of yours as a hero of that novel.

(2) Try switching the channel on your television set to an educational television channel. That might offer you information that is helpful to you.

(3) Do some research to learn the rules of each of your favorite sports. This will help you to resolve any conflicts between yourself and other youths that occur when you play that sport together.

(4)Think of a question you want to ask, and try obtaining the answer to that question through a Google search on the Internet.

(5) Write a diary or personal journal about yourself and your life. You will find that if you do that on a daily or weekly basis, this will give you helpful information about your life that you can review at a later date. That pastime will also help you to reflect on your own life and the persons you are associating with in your life.

(6) Which foreign countries are the nations where your ancestors lived? Try doing some research about each of those foreign countries that have played a major role in your own cultural heritage.

(7) Think of an exercise or game that you can participate in by yourself. Jump-roping, for instance, is an activity that you can do by yourself. Or, you might want to try playing a solitary card game.

(8) Think of an extra-credit project you could pursue for one of your classes in school. You might want to spend some time with that extra credit project.

(9) Ask yourself who is your favorite author. Then do a Google search on the Internet to learn more about the life of that author.

(10) With your parents' permission, you could check out an educational audiotape or educational videotape from a local public library. That audiotape or videotape could enrich your personal education.

(11) Write a personal letter to a favorite friend or relative of yours.

(12) Write a poem, and read it aloud to yourself several times.

(13) Spend some time playing with a favorite pet of yours inside your family's household.

(14) Do factual research to plan a proposed possible mini-trip destination for your family during some future weekend. You can then present that information to your entire family.

(15) Write up a list of skills you would like to learn or hone in the next 12-month period or two-year period. You can then review that list on a regular basis, and it will serve as a year-round inspiration to yourself.

(16) Think of a word that poses a mystery to you. Then consult a dictionary to learn the origins of that word, along with the definition of that word.

(17) Consult an encyclopedia on the subject of boredom. That encyclopedia entry on boredom will offer you factual information about what can cause boredom in human beings. The more you read about boredom and what might cause boredom, you will strengthen your own ability to avoid feeling bored for a prolonged period of time.

(18) Study your own ancestry, such as by pursuing research on the Internet. As part of your research, you could read a biographical account about a famous or prominent ancestor of yours.

(19) Consult an encyclopedia on the subject of solitude. Many human beings have had remarkable accomplishments during long periods in which they were completely alone and without human companionship.

(20) Try to remember stories that a teacher of yours has told you about real-life figures of history. If any of those stories were fascinating to you, you might want to pursue more research about that individual. For example, what were the circumstances in which Sir Walter Raleigh reportedly threw his cape on top of a mud puddle in order to spare Queen Elizabeth I from herself being splashed by mud?

(21) Pursue research on the Internet that will offer you quotations and advice from famous writers and other famous persons about any particular issue that you are experiencing in your own life. If you feel bored, for instance, you will find through a Google search on the Internet that various writers and other thinkers have written interesting observations about how to prevent boredom.

(22) Your boredom may suggest that you are not enjoying your current hobbies and pastimes. Maybe you might enjoy taking up a new hobby or pastime, such as stamp collecting or coin collecting.

(23) Try to find a book or a website on the Internet that will show you what each color and each shade of each and every color looks like.
You are likely to find it very enjoyable and very useful to you to study and memorize what "magenta" looks like, what "turquoise" looks like, what "navy blue" looks like, what "maroon" looks like, what "aqua" (defined in the dictionary as a light bluish green color) looks like, what "royal blue" looks like, what "fuchsia" (defined as a bright bluish red) looks like, what "olive green" looks like, what "scarlet" looks like, what purple looks like, etc.
Throughout your life, you will be asked by others to describe shades of color on the clothing that other human beings wear. You will also be asked by others to describe the shades of color of the exterior of homes that people own or of the motor vehicles that other people own or drive.

(24) You could spend some time creating a "things to do" list for yourself in the unique context of your own life. Writing that list for yourself will be one very practical way to make use of free time that you have when you are inside your family's home.

(25) Jot down a list of each and every subject and topic and career or activity that you currently regard as boring or tedious. Then pursue some research on the Internet to identify at least one admirable person who has found that subject or topic or career to be very, very interesting----even to the point of fascinating. Those additional perspectives from other human beings might convince you that possibly that subject or topic or career or activity can, in fact, be interesting.

(26) Keep a personal journal in which you jot down notes about the television programs and movies and books and magazine or newspaper articles and class textbook readings you pursue that hold your interest throughout. Do your journal observations about movies and television shows, for instance, suggest to you that you are particularly fascinated by a particular genre of entertainment, such as comedies or entertainment productions about high school life or college life?

(27) Look around you inside the bedroom of your family's home. Which posters or photographs or other wall hangings do you see? Do any of the persons or places or things or activities highlighted by any of those posters, photographs, or other wall hangings suggest to you the need to study a biography or book or magazine article about any of those persons or places or things or activities?

(28) Do research on the Internet to identify what might explain why some children consistently earn very good grades or excellent grades on their schoolwork. If you study what what might help account for those children's success in school, this could also be useful to yourself in your own education.

(29) Keep in mind that all children and all adults get bored on occasion. Look upon boredom as a creative challenge to yourself. How can you make the most of this opportunity to pursue a creative project or achieve progress on a goal you have set for yourself?

(30) If it is a rainy day outside, you get permission from your mother or father to place a rain gauge on the front lawn or back lawn of your family's home. That rain gauge will then measure for you the amount of rainfall that is occurring outdoors at your family's home.

(31) You could count the money you have in your wallet or coin purse, and decide how much of that money you would like to save.

(32) You could pursue factual research about several of the thousands of colleges and universities in this nation. Which of those thousands of colleges and universities of the United States offers what you would like to see in any college or university that you would yourself ever agree to attend as a student?
For example, do you want to eventually attend a college or university that reveres your own Freedom of Speech and Freedom of Religion legal and Constitutional rights? Do you want to eventually attend a college or university that has a proven record of fully honoring the privacy rights of each of its current and prospective students? Do you want to attend a college or university that fully protects each of its current and prospective students from exposure to injurious noise pollution? Do you want to attend a college or university that strictly enforces rules and strictly opposes the law opposing any participation in anonymous communications or stalking by any student or employee of that college or university. Do you want to attend a college or university that fully protects the full range of legal rights of honest and law-abiding students who do not consume any alcohol or tobacco products or any illicit drug, for that matter.

(33) Draw a sketch or portrait of someone whom you currently admire or like.

(34) Read about the history of bathing and personal hygiene by consulting an encyclopedia or the Internet.

(35) Ask yourself which of the subjects that you study in school is currently your favorite. Then ask yourself which careers relate to that subject area.
For example, if you enjoy studying Spanish in school, what are the various eventual career options that relate to or feature use of the Spanish language? Reviewing the many career options relating to Spanish will help you to "preview" career possibilities in your own future.
For example, many of the American Embassies owned by the U.S. Department of State are situated in countries where Spanish is the official national language. You could pursue a career as a diplomat, or as a staff member at an embassy situated in a Spanish-speaking country.