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“I’m bored.” We know it’s good for our kids to be bored. It fosters creativity and encourages kids to come up with ideas to fill the time. It also helps prepare kids for the future, because we all know being an adult involves a lot of boring tasks. But it’s not fun to be a parent listening to your kid whine about how bored they are. So here are some ideas to suggest to your bored kid, because sometimes they just need a jumping off point for their imagination.

For little kids, it can be a bit harder for them to engage in totally independent play without needing you for various necessary (or unnecessary) reasons. Some of these ideas do involve parent participation, though I still think it’s helpful to give parents fresh ideas for play.

In addition to providing fodder for independent play, some of these ideas are great for being in the car, at a restaurant, or at a sibling’s sporting event.

Be sure to check out Boredom Busters 1 and Boredom Busters 3 for more ideas like crafts, puzzles, outdoor activities and more.

Building Toys

• Little kids may like Magna-tiles or Magformers or similar magnetic building sets. My kids have the Magformers carnival and log cabin sets and they play with them a lot. We also have a huge bag of Magnatiles. We have wheels for each brand of tiles, which I recommend because my kids loved making cars and driving around their figurines.

• We love Legos, and the kids really focus on them independently when they get new sets. Every Christmas and birthday for the last 5 or so years has included significant time spent putting together new sets. Most Harry Potter recently, but they’ve also loved Minecraft, Lego Friends, and Creator 3-in-1 sets. They needed help at first, but now they can put them together solo. New sets are exciting, but they are also expensive! I encourage the kids to make their own creations with bins of Lego blocks we’ve gotten as hand-me-downs. You can also purchase Lego sets with lots of bricks for creative building. We got one set that was sort of an in-between; meant for creative building, but it also came with instructions for some creatures and structures to try. It was a great way to get my kid to start building with the instructions, and then continue to play around with making their own version of things. My kids also will play Legos by just pretending to be the figures, and playing with the structures/sets. So even if they don’t feel like building, they can still use Legos for independent (or with a sibling) play.

• During the pandemic, we found a list of Lego challenges for kids. It was one of the many activities thrown around social media to try and entertain kids stuck at home. But that is another way to get your kid to play Legos when they are bored, especially if no sibling is around. You could ask them to create a ship to transport zoo animals, a space shuttle to go to Mars, or a stadium for a baseball team.

Pretend Play

A lot of the independent play my kids do is pretend play. Some ideas for that include….

• Playing school with stuffed animals/dolls/figurines. I love this one because when I hear my kids doing it, they are teaching their toys what they are learning in school. So it’s a great way to practice what they are learning!

• Making a store with toys, dress up clothes, or anything else your kid can imagine. My kids once made a store selling those little elastics from a Rainbow Loom, but they pretended they were various food items, which in retrospect was a bad idea because a lot went missing. Kids could even make tags for items with the prices. My kids have a play cash register (we have one from Learning Resources that I highly recommend. It talks and can help you learn/practice math) and use that, too.

• Similar to making a store is making a restaurant. They can make a menu, serve their stuffies, and even use the cash register, too.

• One fun and long-lasting game my kids played one weekend was making a hotel. They made signs (Welcome, Front Desk, Room 1, Room 2, etc.) and one kid worked the front desk. The signed in guests, and showed them to rooms, and brought up room service (play food).

• Playing doctor. We had hand me down doctor sets, but this one seems good. If the kid doesn’t have a sibling available to play, they can be a doctor for their stuffies. Playing doctor is also a great way to prepare kids before their flu shots or well visit shots. It may not prevent them from getting upset, but I think play can be a powerful way to help kids process information and emotions, and prepare for situations they might encounter in life.

• Playing with a dollhouse. We bought a used Melissa and Doug dollhouse (that I don’t think they make anymore) when my first kid was about three and 7+ years later it still gets use. Melissa and Doug have multiple neat dollhouses- this one is great because it comes with furniture. So does this one, plus it has open sides for easy access (especially when there are multiple kids playing). A dollhouse is a great backdrop for whatever your kids are into because you can obviously use any figurine in there. My kids mainly use Calico Critters, but also Gabby’s Dollhouse, My Little Pony, Octonauts, etc.