#TheOrdinaryMoments – Boredom Busting

With it being a soggy, wet summer, we’ve spent a fair amount of time entertaining ourselves indoors. Whilst I allow the children a short amount of ‘tech time’ (time on their tablets, consoles or laptop) each day, I’m very conscious of their screen time and try to keep it to a minimum, thus the kids are asked to find alternative entertainment.

It’s all very well asking them to play with something else, until that ‘something else’ happens to require an app to control or to power said toy/ game. For example, E quite enjoys playing with her Furby that has an app which enables children to download and to learn new songs with their toy. J, on the other hand, enjoys playing with his Anki Overdrive racing set, this too requires an app to power and to drive the vehicles around the track.

I wish we’d never got J his Anki Overdrive set as months after the purchase Anki shutdown and whilst the app still works at present, there are is no longer support or upgrades available. Not just that, but I’m not all that keen on J watching the screen rather than the track. I would also add that the cars move far too smoothly in comparison to the likes of Scalectrix making the entire thing feel far too techy for my liking.

This whole ‘app powered toy revolution’ issue really frustrates me as it makes it quite difficult to fairly limit ‘tech time’.

Thankfully J and E understand my worries and respect my rules when it comes to the time which they are given for using technology. They have so many toys to choose from when it comes to playing indoors, they are forever back and forth to each other’s bedrooms playing with all sorts of different toys and games.

This summer seems to have brought back the classic ‘boredom busters’ such as hide and seek, den building, dress-up and once the rain has stopped they are kicked outdoors to play in the garden, where they come up with all sorts of different games!

Keeping the kids entertained throughout summer isn’t easy, I, however, am a big believer in boredom. Boredom sparks the imagination and is the ultimate catalyst for play. Nevermind the devices, the apps and all things electronic, there’s far more fun to be had making something from nothing.