7 Things I Love For Bored Kids That Don’t Cost Too Much Money

If you are like me, your kids are the light of your life. The reason for living, and that reason, can on occasion, be a whiny annoying monster (Yes, I just referred to my adorable children as “monsters”, sue me) who won’t leave you alone for five minutes so you can fold laundry or do one of the other amazingly fabulous and relaxing parental duties we all just enjoy so much. Whee. I LOVE my kids, and over the years I have found a few things that actually occupy them. JUNK is expensive, amirite? Junk costs money and sometimes you spend money on junk and your kid plays with it for three minutes and there goes thirty bucks that you could have easily spent on something wonderful , like cake. So if your kids are driving you semi-cray but you still love them and you wanna find something to keep them busy for a few minutes, I’ve got some ideas for ya.

eeBoo Paper Chains 

YOU need these. I don’t care how old your kid is, well, they need to be able to complete a simple task, like inserting paper into a slot, so unless your kid is really dumb I would say maybe around four and up. Yeah, yeah I know you may have a gazillion adorable pieces of craft paper you don’t mind cutting into uniform strips and handing your kid a glue stick but I am so not that person, so these paper chains are awesome for me. NO glue required, adorable colors and patterns, and they all cost around ten bucks a pop. They come in a few different variations, and make a ton of paper chains. Plus, you can toss them up on your holiday tree or string them around your house for no reason if you are a festive weirdo like me. They are BUSY work, but the end result is freakin’ adorable and looks so cute hanging in a kid’s room.

(Buy from amazon)

Taro Gomi’s Play All Day

 

Play all day play all day play all day. I love this thing so much. It’s a book that has over 60 things to do in it, things to make, games to play, little scenes to create. It is one of the most fun books ever, and it makes a ridiculously great gift. I love the illustrations. The ages say three and up, and I think that’s pretty right on. But I do know my teenage son had fun playing with this with his younger siblings too. It’s 17 bucks, but I really feel it is worth it.

(Buy from amazon)

Magical Menagerie By Junzo Terada

 

Another collection of pop-out and piece together animals, it’s so simple even a tiny kid can do it and they look so cute on a bookshelf. I got these for my daughter when she was six for her birthday and we discovered that they come with envelopes. She ended up sending a few off as birthday ‘Thank You” cards to relatives and people loved them. The cute thing is the recipients actually made the animals too and sent her photos of them with their new animals. Part of the fun for her was deciding which to keep and which to give away. They are sturdy too.

(Buy from amazon)

Djeco Woodland Animals 

They also have these in robot, dragon and kokeshi versions, and I think my kids have made every kit, with help from their big brother. These paper toys are so cute, and even though they do require glue they make minimal mess. And for those of you with no bored teen around to help I suggest..

(Buy from amazon)

Collages For Little Ones By Djeco 

These are for kids as young as 36 months to do on their own, and it comes with a glue stick, yay!

(buy from amazon)

Doodles, Scribbles And Squiggles By Taro Gomi 

Get these amazing books for your kids, by all means, but be super cool like me and leave one of these with some groovy colored pencils on your coffee table at all times and make anyone who comes over compete a drawing. These are the best coloring books ever, and foster a ton of creativity and one of the best purchases I have ever made. My kids loooove these and I love paging through them and seeing drawings friends and family have completed.

(buy from amazon)

Little Inferno For Wii, iPhone, iPad, Windows
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I’m so in love with this game, and even though it has been out for a while I still keep playing it, and so do my kids. Some of you parents may not dig this, because yeah, the game revolves around setting things on fire so if you are worried your child may be a pyromaniac I would suggest not getting them this. Also, if you are offended by sort of dark Tim Burton-esque style things. The game is rated T for teen but I have never seen anything in it that I found “objectionable” — other than setting toys and stuffed animals and prescription bottles and family photos aflame. The game play is super simple, the animation is adorable, and your kids will laugh a lot. That is all I will say, because I think the less you know before playing, the better.

(Buy from tomorrow corporation, or the app store for the system you use)