I'm Bored! 300+ Activities to Keep Your Kids Busy

The next time your child whines "I'm bored!", suggest one of these 3000+ time-tested activities for kids of all ages.  Don't worry - I've catagorized the list so it doesn't seem so formidably long!

1. Science fun
1. do experiments with a chemistry set
2. drop menthos into soda and see what happens!
3. do a science experiment (do plants grow better with music? which boils faster, plain water or water with salt? inquiring minds want to know!)
4. Invent something
5. Create a Rube Goldberg contraption
6. Study things through a magnifying glass or microscope
7. Create a weather station
8. Launch rockets
9. Identify clouds
10. hunt for fossils
11. Build towers with uncooked spaghetti & marshmallows – how high can you go?
12. Create tin foil boats & see how many pennies they’ll hold before they sink
2. Nature
1. Start an aquarium (fish, turtles, frogs, tadpoles)
2. Buy a pet (hamster, fish, etc.)
3. Make a terrarium
4. Plant a flower (or butterfly) garden
5. Plant a vegetable garden
6. Plant an herb garden
7. Plant a cactus garden
8. Start an ant farm
9. Press leaves or flowers
10. Catch bugs/butterflies/caterpillars/tadpoles
11. Set up a birdfeeder
12. Go birdwatching
13. Create a nature album
14. Climb a tree
15. Pick fruit/berries
16. Feed squirrels/deer/ducks
17. Find edible plants in your neighborhood
18. Find poisonous plants in your neighborhood
19. Identify the trees in your yard/neighborhood
3. Indoor fun
1. Start a collection
2. Try a new hairstyle
3. Give yourself a mani/pedi
4. Create shadow puppets
5. Learn to tie different types of knots
6. Indoor campoutPlan a movie marathon (pick a theme!  scary movies, favorite movies, animal movies, etc.)
7. Dressup (you, your pet, a stuffed animal, etc.)
8. Take a long bubble bath.  Make yourself a bubble beard.  Play with tub toys.
9. Learn a magic trick
4. Indoor/outdoor
1. Scavenger hunt
2. Build a fort
3. Race RC cars
5. Outdoor fun (around the neighborhood)
1. Roller skating (on street or at a skating rink)
2. Play a street game: tag, hopschotch, 4-square, kick the can, jumprope, hide & seek, freeze tag, red rover/red rover, red light/green light
3. Rollerskating/rollerblading
4. Jog
5. Compete in a marathon
6. Visit a playground
7. Draw on the street with chalk
8. Fly a kite
9. Ride your bike
10. skateboarding
11. Create an Olympiad with events you make up
12. Tennis/badminton/volleyball
13. Basketball/shoot hoops
14. learn how to make trick basketball shots
15. Baseball/softball/kickball/catch
16. Learn how to score a baseball game
17. Blow bubbles
18. Frisbee
19. croquet
20. Horseback riding
21. Hunt for 4-leaf clovers
22. Relay races (egg races, sack races, etc.)
23. Golf/miniature golf
24. Build sandcastles in sand box
25. Fly RC airplane
26. Search for buried treasure with a metal detector
27. See how far you can dig before you hit water
6. Out & about
1. Go bowling (or, create a bowling game at home using soda bottles & a ball)
2. See a movie
3. camping
4. fishing
5. go out for ice cream
6. visit a museum
7. visit a library
8. visit a zoo/pet-a-pet farm/aquarium
9. attend a sporting event (baseball, football, soccer, etc.)
10. go on a ghost tour
11. skate park
12. visit an archeological site
13. go to a county/state fair
14. pan for gold
15. visit a drive-in movie
16. visit a battlefield or other historic site
7. After dark
1. Collect fireflies
2. Identify constellations
3. Look at the moon and planets through a telescope
4. Play flashlight freeze tag or ghosts in the graveyard (directions are surely posted online somewhere!)
5. play with glowsticks (attach them to balloons and watch them fly away; throw them in swimming pools and swim amidst them)
6. watch for shooting stars and satellites
7. bite into wintergreen lifesavers and watch for sparks
8. Getting wet
1. Have a water gun/water balloon fight
2. Go swimming at a local pool or lake
3. Go wading in a local stream or river
4. Bodysurfing
5. Innertubing
6. Break out the kiddie pool
7. Run through a sprinkler
8. Boating/canoeing, rafting, paddleboating, sailing
9. Race boats (bark, toy, cardboard) in a stream
10. Jump in a fountain
11. Wash a car
12. Wash a pet
13. Play in the rain
9. Reading and writing
1. Read a book
2. Read a magazine
3. Read all the books written by your favorite author
4. Listen to an audiobook
5. Write a story/book
6. Write a play
7. Write a poem (try haiku, an “about me” poem, or a limerick)
8. Memorize a poem
9. Write a letter to a friend or relative
10. Write an article for the local newspaper
11. Read aloud to someone (a sibling, a friend, a pet)
12. Start a journal/diary
13. start your own book of "Top 10 lists" - your 10 favorite movies, songs, athletes, celebrities, foods, restaurants, colors ....
14. Hold a spelling (or geography) bee
15. Establish a family or neighborhood newsletter
16. Make a list of weird words in the dictionary
17. interview an older relative and write their biography
18. write your own biography! Don't just include what you've already done ... write about all the things you will do the rest of your life
19. write your name in the flyleaf of all your books
10. Online
1. Submit book reviews to Amazon.com
2. Create an audiobook
3. Start a blog
4. Design a webpage
5. Visit the kids page of your favorite government agencies: U.S. Geological Survey, etc.
6. Visit the kids page of your favorite museums: Smithsonian Museums, etc.
7. Visit the kids page of your favorite organizations: National Wildlife Federation, etc.
11. Put on a show
1. Put on a talent show
2. Put on a magic show
3. Put on a concert (singing or instrumental)
4. Put on a dance recital
5. Put on a comedy show (standup or sketch comedy)
6. Stage a play (turn a favorite story/book into a play or write your own)
7. Invent a circus act
8. Put on a puppet show
9. Film a commercial (serious or spoof)
10. Film a movie (serious or spoof)
11. Create a music video for your favorite song
12. Put on a parade
12. Arts & Music
1. Learn to play an instrument (piano, guitar, harmonica, spoons)
2. Invent a musical instrument
3. Write a song
4. Start a band
5. Create a playlist of your favorite songs
6. Choreograph a dance
7. go online and learn all the latest dances
13. Crafting (Create crafts for yourself or to give as gifts)
1. Sewing (clothes, beanbags, pillows, etc.)
2. Crochet, knit, cross-stich, embroider, latch-hook a rug
3. Paper crafts
1. Origami
2. Create wrapping paper  (ink stamps are a great way to create a repeating design)
3. Create paper dolls/puppets (create your own paper doll or cut out a full-length picture of a celebrity from a magazine)
4. Create and race paper airplanes
5. Tissue paper flowers
4. Scrapbooking
1. Create a scrapbook
2. Create birthday/holiday cards
3. Decorate gift bags
5. flower arranging
6. Drawing
1. Create a comic book
2. Illustrate a book
3. Trace pictures
4. Thumbprint drawings
7. Make bookmarks (to use yourself or give as gifts)
8. Take photographs (serious or silly)
1. Go on a photo safari – how many bugs/birds/flowers/animals can you spot?
2. Create a theme photo album (family, nature, animals, LOLcats, etc.)
3. learn to use photoshop and turn ordinary photos into fun!
9. Sculpt (create a flower pot out of clay, animals out of playdough, crazy hats out of tin foil ....)
10. Woodcarving/whittling
11. Woodworking (birdhouses, picture frames, jewelry boxes, catapults, etc.)
12. Paper mache
13. Dreamcatcher
14. Picture frames
15. Soap/candles
16. Create luminaries and put them outside
17. Create silhouettes
18. Painting/finger painting
19. Collage
20. Fabric paints (decorate teeshirts, pillowcases, canvas bags, visors, etc.)
21. Mobile
22. Jewelry
23. Create pinewood derby cars and race them
24. Tye-die (teeshirts, bags, whatever!)
25. check out a book from the library and practice calligraphy
14. Creative, other
1. Design a miniature golf course (a “dream course” or something you could actually set up in your back yard)
2. Draw a map of your house, neighborhood, or community
3. Create a blueprint of your dream house
4. Create balloon animals
5. Invent riddles/jokes
6. Create a calendar
7. Turn spare boxes into a fort, spaceship, grocery store, tunnel, etc.
8. invent a superhero.  Give him a name, a costume, powers, and a backstory
15. Cooking & Eating
1. Bake/decorate cookies
2. Bake/decorate cupcakes
3. Bake/decorate cake
4. Make homemade ice cream
5. Invent weird smoothies (or milkshakes)
6. Bake a pie
7. Cook a meal
8. Invent a recipe
9. Cook a historical meal
10. Cook a meal from another culture
11. Make popsicles out of juice
12. Learn how to eat with chopsticks
13. Make a centerpiece for the dining room table
14. Make placemats
15. Invent your own trail mix
16. Fix something on the outdoor grill
17. Cook something in the fireplace (hot dogs, s’mores!)
18. Cook something over a campfire
19. Have a picnic
16. Toys
1. Create things with building toys (play charades using legos!
2. Create a maze out of dominoes and them topple them
3. Play with hula hoops
17. Games
1. Play board games
2. Have a checkers, chess, or video game tournament
3. Invent a board game
4. Charades
5. Tableaus (like charades, but you dress as a famous painting or scene from a book or history & people have to guess who you are
6. Play an old-fashioned game (marbles, dominoes, jacks, thumb wrestling, arm wrestling, rock/paper/scissors, i-Spy, clapping games, string games, jumprope games, “make me laugh”, staring contest, truth or dare, simon says, mother may I, musical chairs, duck duck goose, tic tac toe, dots, hot potato, 20 questions, blind man’s bluff, etc.)
18. Puzzles
1. Jigsaw puzzleDo puzzles (word searches, crosswords, soduku, mazes)
2. Create a puzzle
3. Create a treasure hunt
19. Cards
1. Play a card game
2. Play an old-fashioned card game (war, snap, crazy 8s, old maid)
3. Build a house of cards
4. Play the memory game
5. Invent a card game
20. Mysterious/Supernatural
1. Hold a séance (maybe using your Ouija board!)
2. Learn how to tell fortunes (palm reading, tarot cards)
3. Tell ghost stories (stories you've already heard, or take turns making up your own)
4. Solve 2-minute mysteries
5. Make up a secret code
6. Write with invisible ink
7. Learn how to lift fingerprints
8. Learn morse code
21. Things to do with friends
1. Have a sleepover
2. Start a club
3. Have an ice cream party
4. Plan a theme party
5. Create a casino
6. Create a carnival
7. have a bike decorating contest
22. Things to do with/for the family
1. Organize a family movie night
2. Organize a family game night
3. Create a family tree
4. Create a family first aid kit
5. create a family evacuation plan
6. prepare a family emergency care kit
7. Clip coupons
8. wrap your coins and take them to the bank to exchange for bills
23. Home improvement
1. Paint your mailbox
2. Decorate a house number sign
3. Redecorate your room
4. Organize something (closet, books, toy chest, etc.)
5. Design your “dream bedroom”
24. Community Service
1. Volunteer at the library
2. Pick up litter from the side of a road
3. Pull weeds in your neighborhood
4. Collect food/clothes for charity
5. Do something nice for a neighbor
6. Read a story to a younger child
25. Make money
1. Sell lemonade
2. Babysit (children, pets, plants)
3. Rake leaves
4. Sell crafts you’ve made
5. Organize a garage sale
6. Open a savings account
26. Seasonal
1. Decorate your house for whatever holiday is coming up next
2. Decorate a gingerbread house to celebrate a holiday other than Christmas (Easter Bunny house! Leprauchon house! Haunted house!)
3. Make a haunted house
4. Play with sparklers/fireworks
5. Make a big leaf pile and jump in it
6. Blow the fuzz off of dandelions
7. Carve pumpkins/other vegetables
8. cut out paper snowflakes (hang in window or from mobile)
9. Bobbing for apples
10. brainstorm awesome Halloween costume ideas
11. Christmas in July - bake cookies, sing Christmas carols, decorate a tree
12. Plan/execute the best April Fools Day Prank ever
27. International
1. Learn how to count in a foreign language
2. Learn pig Latin
3. Learn to write in Egyptian heiroglyphics
28. Silly
1. Throw your pet a party
2. Have a silly string fight
3. Paint your face
4. Have tongue twister races
5. Break a world’s record
6. Create the world’s longest construction paper chain
7. Create a tin-can-and-string telephone
8. Bury a time capsule
9. Learn how to juggle
10. Try to last a whole day without talking to anyone
11. Put messages in bottles and throw them into the ocean
12. use chalk to write a word in HUGE letters on your street; then check Google Earth to see if it shows up on a satellite photo of your area