by Lisa Fillers

Created on: February 02, 2009   Last Updated: February 11, 2009

After school hours, weekends, holidays, and school breaks can all leave parents with bored young children. You do not need to spend a small fortune to find entertainment that will keep the children busy and often it is free. The key to success is in offering the children forms of entertainment that will challenge their mind or allow their creativity to flow. Below are listed a few ways to alleviate boredom.

FREE GAMES

Many websites like Disney.com and luckycharms.com have hours of free game entertainment for children. Free games do not have to stop with internet based games, though. Be creative yourself and make free games you can play with your child. Save the spin wheels, dice, and playing pieces from games that are no longer usable. Old game boards are reusable, too, when covered with white Contact paper!

THE INTERNET

Almost all homes pay for unlimited internet service. It costs nothing extra to pull up Hula.com and like websites to provide your child with television shows or cartoons from years past. Many children find old shows, such as "Lassie", quite entertaining since they have never seen them. You Tube and other websites provide interesting documentaries on space exploration, ancient civilizations, earthquakes, volcanoes and many more subjets which fascinate children. Who said learning has to be boring?

INDOOR CAMPING

Provide your child or children with some sheets, a couple of blankets, and a flashlight in a corner to themselves and watch the fun begin. Children love to camp outside in a tent but it is more fun to them to buiid their own tent in the house out of sheets.

MYSTERIES AND TREASURE MAPS

I have yet to see a child that did not love playing detective. Make up a story line and hide the clues indoors or outside to provide your child with loads of fun. Treasure maps are another source of endless fun to children and making a treasure map is quite easy. Hide the clues and the treasure and watch the race begin. Be sure to keep the identity of the treasure a secret. It makes it much more fun.

INTERACTIVE STORIES

Building onto a story line can keep a child entertained quite awhile on a rainy day. Begin by explaining to the children you are going to take turns makng a story, with each person only telling two or three sentences. Set the order the turns will be taken in and begin the story. Continue until they finally grow tired of it.

PLAYING RESTAURANT

Give the child a small notepad and a pencil and allow them to be the waiter or waitress. You would be surprised how long they will continue this game. Use tea set dishes or imaginary ones. If you tell them they also have to be the cashier, it is a good way to get in some math practice.

COOKIE PAINTING

If you were going to be making something for a sweet treat for the household, sugar cookie painting is a great form of entertainment for children. Help or allow them to cut the cookie dough in shapes with cookie cutters. After the cookies have baked and cooled, give each child a piece of waxed paper with each of the four basic colors found in a pack of food coloring gels. Supply the child with a child's paintbrush from a dollar variety store set and a small cup of water to clean the brush in when they change colors. They can paint very creative designs on the cookies with the food coloring gels and will be far more interested in that than in eating the cookies.

These are but a few of the ways in which you can provide young children with free entertainment that is sure to be fun and often educational. Activities that encourage a child to think or be creative are necessary for their development as individuals.

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