"Mom (or Dad), I'm BORED." What parent has not heard this one? Yet if the parent assumes too readily the responsibility of coming up with something for the child to do, the youngster is deprived of the challenge to expand and develop their own problem solving abilities and dependency is increased. Is this really what you want?

Here are a handful of examples of free, self directed activities for children that I recall from my own childhood. Some of which may have useful application today - others likely not. Remember that the specific activities are less important than whose responsibility is whose in

coming up with things to do. Coming up with solutions to their own 'boredom' builds stronger problem solving abilities and resilience in children. It certainly diminished their dependence on the parents to solve the "What can I do NOW?" problem for them.

Some old but perhaps still usable FREE Activities:

Hide and Go Seek
Just the way it sounds. If you need a description of how this game works, you would probably not understand it. It takes a minimum of three kids to play and, so far as I can recall, there is no such thing as having too many players. A piece of street with a street's usual components
(lamp posts, parked cars, buildings, etc.) is the only equipment that is required. The only other necessary requisite for a good game of it is that, as with ALL games (for children and adults alike) all the players need to agree on the rules. This was probably our favorite outdoor group game in nice weather.

King (Ball against stairs)
Probably known by a range of different names, what we called King required only a small rubber ball - a 'pinkie,' tennis or a white 'pimple' ball would do just fine. This game which could be played either alone or with others simply involved standing some feet away from the stairs to
a building and throwing the ball at them. The object was to catch it on the return. Each stair was assigned a point value and extra points were gained if the ball came back to you without a bounce after hitting the edge of one of the stairs. One kid Pong.

Pitching (or 'matching') pennies or baseball cards
This was my introduction to gambling. Standing an agreed upon distance from a wall, the players tossed pennies or baseball cards at the wall. After each player had tossed theirs, the one that would up coming to rest closest to the wall won them all. Matching pennies (or nickels for the more affluent among us) involved two players

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