My six year old daughter keeps saying she is bored. What can I do to keep her occupied?

Answer 1

Let her dust the furniture
Help with laundry..

If you have some time, play some educational games with her.

Answer 2

You could give her every craft, every toy, computer learning program and everything else there is to interest a 6 yo and she will STILL say she's bored. lol..lol. It's the nature of kids. It's hard to keep them busy all the time and find things that they won't lose interest in quickly. Best you can do is ask what she'd like to do and go from there. You can suggest things such as the crafts, or learning games, but don't be surprised if she says, I don't wanna do that. I have a 5 and 6 yo and a 17 yo and I hear I'm bored all the time. Thing is, I have a fully stocked craft area, they have about 20 learning computer games (dad's a math and computer teacher), they have video games, dolls, bikes, movies, board games, you name it, we have it, and we spend at least 1 hour every day with family time. They still tell us they are bored about 4 times a day.

Answer 3

That's why i love having 2 kids that are only 2 years apart. They never get lonely. Now I try to play with them as much as I can because I know that's what they love but it's not always possible.
Even the two though will get bored at times.
I try not to encourage watching TV and actually arts and crafts is what they would much rather do any day. They love to color and cut and do all kinds of those things.
They also like to help cook and back with their easy bake!

Answer 4

Tell her that only boring people get bored. Nah, just kidding. Try showing her a new game that she's never played before. That should keep her occupied for a hour or so.

Answer 5

Put her to work. That is what my parents did to me when I was a child. I still think twice when I say "I'm bored". I really think this works because it forced me to "think outside of the box" and amuse myself. It's okay to want to help your child find things to do, but she also is getting old enough to occupy herself. Kids nowadays are so dependent upon their parents to constantly occupy their every minute of the day. I have a seven year old daughter and an eight yr. old son and there is plenty to do around here and they can think on their own. Give them some ideas of things you did as a child to "get their motors (aka:brains) running" Remember as a child how we use to just go outside and make mud pies, do cartwheels and cheers, rollerskate, hopscotch, play basketball, play in a creek, etc. Those ideas didn't come from our parents. We were left to discover the world on our own, supervised of course. We live on a 26 acre farm and the kids go outside and play basketball, play in the dirt, go for walks in the woods and find things to bring back and do art projects with, draw on the sidewalk with chalk, ride bikes, play tag, etc. As for inside, find things she's interested in. My daughter likes to draw and paint so I make sure she has plenty of paper, markers, paints, cool pens, glue, pom poms, pipe cleaners, etc. They will figure things out for themselvs. Encourage her to be creative and remind her that she is a bright little girl and tell her you are sure she can think of some nice things to do or to make. Good luck, and try to not stress out so much. If all else fails, everytime she says she's bored, give her a chore to do. I do with my kids and they usually end up loving to help me around the house. It makes them feel good. But when I was a kid, I hated it! So there you go, either way you win! If she loves helping you then she's no longer bored. If she don't like to help out, she'll soon quit saying she's bored and learn to discover the world on her own. Mom's not always going to be everywhere she goes and it's time she learned some independence...

Answer 6

Most times at this age they are always bored! at least the ones I know say it all the time .. even if they are doing what they want...

Does she have friends? let her have time to hang out with them.

Is there a park near? take her there

Does she play with dolls?

Coloring.

Music, movies, games (board or pc)

Get her involved in a program in ur area
6 is old enough to join most sports- check ur park district or YMCA

What about girl scouts?

What about Church youth groups?

There is so many possibilities ... Think to when u were that age what did u do ? kids still like to do them things... we just think they dont because of technology

Answer 7

Arts and crafts. Bird feeders (pinecone with peanut butter on it rolled in bird seed). That's pretty easy. Coffee painting or painting by numbers. Most girls are pretty neat, so that's why I'm suggesting such a messy activity.

Take her to the park, zoo, the library, or maybe ice-skating if you have snow.

Rent a movie that she hasn't seen before (but let her pick it out).

Teach her how to hit a baseball, or juggle or something else you know how to do.

If all else fails, let her invite a friend over.

Answer 8

My 6 year old actually went through this same thing, and I did something I swore I would never do..I got a video game system. I have rules of course about playing, but, he loves it we got some very easy learning type games. Besides this we also got puzzles, and arts and crafts things. His favorite things are paint, glue, tape and paper, popsicle sticks, glitter, and fabric scraps. Nothing helps creativity more than a bunch of random things to make stuff with.

Answer 9

Make crafts. Play bored games. Go to the park. Go to the zoo. The movies. Just go for a walk. Give her dance/horse back riding lessons or put her on a sports team.

Answer 10

Any sort of arts and crafts. The messier the more fun for her. Make sure she has an active role in cleaning up, as well. Chores alleviate boredom, too, and are a responsibility she needs to learn.

Any outdoor activity can be good. Even just taking her indoor toys outdoors. If you have a sand box or garden she can dig and bury or find "treasures". That rosemary plant may not survive it but helping her to learn creative ways of entertaining herself is very much worth the sacrifice. If no garden or sandbox then let her dig in the yard if you have one.

Anything you can do with her, when you can, is, of course, best. Besides, it can easily be as much fun for you. I love looking for rolly-pollys with my nephew even though I hate bugs! His sheer excitement at even one little pill bug is more fun than I could ever have without him.

Practising her reading, writing, and math skills in some way she finds fun can be wonderful. A favourite book, author or subject. Even reading to her is be good.

She can make up plays and act them out for or with you. It doesn't matter if they're good or even make any sense.

Try and think like you did when you were six. Use your imagination. Make her use hers, she's 6, hers is better anyway ;-)

Also consider that she is at an age where testing limits comes into play. Learning that sometimes we just get bored and have to learn to deal with it in a healthy fashion is as important as anything else.

And I go back to chores. Quite often the simple "threat" of "Oh, well, I know a certain bedroom that needs to be cleaned" can be enough for her to find a way to entertain herself quite quickly. If she can't then chores are an important part of life for her to learn so long as they do not exceed her ability.

Remember that as much as we'd love to see them happy every second we can't ever make it so. In trying we can actually do more harm than good.

I'm not a big believer in punishment. It tends to teach fear more than responsibility. Still, time outs if she throws fits at the idea of chores are a good idea. No yelling, no threatening, just a short time out. She's 6, her attention span is quite limited. Even five minutes alone in her room knowing that it means she needs to reevaluate her behaviour is enough. Those five minutes seem like forever to her. And never, ever threaten a time out, or any other form of punishment, without going through with it. Except anything violent, even spanking. Don't even threaten that. So she learns to do the dishes. She's do them out of fear of being hurt by the person she loves most rather than any sense of responsibility.

Still, best options are helping her to come up with ideas that are fun and either creative or educational. Nothing bad will ever come from that.

Answer 11

Haha, I feel your pain. My 6 year old daughter does the same thing.

I buy her tons of books, art supplies (crayons, fingerpaints, play dough, etc), workbooks appropriate for her grade level, and outdoor toys such as jump ropes and balls.

Whenever she whines that she is bored then I tell her, "Well, you should find something to do otherwise I'll find something for you." She knows this involves cleaning her room or something she knows isn't fun.