One easy (and cheap) solution: sidewalk chalk. A few bucks for a box of the chunky chalk can buy hours of entertainment and activity that will give your kids an outlet for their I'm-so-bored energy and keep their brains busy and engaged. Give them a nudge with some ideas for games and you might help them create a new pastime that they can turn to every time boredom hits.
- Hopscotch: Fun and simple and provides great motor skill practice for kids of all ages. Check out YouTube or Google for a quick rule refresher.
- Sidewalk Twister: They can use a few different colors of chalk to draw a Twister board right on the driveway and have fun adding their own creative spin with shapes or numbers.
- Driveway maze: A twisting, looping maze is perfect for younger kids to help them build their visual processing and motor skills.
- Hot lava: Did you ever pretend the floor was lava when you were a kid? Same principle -- draw irregular blobs and circles at random intervals and challenge your kids to avoid any other part of the driveway.
- Alphabet game: Help your preschooler learn to identify letters by sight. Draw all the letters of the alphabet on the driveway and challenge your child to jump (or dance or hop or skip or stomp) to random letters as you call them out.
- Chalk highways: Grab a few toy cars and a few sticks of chalk and challenge your child to draw a road map so they can "drive" on it.
