Activities for 9yr old boy

[mogs0]

I had a temp mindee today who is 9. He must have told me at least 30 times throughout the day that he was bored eventhough there was quite a lot for him to do.

I'm more used to under 3's apart from my ds who's 8 and a girl mindee who's 10. They seem to spend the day quite happily without being bored so I'm a little stumped as to what activities I can offer temp mindee tomorrow.

Any suggestions?

Some old disused equipment (like a cassette player) to take apart using a screwdriver?

Construction toys - make a model of something.

Collect and identify things found whilst out on a woodland walk.

Running about in a costume of some sort, with play sword in hand.

Help other children use the computer.

Help wash the car.

Making his own comic book

Making a scrapbook for his collector cards or a catalogue of his pokemon or beyblades or whatever

Baking and icing cakes

Cooking lunch (pasta or similar) with light supervision and help with hot water situations

Making rockets out of lemonade bottles

Problem is, girls of 10 are very passive and self-absorbed compared to boys, who are much more gung ho and interesting IMO

(Mum of one girl and three boys here!)

The thing with boys is this;

don't let them get too hungry
take them outside to run about and do something physical
give them a hug

Easy really...

Agree with cat64. Get him outside. Use jumpers for goalposts if necessary

Thanks for all the suggestions! Day 2 with this particular mindee was easier than day 1 and he didn't mention being bored at all!

You've had loads of good suggestions Mogs, and glad your second day was a bit easier!

I have a mindee who is 11 and he constantly tells me he is bored, when i ask him what he wants to do he tells me he doesn't know. I offer suggestions and he says no to all of them most of the time!

Sometimes children are just in the habit of saying they are bored, as it can be a kind of reflex statement, aka 'I'm so depressed' in the case of teenagers. One option is to ban the word!

I have boys that age and they love K'nex and good old Lego

Good point. There's a lot to be said for Lego, and spending time discussing their creations with them.

Yes, I did get ds to bring his big box of Lego down for them to play with and worked a treat for about 20 minutes.

I often ban the word in this house when ds complains he's bored whilst his bedroom is packed full of hardly touched toys!