A child that is very bored needs to be steered towards some interesting activities. This can come in the form of crafts, baking and lots of play time with well-organized, open-ended toys.

How to know when a child is bored

When a child is bored, he may not verbally express his boredom. Instead, he may act in ways that are problematic. Young children especially, often do not have the words or the ability to express their feelings of boredom into words. This attitude is in contrast to adults.

Some different ways that a child may use to express his boredom are:

o A child may look for something to eat or state that he is hungry when he is bored. Of course, children are emotional eaters like adults and boredom can be a trigger to eat.

o A child may feel very restless which normally triggers constant crying for no just cause.

o A child that is bored may pick a fight with a sibling or parent. When a child is bored, he starts looking for something to do. This can result in being argumentative with the other people in the house.

o A child that is bored may dump toys out, searching for something new and different. Children will quickly become bored with toys that can only be played with in one way. At this stage, they yearn for something new and creative.

How to help the child overcome boredom

Children really need help in overcoming boredom. The solution to child boredom is helping him or her to find interesting things to do or work together on something that you both enjoy. Provide the kids with craft materials and boredom will be a thing of the past. Helping a child deal with boredom does not mean that the parent has to play trains for an hour.

Plan a Craft

Kids crafts should be quick and easy, require minimal equipment and materials, and offer satisfyingly instant results - because even crafty kids like to be able see the fruits of their labor in action within minutes rather than hours.

Most children enjoy arts and crafts. Have ample supplies on hand and pull them out at those times when the kids are bored. Painting, gluing and cutting paper are all creative activities that will engage most children.

The essential materials of kid crafts include:

o Paper, crayons, safe scissors, and glue. Paper for kid crafts can include construction paper, plain typing paper, card stock of various colors, and many other options. Even junk mail and old magazines can make interesting art projects. Crayons are nice for younger children and nowadays you can find stores filled with other options, such as washable dry-erase markers, watercolor pencils, and gel pens. Kid crafts supplies can run into money, but even on a budget there are many possibilities.

o Also, materials kids can craft with include recycled junk and found objects. By recycled junk, I'm referring to empty cereal boxes, toothpaste boxes, cardboard from packaging and plastic containers, to name a few.

o One of the most fun and popular kid crafts is making a collage. Kids can glue anything down when making a collage. Use heavy paper for the background, and then let the creativity begin! For an extra challenge, a collage can be built around a theme, like food, animals, or babies. Old magazines can be searched for just the right pictures, which can be cut out and glued to the background. The older child might wish to cut out details from magazine pictures and reassemble them in new and interesting ways. They might cut out interesting words and headlines and add them as well.

o Younger kid crafts can include collages made of glued down pasta, beans, popsicle sticks, leaves, and many other materials. Don't forget about glitter, too. If the budget allows only a few kid crafts splurges, remember that kids of all ages, particularly girls, really enjoy crafting artwork that includes glitter. But whether your kids are boys or girls, young or older, suggest some kid crafts the next time your kids are bored!