5 Creative Summer Boredom Busters For Teens

It’s mid-summer, and that means summer school and soccer camps have come to a close!  During the school year, teens often complain about never having free time.  But in the summer, it feels like they have too much free time!  If your teen is home and wasting their days away sitting on the couch, it’s time for them to kick it into action with these summer boredom busters for teens.  Here are five ideas for teens to bust their summer boredom.

Check out this article if you need ideas on how to get your teen to unplug!

Summer Boredom Busters For Teens To Keep Them From Saying, “I’m Bored”!

Read the classics

Your kids have grown up in an era of screens and instancy.  Long gone are the days where school reports had to be done by pouring over library books for hours on end.  With the rise of streaming websites such as Netflix and Hulu, kids and teens have less of a desire and overall shorter attention spans to sit down and read a book when any television show they want is available at their fingertips.  

Encourage your kids to put the screens down and pick up a book!  They might have forgotten just how lost they can get in the pages, and just how satisfying it is to make it to the end.  Let them choose books that interest them, or have them pick from a list such as this one of “30 Books That Everyone Should Read at Least Once in Their Lives”!

Earn some extra cash

If your teenager does not have a job yet, there are still plenty of other ways for them to earn money over the summer!  They can mow lawns, walk dogs, babysit, give instrumental music lessons, and maybe even organize a garage sale!  They can advertise to their neighbors through email, or even go door to door with handmade flyers.  

Although working may not seem like a fun summer activity to your teen, explain to them the importance of earning their own money.  Encourage them to save their earnings, but let them reward all of their hard work by saving up to buy something.  

Volunteer

What better way to pass the time than donating it! If your teen has an altruistic bone in their body, help them find an organization to volunteer with.  Whether it be at an animal shelter, a soup kitchen, or a retirement home, there is nothing more satisfying than knowing you have helped someone in need.  They’ll help others and feel good while doing it, too!  (Not to mention that it looks good on a résumé!)

Redecorate their room

As your child enters their teen years, they have probably outgrown their Winnie the Pooh wall decals and baseball bedsheets.  It’s most likely time for their room to get an update.  Let your teens dream up plans for redecorating their room – new paint, rearranging furniture, maybe even a new comforter!  

Have your child clean out their closets and dressers, too, and decide what they would like to keep and what they don’t mind getting rid of.  This is a sneaky way to get your teens to clean their room while letting them have the power to redesign it!

Cook/Bake

It never hurts to have another chef in the house.  Challenge your teen to learn how to cook three new meals.  The best part is, you get to be the taste tester!  Cooking is a valuable skill that will help them when they live on their own in college and beyond!

If your teen is really at a loss for things to do over the summer, put them to work!  Compile lists of chores and tasks for them to do daily.  “Idle hands are the devil’s workshop!” Your child won’t be bored this summer with the summer boredom busters for teens!