There are months that have just too many holidays and extended weekends. While they offer the necessary break form the mundane routine, they can be overwhelming for kids.
If holidays translate into restless, boring days for your children and a struggle for you to keep them constructively occupied with fun STEM activities, this awesome list of games to play when bored will give you ample options to choose from.
Our carefully curated list of screen-free games to play when bored with friends as well as free online games to play when bored, will make sure your kids (and you!) are never short of ideas to entertain themselves.
Best Games to Play When Bored
These exciting games to play when bored can be played in a group with friends, family and even during classroom breaks.
Some of these fun boredom busters can be played in just 10 minutes while others might require more leisure time and are more apt for indoors during summer afternoons, rainy or chilly days.
1. Paper Dance
Perhaps one of the best games that is enjoyed across all ages is Paper Dance. It is a perfect game to play when bored.
What you need is:
- Old Newspapers
- Music player
How To Play?
Step 1: Spread the newspapers on the floor and designate these spots to your children.
Step 2: Play the music. Participants have to dance on the paper and cannot step out. Ones who do are out of the game.
Step 3: As the game progresses, keep folding the paper. The one who survives till the end is the winner.
Related: Check out Best Toys for Kids for Every Age that lists games from a wide range of genres and are certain to banish boredom blues!
2. Truth Or Dare
This is a classic game to play with kids and family. Fun end entertaining, you can always bank on a game session of fun truth or dare questions to bid bye to boredom.
It is one of the best games to play in 10 minutes or under! A great game for road trips as well passing time on the move or while waiting in a que.
3. Minute To Win It Games
These quick to set-up games are excellent at entertaining kids and whole family. Fast-paced,exciting and easy to set-up, they are just perfect for a boring day!
4. Play Dots and Boxes
Remember playing it in a boring class? Now play it with your kids. And in case you have forgotten how to play this super boredom killer game, here are the instructions:
How To Play:
The game starts with a matrix of dots. The objective is to make squares by connecting the dots. The game begins with one of the two players connecting the adjacent dots with a straight line.
Take turns connecting these dots. The player who connects the fourth side to make a complete square, gets to put his initial in the square and gets another chance to make a line.
The player with the maximum initialised squares wins the game! Sounds easy? We bet it’s not so simple.
It is a great critical thinking game for kids that will get your child (and you!) contemplating and planning.
Related: If you are a fan of such games, check out Best Pen & Paper Games that you can play alone as well as with friends and family.
5. DIY Bird Feeder
This is an excellent craft to banish boredom for hours. Your child will probably spend 10-15 minutes making it and hours watching birds feeding on her creation.
What you need:
- Empty toilet roll
- Dough
- Water
- Assortment of grains
- Twine
How To Make It:
Step 1: Paste dough on the toilet roll using wet hands. Water will help stick the dough on the roll.
Step 2: Roll the layered roll onto the assortment of grains, gently pressing it so that the grains stick to the dough.
Step 3: Make holes, 1” form the top of the roll, on opposite faces. Run twine through it and tie a knot to hang it. Your bird feeder is ready!!
Quick Tip: Sneak in a few Riddles for Kids to instantly banish boredom!
6. Would You Rather Questions Game
This game is perfect for ever occasion! Be it friends or family, a session of kid friendly would you rather questions is always entertaining.
Related: Also check out Fun Indoor Activities for Kids for interesting and entertaining ideas to keep kids happy indoors on a rainy day!
7. Play Stone, Paper, Scissor
Also called Rock, Paper, Scissor – This classical hand game is always a great hit with kids. Engage in some competitive gaming with this quick game that is sure to vanquish boredom.
This is a fun game to play when bored in class or looking for quick brain break.
8. Race a Paper Boat
This is sure to rekindle your childhood memories. Teach your children to make paper boats and let them sail those boats in tub.
You can take it a notch further by making a long stream of foil sheet. You will need to fold the foil at the sides to make a long stream. Now let your children race their paper boats.
Related: These Easter Activities are great for keeping kids busy. You certainly don’t have to wait for Easter to indulge in them…just tweak the theme and you are all set with 37 activities to entertain kids!
9. DIY Kinetic Sand
Kinetic sand is not only an excellent boredom buster but also therapeutic! Let your kids make magic sand and explore its texture.
Related: If your child loves getting hands-on, try Preschool Science Activities (or Science Activities for Kids of All Ages) that will send boredom flying out of the window.
10. Finger Painting
This one can never go wrong with kids. It is great for enhancing their creativity with little mess. Let them make bugs, insects, patterns out of their fingerprints.
Related: Check out more Fun Toddler Activities to keep your little ones entertained and smiling.
11. DIY Wrapping Paper From Old Newspapers
What better way to keep children entertained while teaching them to recycle. This is perfect activity to engage kids on Earth Day as well!
All you need is:
- Water paints
- Straws
Step 1: Add blobs of water paints of your choice on the newspaper.
Step 2: Blow on the blobs using straw to make interesting, unique patterns.
Step 3: Let the newspaper dry. Ta-da, your very own wrapping paper is ready.
Quick Tip: Get kids out of the boredom loop with these Sleepover Games! Trust us, these super entertaining games are great boredom busters and not just for sleepovers.
12. Play Never Have I Ever Game
One of the time tested boredom buster, Never Have I Ever Questions for kids never fail to cheer kids up! Perfect game to play on a long car trip or a rainy afternoon.
13. Tongue Twisters
Best boredom buster if you don’t want to play with the kids. Let them try to say a silly tongue twister and they cannot disturb you till they say it 8 times together.
14. Blow Bubbles
Blowing bubbles is such a calming and relaxing activity. Definitely fun, blowing bubbles is a favourite pastime with kids across all ages.
15. Make a House of Cards
This is a classic boredom buster that all of us have played! Let your child try to make a house of cards and learn some balancing skills.
Quick Tip: Try to make these fun things with paper when bored. These DIY Paper Toys are easy and so much fun!
16. Learn the Yo-Yo
A simple toy like a yo-yo can be great boredom buster. Hand out a yo-yo to your little one and let her have some rolling fun!
17. Play Clapping Games
Clapping games are great to build concentration and coordination skills. Add some clapping games like Miss Mary, Say-say-say and the likes to add fun and laughter to boring days.
18. DIY Bookmark
Another creative way to dispel boredom! Take some craft paper, wrapping sheets lying around the house and turn them into beautiful bookmarks. Do make rocket-shaped ones to fit into your STEM books.
19. Make Lemonade
Children love to pitch in and what better way to teach them how to fix a drink for themselves. The only pitfall of this activity is that you might end up drinking lemonade 5-6times a day.
20. Play Hopscotch
What could be a better game than hopscotch. You don’t necessarily need a partner and is great for motor skills as well.
You can use a dry erase marker to draw one inside the house on a rainy day.
21. Learn Jump Rope
Another classic but forgotten game. Teach your children to jump rope. It is the best physical activity ever! Plus there are just so many ways you can jump the same old rope.
22. Make a Map of Your Room
Spark your child’s spatial skills by encouraging her to draw a map of her room. Let her observe, draw and then color the map. Good to keep your child busy for an hour.
23. Engage in Thumb Battles
This is the most played game with friends in classroom to get rid of boredom. You don’t need anything and it can be played anywhere.
24. Challenge in Arm Wrestling
Why not take thumb wrestling further by engaging in some arm wrestling? Your kid is sure to have fun with this one.
25. Build Your Flexibility With Animal Yoga
26. Paint a Rock
27. Play ‘Guess Who’
Ask your child to guess the animal/fruit/vegetable by giving her clues. This one is sure to sharpen their logical and reasoning skills.
28. Fire Your Vocabulary With Word Antakshari
Replace songs with words and help your kid become a word wizard. Play this game of the ending letter to fire up your kid’s vocabulary.
How To Play?
The game needs at least two played and is best played in a group. The first person says a word and it’s ending letter gives the starting alphabet for a word to the next participant.
Players who cannot come up with a new word with the right alphabet get eliminated. The game lasts till there is one winner.
29. Guessing Games
These are great boredom busters. And can play be anywhere…while travelling or waiting for your turn at a doctor’s appointment.
They are really easy and does a wonderful job at banishing boredom!
30. Snap Snap!
This is one way to keep children busy while you catch up on your cup of green tee, though not without supervision.
Hand your kids a pair of child friendly scissors, a bunch of old magazines and let them cut pictures out. It is a superb motor exercise and works wonders with your child’s fine motor skills.
31. Make a Family Collage
What better way to utilise extra time than making a family collage. Not only children love to go through pictures but also love making these memory murals.
32. Blindfold Guess
This game gets kids really excited. All you need is a blindfold (a simple scarf would do) and a few fruits and spices. Now blindfold your child and let him taste different fruits and guess their names.
33. Play Charades
Dumb charades is quite a boredom buster and really popular among older kids. Take turns to enact and guess the names of popular movies or popular stories.
34. Play Freeze Dance
This one is favorite with children. An easy game to play and burn extra energy.
35. Make a Sensory Bin
Sensory bins are perfect tools for children to explore the world around them. Young children particularly like touching and feeling things to get a better grasp of their environment.
Sensory bins also encourage independent and imaginary play, which is vital for young children.
36. Fix a Peanut Butter Sandwich
Nothing can be more exciting for a young child than doing grown-up things. Here is one that can be easily done without any worry of harm.
Just hand over a few slices of brown bread, peanut butter (or jam) and let your little one make a peanut butter sandwich.
37. Get Bowling
Make use of the empty plastic bottles lying around the house to whip up some bowling action. You don’t necessarily need speciality sets! Set a reasonable goal and watch as boredom vanishes into thin air with this simple game.
38. Make a Picture Using Stickers
Ask your tot to make a picture using his collection of stickers instead of drawing.
This boredom buster is an excellent way to get the creative juices of your child flowing besides being a hands-on motor skill practice.
39. Learn to Fold T-shirts and Napkins
It is essential to teach children life skills and give them a hands-on practise doing them.
This makes them responsible and also keeps the classic phrase ‘I am bored’ away, when they know what saying that might lead to folding laundry.
Jokes apart, folding laundry can be fun for kids if you give them the right equipment.
This neat tutorial of t-shirt folding board will just do the trick and of course ease the laundry folding for you( even if it is just for a day!).
Related: Also check out Fun Educational Preschool Activities to sneak learning into play.
40. Build a Fort With Bed Sheet
Kids simply love this and can stay nestled inside their forts for hours. It could be their go-to place or their cozy reading nook or simply a place to enact their wildest fantasies.
Besides this, making their own bedsheet forts is also a hands-on lesson in engineering for kids.
41. Learn to Draw Animals With Numbers/Alphabets
42. Write Thank You Notes
Cultivate gratitude in your children by encouraging them to write simple, heart-felt thank you notes for family members and friends.
Gratitude notes help children count their blessings and appreciate what others do for them. Often these countless, small acts go un-noticed.
But when you encourage children to think about their blessings and make gratitude notes, you wire them for lifelong happiness.
43. Dress Up As a Sumo Wrestler
Be a Sumo Wrestler and dress up like one by tying pillows around your tummy and putting on mommy’s tees. This is a real fun game to play when bored!
44. Play Dart Game
Dart games are wonderful at improving hand-eye coordination – a skill all children need to develop. Dart games can be played solo or with the entire family, either way they are pure fun!
45. Make a Balance Beam
This is great activity. What you will need is Masking tape.
How To Make it:
Step 1: Paste masking tape on the floor representing a straight line.
Step 2: Test your body balance by walking tip-toe on the tape. Notch it up by balancing a book on your head.
46. Challenge Your Fitness with ‘Keep the Balloon Afloat’ Game
Burn that extra energy children have with this simple game. All you need to do is play a song and they have to keep the balloon afloat in the air till the song stops.
47. Engage in Jenga
Jenga tiles is our all time favourite boredom buster for a number of reasons. Firstly, it is purely fun and never goes out of style.
Secondly, the tiles double up as loose parts and inspire numerous child lead play. From building structures to domino effect, these tiles pack a punch.
Related: Also try making Coin Structures that are simply awesome at practising balancing skills as well as vanquishing boredom
48. Strike a Cord With Carom Board
This classic game will keep your kids and family far from boredom and is perfect competitive game for family game nights.
It works amazingly well for enhancing hand-eye coordination and motor skills.
49. Play Pattern Match
Sharpen your child’s auditory skills as you make a pattern of sounds with your hands (like clapping or snapping) and let your little one repeat it.
Excellent for concentration and observational skills, this game can be played with kids across all ages.
50. Silly Rhyming
Play this fun, silly game to burst into giggles. The only rule is that the words should rhyme. Great for building literacy skills and enhancing vocabulary, this one is a must try!
These games are sure to hit a jackpot with your kids. Many of them can be played in groups as well.
Make sure you have a healthy bowl of snacks ready to feed the empty tummies after all the fun.
51. Trivia
Trivia questions for kids are just apt at keeping children mindfully engaged and far from boredom.
With over 300 questions covering varied topics and difficulty levels, these Trivia Questions for Kids are a sure shot fix for boredom.
Besides, kids love answering to Trivia questions and showing off their knowledge. What’s more, these trivia questions are fun way to learn new fun facts and build knowledge.
52. Write a postcard
A wonderful way to utilize extra time and learn to be grateful. Hand postcards to your children and allow them to write whatever they wish to family members of their choice.
They are sure to relish these postcards and keep them as memory souvenirs.
53. DIY Popsicle Stick Catapult
Popsicle sticks catapult in an easy science activity for kids that promices lots of fun. Let your kids make one and have fun launching pom-poms to see whose aim gets farthest.
Related: Get your kids busy with these fun activities to do with toothpicks.
54. Learn to Catch
Another game to play when bored which does not require intervention. What you need is music and a ball. Let your child throw and catch the ball till the music stops. If the ball falls, she looses
55. Draw an Illustration and Make Up a story
56. I Spy Bugs
57. Brain Teasers
Brain Teasers are an excellent way to kill boredom and get minds racing. They are fun, intriguing and always manage to catch attention. These excellent boredom busters can be played anytime, anywhere and a perfect way to entertain kids on a long boring trip.
58. Card Games
Card games promise wholesome family entertainment and are a wonderful boredom buster. You will be surprised how fun and entertaining a humble deck of playing cards can be!
59. Look for 4 Leaf Clovers
What you need:
- Green craft paper
- Pencil
- Scissors
How To Play
Related: Virtual Free Trips are another great way to banish boredom and explore far-off places from the comfort of your home.
Online Games for Kids to Play When Bored
Free Online games are a great way to dispel boredom and keep children gleefully engaged.
Most of these game-apps and online games for kids are designed in a way to work on a plethora of skills including memory, reasoning and creative skills. That makes a win-win for both parents and kids.
59. Quick, Draw
Another drawing/sketching online game for kids to play when bored, this one pitches your child against Google’s Neural Networks.
The challenge is to draw something, for Google to recognise, within a stipulated time. It is like playing fast paced Pictionary with Google. Very interesting!
60. Sushi Monster
Make practising math fun with this game app for kids that lets your child practise addition and multiplication skills.
This game app works at building speed and accuracy and is perfect for kids 7years and above.
61. Mazes & More
Mazes & More brings the classic game of mazes online to vanquish boredom. It is just the game to play when bored online!
Guide the dot to find a way out of each increasingly complex labyrinth in this game app for kids. Excellent to build logical reasoning skills and critical thinking skills the fun way!
62. Toontastic 3D
This wonderful creative game app for kids allows children to create and share their digital stories with their friends and family online.
It comes with handy tools, which make the entire process of creating an animated short movie really easy and simple. This online game to play when bored is an excellent way to get your kid started with Filmmaking for kids.
63. Lego Tower
A great building game for your lego crazy kid, Lego Tower is an exciting online game to play when bored.
This online game for kids allows your child to build towers, business centers and apartments where mini-figurines can live. Sounds fun? We bet it is! Suitable for kids 4years and above.
64. Pepi Play
Got an imaginative child who loves to construct stories? Pepi Play is just the online game you need.
With fantasy characters like gnomes, fairies, knights, and dragons, it will unleash creativity and imagination of your child while working on their language and vocabulary skills. This interactive game for kids is sure to delight kids.
65. Mekorama
This iOS based online game for kids works on spatial reasoning and logical skills. Help a robot navigate through the maze to reach its goal.
Its charming graphics and cute robot helps it earn extra points on the visual level. Mekorama is a great puzzle online game to play when bored.
Suitable for kids four years and above.
66. EpicMem – Brain training
Designed by a neurologist, this online game for kids works on enhancing cognitive skills and working memory.
It is a tweaked and better version of memory games that require you to match the pairs. Certified by educational app store, this is a good way to practise memory skills for kids above 7years of age.
67. MentalUp
MentalUP is an award-winning online brain game for kids to play when bored. Suited for kids between 4-13 years, it works on critical thinking, cognitive skills and divergent thinking.
The brain game app for kids challenges children to unique and varied problems, encouraging them to think out-of-the-box and learn the art of problem solving.
Perfect for kids three years and above.
68. Draw It
69. Podcasts
Simply structure a fun quiz at the end of each podcast and turn listening to podcasts into a nifty game to keep your little ones busy while honing their attention skills.
There are a gamut of podcasts for kids ranging from stories, science, history, news to music to keep kids and adults entertained. Choose any topic that interests your kiddo and let the game begin.
70. Ken Ken Puzzles
These math puzzles are a fun way to test your math acumen while bidding goodbye to boredom blues. These free online games are perfect for short breaks and mostly take under 15 minutes to complete.
We especially love how they sneak in logical reasoning through play and build math skills in kids.
Related: If you are looking for fun ways to teach maths, check out Math Games for Kids.
71. Pac-Man
Your kids will love playing this fast paced free online game that is one of the best boredom busters. We bet you playing it (and still will!) in your childhood!
72. Mahjong
This free online Mahjong will not only banish monotony of the day but also build observation skills. It is a great choice for online games for kids.
73. Chess
This classic game has entertained generations and now with technology at our side, you don’t necessarily need a partner. Play it online…against your computer or with remote players to test your mental prowess.
74. Tetris
Tetris is always fun and just the perfect solution to boredom. Be it kids or adults, this game is for everyone.
75. Skribbl
This online game for kids is just too much fun to play with friends. An exciting and fun amalgamation of guessing and drawing game, it is super entertaining and one of the best free online games to play when bored.
76. Card Games
Online card games for kids are great way to pass time. There are plenty of options to choose from and play online.
FAQ
1. Dots and Boxes
2. Tic-Tac-Toe
3. Stone-Paper-Scissors
4. Snap
5. Blindfold Guess
1. Quick Draw
2. Maze games
3. Pac-Man
4. Sudoku
5. Ken-Ken puzzles
1. Would You Rather
2. Truth or Dare
3. Trivia
4. UNO
5. Stone-Paper-Scissors
6. Thumb Fighting
7. Dot and Boxes
1. Scavenger Hunt
2. Frisbee
3. Catches
4. Ring Toss
5. Bowling
Also Read:
Best Science Activities for Kids
Seriously Silly Jokes for Kids
Kindergarten Fine Motor Skills Decline and 10 activities to get them back!
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