If you work with children, you’ve probably heard the phrase I’m bored a few (dozen) times. It’s sort of a trigger because we take it personally, as if we aren’t entertaining enough. And, maybe, sometimes we aren’t. And that’s ok. One, I’m not an entertainer. Two, I probably wouldn’t be that entertaining even if I tried. And three… I don’t remember where I was going with this.
See? Now you’re bored. 😂
IT’S OK TO BE BORED
Let’s teach children the truth: Sometimes we all feel bored (me, too), but there are benefits of boredom. My favorite way to get this conversation started is to read I’m Bored by Michael Ian Black. It’s about a little girl who is beyond bored. Kids will relate immediately. She soon finds a potato, starts talking to it, but then gets annoyed because he accuses her of being boring. And how dare he! I mean she’s the one who’s bored. So she starts to demonstrate all the ways in which she is definitely not boring, which of course cures her boredom.
I usually follow this book up with Nothing to Do by Douglas Wood. The book jacket says it perfectly:👉 Every once in a while there comes a day when there is absolutely, positively nothing to do. And that can be great! When there’s empty space on the calendar, there’s time to walk barefoot in the grass, build a fort, catch fireflies, make snow angels, explore, read, imagine, and much, much more. Sometimes, doing nothing is the most important thing in the whole wide world to do.
Other children’s books along these same lines are:
- Blackout by John Rocco
- Let’s Do Nothing! by Tony Fucile
- What Do You Do with a Problem? by Kobi Yamada
- Not a Box by Antoinette Portis
THE BENEFITS OF BOREDOM
Resist the urge to jump in right away when a kid announces their boredom. Boredom gets a bad rap. According to Psychology Today, there are several benefits we can experience when we think there’s little to do:
- Boredom can improve our mental health. Taking a break can be a valuable opportunity to help our overloaded brains relax and alleviate stress. “I’m bored” can be the perfect antidote to our over-scheduled lives.
- Boredom can increase creativity. Boredom can inspire creativity and problem-solving by allowing the mind to wander and daydream. Often, in the absence of highly-scheduled activity, we use our imagination to think in different ways.
- Boredom motivates a search for novelty. Without boredom, humans would not have a taste for adventure and innovation. Dissatisfaction inspires intelligent, curious thinking. It’s what makes us seek out new things, or the next thing. Boredom can lead to daydreaming. This is where great achievements are born.
- Boredom can lead to new goals. Boredom can be a signal that we aren’t doing what we want to be doing. It might mean we’re engaged in an uninteresting situation or in a situation that fails to meet our expectations. Boredom can be just thing that inspires seeking something different.
BOREDOM BUSTERS
IDEA💡: Show children how to keep a Boredom Buster Journal. There’s nothing fancy about this idea at all, but it can lead to important breakthroughs in how they perceive moments of extended down time. (This is a particularly good idea to share with your students’ parents.) In a blank journal, children make note of when they felt bored, how long they were bored, and what resulted from basking in the boredom. Maybe they played a board game they forgot they had. Maybe they organized their closet and now it’s easier to find things. Or maybe they designed and built a new play space for their pet hamster. Who knows? But that’s the point. What patterns do they notice? Do they tend to get bored at the same time every day? Why? Which strategies work and which don’t?
Don’t have a blank journal? You can grab this👆 FREE JOURNAL here.
Invite the children to bring their journals to school so they can share success stories (or frustrations) with their peers. These conversations are important and will help them develop a healthy relationship with moments of nothingness. To make this work though, you have to get their families on board. If children live with others who consistently rescue them from boredom, they’ll be less likely to manage it well as they grow older.
I’M BORED … WHAT’S NEXT?
This post is Part One in a train of thought I have about the benefits of boredom. So, what’s next? Let’s take a look at what can happen when we embrace boredom and create spaces for thinkers to tinker. Part Two👇
Happy teaching!
