Your boys favorite past times - no media?

[LNC]

My 6yo son is not a fluent reader yet. He reads well to me every day though. He helps a lot around the house, and doesn't complain about being bored ever. He just has a lot time on his hands after school.

My daughter can easily fill her free time with handicrafts, dolls and reading. I'm looking for ideas for him though. Most of his friends have video games which we won't do.

He likes transformers, lego, knex, zoobs, board games etc. The challenge is lost though once he has done the kit several times - and we'll go broke if we keep buying more and more. He likes playmobil (we have a TON of it) but he doesn't play with it for long periods of time.

It's too cold to go outside this week and I need ideas! Thanks!

[sdWTMer]

because I have 2 boys and not just one! The boys are always coming up with something to do together. They love dragging each other on the floor, one has the rope and pulls the other. This can go on for some time! Then, they go into a bedroom and who knows what they do in there! Puzzles, games and such. Listening to music/stories/audiobooks on their shuffles.

HTH

[Karenciavo]

My ds5 puts the Lego kit together 1x and then it's on to other objects. Knex are also good to keep him occupied. Oh, and modeling clay. He opened a shop in our living room and we pay him to build us the necessities, you know, robots, space ships and castles, etc.

[GreenKitty]

Books, Legos, Drawing are some of the main things.

[lynn]

give them all sorts of cookie cutters, plastic knives spoons etc, add some action figures. Kept them busy for a hour or so.

[mktkcb]

Lets see:
Construction paper/scissors/tape
mini tramp
blanket forts
audio books/stories
playdough/clay
scrub cabinets? (ha!)
.......? (I'll keep thinking)

[MoniMoni]

Legos, Knex, Play dough, Wedgits, Tinker toys, and Lincoln Logs, He is building sky-scrapers with the MUS blocks right now. He also like "how to cut paper" (Kumon books) Maze books and dot to dots. I am searching for more difficult books.

[LNC]

I have 3 boys! One is profoundly disabled and the 10yo is in public school/special ed now. So, my 6yo has lost his daytime play buddy. My 10yo is challenging and tended to decide what they played with. I want him to have his "own time" during the day while his brother is at school to do something he enjoys!

My daughter has set aside a bunch of "anything (insert brother's name) wants to do day". She's so cute. They have had many Monopoly and Sorry marathons!

Polymer clay is a good idea - we have a lot of that! Keep the ideas coming!

[Blossom'sGirl]

Ball Rollers. I'm not talking about the ones you buy but the ones you create. We make them out of anything that will hold a golf ball (usually outside) or marble (inside). My boys use blocks, books, old tubes, kitchen items, or even their toys to make neat ball rollers.

We also own a store bought ball roller but they have a harder time with that even though it is neat.

Here's something we like to watch although much more complicated

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bdk5m5IT8NY&feature=related

[Tammyla]

Do you allow him to mix up the Lego kits?

[Adrianne]

Add duct tape, colored electrical tape (dollar store) and markers. This keeps mine busy for hours. We do this about once a month. DH brings home boxes from work. I try to couple it with stories about knights or battles of some sort (where ever we are in SOTW).

HTH,
Adrianne

[Anne/Ankara]

Well, my son is older now (13) but when he was younger he started on several hobbies and past-times that he still continues, such as chess, music, art. I wanted to steer him toward fulfilling activities that he could enjoy spending time on, and that would lead to greater satisfaction as he got older, so that he wouldn't be bored with "nothing to do." I also wanted him to learn more computer-stuff (elementary programming, etc) and cooking, but these ideas didn't really take hold. Oh well!

[LNC]

Chess - cool idea! And art, I have a lot of art curriculum that I never get to. Maybe my daughter can lead him through them and drawing more. Maybe we'll get him started on piano lessons also. Thanks!

[shanmar]

Depending on their personality, art is a great pass time. I would get thoses books that walk you through drawing different animals and such. Clay is good too. Mine are older now, but that used to do the trick. He isn't too young to start learning how to bake, or make homemade playdough. How about scrapbooks, using photos or cut outs from magazines?

BTW It is never to cold to go out and play! :) (Of course I grew up in Fairbanks Alaska, so my opinion might be skewed!)

[chickenpatty]

My boys do all the typical stuff (legos, playdough...). Their favorite past-time is building with the couch cushions.

Today, of all things, they've decided to start sewing. I guess after watching their sisters make things they wanted to try it to. My 5 year old made a pillow (sort of). And the 7 year old is cutting out shapes and sewing them onto a piece of fabric. The 4 yr old just liked the thrill of handling a needle and sharp scissors. (Oh, and he also enjoyed cutting fabric into millions of tiny bits.)

An idea I haven't used yet, but sounded nice, was to fill a large container about 1/4 of the way with macaroni noodles and let them play in that with trucks, spoons, etc... I've done this with sand in the past & it was hard to clean up. The noodles would be easier.

[PariSarah]

BTW It is never to cold to go out and play! :) (Of course I grew up in Fairbanks Alaska, so my opinion might be skewed!)

I was going to say the same thing! Well, I was going to make an exception if you lived in Alaska, but maybe I don't even need to do that!

[one l michele]

My oldest (7.5) will build with his tools in his workshop in the basement, draw house plans and write contracts, or build with Legos.

My middle (6) will draw, put together puzzles, or play with the Safari line of Imaginext.

My youngest (4) will play with Hess trucks or go down to the basement and kick soccer balls into the rebound net (the ball comes back to him), work on his golf swing, or kick footballs off his Tee.

[Lorna in the boonies]

My son disappears with every single cardboard box that comes into this house. He turns them into all sorts of things and they are generally unrecognizable as former cardboard boxes by the time he's done with them. He has all sorts of ideas and I don't have to do anything other than let him have the boxes. When he was about 5, one of his Christmas presents was a boxful of tape. It was by far his favorite present that year. Scotch tape, masking tape, packing tape, electrical tape -- I bought every kind I could find. (Went well with the boxes.)

He really enjoys illusions, origami, juggling, ventriloquism, and stilt-walking, and is trying (unsuccessfully so far, but he just got it at Christmas) to master the unicycle. What started his love affair with impressing people (because, to be honest, that is what it is) was a friend giving him the book Practical Origami when he was 6 or 7.

I know they're all different, but those are the things that make mine tick -- inventing "contraptions" and performing tricks.

[Tia in Wa]

I got mine a book of how to draw dragons from Michael's and a couple of sketch pads from the dollar store. He loves them. Also he likes to play with coin conectors we have space ships and thing made of pennies all over the house. My nephew flies around with a towel cape pretending to be ?

[Mamagistra]

I don't recommend this, but my ds4 can stay occupied for a looooong time with a Phillips screwdriver. :eek: Funny how quiet he gets...

[MoniMoni]

I don't recommend this, but my ds4 can stay occupied for a looooong time with a Phillips screwdriver. :eek: Funny how quiet he gets...

Yes! And not a fresh battery to be found. Even broken, ugly, never played with (even girly) toys seem to have new batteries!

[Laura Corin]

Lego works for hours, but we don't keep the kits together. Once they've been made once and fallen apart, the pieces go into the Lego box and Hobbes spends all afternoon creating new models.

Laura

[Mamagistra]

Yes! And not a fresh battery to be found. Even broken, ugly, never played with (even girly) toys seem to have new batteries!

Exactly! :D