How to prevent boredom at home

CEBU, Philippines —  With school out and kids having too much free time for staying at home, boredom can become a problem. The absence of the usual routine – for example, rushing up early mornings to go to school, doing school assignments at night – it’s so easy for the young ones to get bored. And boredom makes creative and productive individuals become slob and lazy, and prompt them to think of other things that are potentially negative.

There are the things to do to prevent boredom:

Read a book. This is a great way to not feel bored. A book has the power to take the reader away – a kind of mental vacation.  It is a rich source of knowledge and, yes, good entertainment to while time away.

It doesn’t matter much of what genre the book is – whether it’s romance, fiction, thriller, mystery or whatever.  And books are easy to come by. There are also books sold at bargain prices everywhere; slightly used but still very good books are now available at a small fraction of their original price tags. If not, there are also public libraries to borrow books from.

Nowadays, there’s also the e-book. Readers may simply download an app to read books for free – from the screens of their laptops or smartphone.

Draw, paint or sketch something. These are good creative exercises for the brain. Also, the result is often something to show off to family members and friends. Any of these activities can fully absorb one’s attention, and time will just fly away. There’s no way for boredom to sneak in.

Drawing, painting or sketching is said to increase a person’s intelligence, a benefit that goes beyond preventing boredom. It improves one’s focus and listening abilities. Or, simply applying colors on a color book is an option, for similar benefits.

Listen to music. Music involves the emotions. For sure, it stimulates the intellect as well – given that a person’s mental landscape. Music also makes a good background when one is busy on something else.

Pursue your line of interests. It’s much easier to think up something to do along one’s spectrum of interests. Perhaps it helps to list down the various things that one thinks would be fun to do, and then decide which thing to do first and next and so on. With several things on the list, there’s a ready activity to resort to when time allows – not a chance for boredom.

There are other effective ways to prevent boredom give the lots of time there is during the summer break.  – REDALYN NEMENSO, CNU Communication Intern