Games for Bored Kids

Bubble Races

• Blowing bubbles has never been so much fun indoors with this amusing bubble game. The object of the game is to see who can blow the largest bubble using a plastic plate, dish washing soap, a flexible plastic straw and some tap water.

  Place a few drops of dish washing soap in the middle of your plate. Position your plate over the sink faucet and allow the tap water to slowly run over the soap until it almost fills the plate.

  Carefully bring the plate over to the nearest flat surface for bubble races. You can give each child their own plate of bubble soap or let the kids blow bubbles in the same plate. Give each child a straw and have them slowly and carefully blow into the water. They have to blow slowly to create large bubbles, which may take some trial and error, but they'll have fun trying to get it right.

Create an Animal

• The object of the game is to see what kind of animal the kids create based on a few clues. Ask each child to visualize her favorite animal. Whisper a body part in each child's ear, such as "head" or "back legs." The children cannot share which animal they are visualizing or which body part they have.

  Give each child a blank sheet of paper and markers, and ask them to draw their animal's body part. Have each child cut out the animal body part, then ask the kids to guess which animal everyone else has.

  Once they've guessed, now they have to assemble a new animal with their body parts and come to a decision on its name, where it would live, what it eats and what it likes to do in the wild.

Animated Cartoon

• Make your own old-school animated cartoon using a pad of paper and a pencil. You don't have to be an accomplished artist to create an inventive cartoon--just a little patience.

  Draw a figure, dog, box, whatever you want, in the lower left hand corner of the first piece of paper. Make your figure as elaborate as you'd like, but remember that you'll have to recreate the same figure on subsequent pieces of paper.

  On the next piece of paper, draw the same figure, but in a slightly different position. Draw the same figure on the following piece of paper but alter its position slightly from the figure on the previous piece of paper. Continue drawing and moving the figure so that it travels across the paper making funny faces or gestures. When you've finished drawing, staple the book from the side and flip through the book. You'll see your drawing come to life.