Boredom

A Bit of Boredom

Today did indeed involved some boredom, but to my surprise the boys coped very well and if I think about it the reason they are never bored is because they do indeed very quickly find things to do.

We usually watch TV for an hour in the morning when normal people are still asleep (only half an hour in term time) but due to bad behaviour this had been banned this morning so they did have to find something else to do, which they did very effectively. They are so much nicer together when TV is banned. Last November we did have a ban on TV that lasted until CBeebies the Christmas specials started - it was amazing the change in the boys behaviour. We will be doing this again once school starts. This is in fact how my activity lists started as I had one then to stop the "need" for TV.

Anyway where was I....

After a morning of tennis again we did have a quiet afternoon, it involved them playing on the Wii for 40 mins whilst I listened to a pod cast, but then we (I) had to do something that didn't involve a screen so we went out to get supplies for some experiments! Our main purpose was to make Elephants Toothpaste. I got this idea from a great blog Fun at home with kids

As we were getting the equipment ready the boys totally stressed me out so I chucked them outside (to experience boredom!) for 15 minutes in order for me to calm down. I looked out and they were doing chalk "paintings" (very handily on the list so now ticked off!) which was lovely to watch - lets call it modern art!

 

Then we got back to Elephant Tooth Paste. We didn't get hold of the exact strength of Hydrogen Peroxide so it was not as effective, but still great fun - the boys loved playing with the foam afterwards.

This was our second attempt, we used blue colouring the first time, but they loved it so much we did it again.  It produces a very smooth foam and is very warm.

We then tried our old favourite Ketchup volcano, but improvised with a homemade volcano as I couldn't be bothered to get the "real" one. It is very effective - its just ketchup a bit of water and bicarbonate of soda. I didn't put enough ketchup in and had to top it up with vinegar hence the colour!

However I was forced to give in and get the "real" volcano which was actually not as good in my opinion!

All these experiments took about 15 mins in total (I always think it will take longer) but then the boys entertained themselves with the sand and bubbles and foam for 45 minutes (I am not exaggerating that's how I wrote this!).

It was lovely watching them, until they decided to tip all the muck, which, by that time included a lot of stones and mud, over a freshly swept patio! They did a pretty good job of tidying it up though which involved a lot of getting wet!

It has been a lovely "quiet" afternoon - but tomorrow is a trip to the cinema so even quieter really!

Thank you for getting this far I think I could get hooked on this blog writing!