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When You're Bored

Bored is the start of something

Play this lessonNarrated out loud. No account, works offline.

Also available in Spanish. The app stops after two lessons a day and suggests something to do away from the screen.

What it teaches

These are the lines the lesson comes back to, and the ones a child actually remembers afterwards.

Bored is the feeling right before an idea.

Pick one before you turn it off.

Nobody remembers a video from last Tuesday.

How it starts

When the screen goes off, you are probably going to feel bored. And bored feels bad enough that most kids will do almost anything to make it stop, including asking for the screen back nine times in a row.

How the lesson goes

Fast ones, by yourself

  1. Build the tallest tower you can
  2. Draw the meanest-looking dinosaur
  3. Race a sock across the floor

Ones that need a person

  1. Ask for a job you get paid for
  2. Teach a grown-up your best joke
  3. Play cards — loser cleans up

Ones that get you outside

  1. Find five things that are green
  2. Count every step to the corner
  3. See how long you can balance

When nothing sounds good

  1. Do it for five minutes anyway
  2. Boring beginnings get interesting
  3. Stopping is allowed after five

The sneaky good ones

  1. Reorganize one shelf your way
  2. Make up a game with real rules
  3. Find out how something works

The question at the end

When is the best time to decide what to do next?

For the grown-up

Every lesson ends by handing the child something to do off the screen, and telling you what was taught so you can use the same words.

Try this today: Say your pick out loud to a grown-up, then go do it for ten minutes. If it's boring for the first two minutes, keep going anyway.

Then: Tell them if it was better or worse than the screen. Be honest either way.

More in Screens

The whole library is free

Twenty-four narrated lessons for ages 4 to 9, in English and Spanish. No account, no sign-up, no ads, and nothing your child does in the app ever leaves the device — you can check that yourself with the network tab open. Open the lessons.