With summer fast approaching, now is a good time to create a menu of device-free, “boredom busting” activities for those inevitable “I’m bored” days.
In case you need a little inspiration, check out Joshua Glenn and Elizabeth Foy Larsen’s “Unbored: The Essential Field Guide to Serious Fun.”
Promoting a “create instead of consume” philosophy, many of the book’s activities encourage kids to make things using common items found around the house. Musically inclined kids can learn how to make a cigar-box guitar or a popsicle-stick harmonica. Youngsters with an interest in nature can get the hang of building a tarp shelter or making seed balls for the garden.
I was a book nerd as a kid (still am — in case you hadn’t noticed), so anything to do with books — even crafts — filled me with happiness. That’s why I was glad to see instructions for making a secret book safe. It requires using a utility knife, so adult supervision is needed, but the end result is a cool place in which to store special items. One request, though — please don’t use library books for this project!
In addition to craft projects, “Unbored” has oodles of interesting facts about the world (did you know ketchup was invented in China as a vegetarian substitute for fish sauce?); kid-friendly advice on how to train grownups (to be ninjas, stop using the word “awesome,” etc.); games; book excerpts; recipes — and much, much more. There are even coded messages that can only be deciphered using a special code key located at the end of the book. A little spycraft to boot!
With more than 300 pages of information on how to have “serious fun,” this week’s title has a summer’s worth of great ideas for both kids and their grownups. Perhaps the book’s back cover says it best: “Explore the world. Test your limits. Dare to be different. Have fun. Get unbored.”
Jan Johnston is the collection development coordinator for the Fort Vancouver Regional Library District. Email her at readingforfun@fvrl.org.