I’m a mom of five children. And even though we homeschool and we limit our kids time on media – both games and movies, it is amazing how when the electricity goes out summer, winter, or in between, the phrase out of several of my children’s mouths isn’t, “Mom, I’m hot” or “Mom, I’m cold.” No, the first phrase out of several of their mouths is, “Mom, I’m bored.” Boredom is the bane of every mother in good times, it’s even worse if something goes wrong!
Now, as my children start to grow up, they do tend to grow out of that for the most part, but the younger they are, the more they seem to depend on entertainment outside what they can do for themselves.
What if the electricity were off for a long time though? Yes, there are books, but even my oldest child who is a voracious and break-neck reader would probably consume all the books in my house in less than a month, and I have about 9 bookcases with various amounts of books on each.
How do I prepare to stay sane and keep my kids from killing each other if the electricity were out for a long period of time? I have several tools in my kit that I’ll share with you today.
Boredom Buster 1: Books
Yes, we start here, and we have TONS of books. I’m going to guess that we have over 1500 books in our house. But those books will only last us for so long, so I have a backup.
To help augment the books in the house, I have purchased two extra kindles when they were on sale for $50 a couple of Black Friday’s ago. On each of these Kindles, I loaded up a TON of books – probably over 500. While not each of my children will enjoy each book on there, this will help provide extra reading materials.
You may wonder how I afforded them all? I didn’t. Most of them are classics and most of them were FREE. Don’tcha just love that word? I know I do. Among our favorite, free books are GA Henty Adventure Novels, The Scarlett Pimpernel Novels, Robinson Crusoe books and a ton of classic books, all for FREE!
How do you find books for free on Kindle? There are several ways you can go about it. If you want a list of books e-mailed to you each day – this list includes both free and paid books, you can go to BookBub.com.
Amazon itself has a list of books that are currently free on Kindle. You can pick as many of those books up as you want to. You can find the list here. It changes daily so make sure you visit it often.
Boredom Buster 2: Card Games
I tried to look up the number of games that can be played with one deck of cards. Google didn’t seem to have an answer, which tells you how stinkin’ many different games of cards there are out there.
The great thing is that there are card games that can be played by one person, two people, or many people! We picked up a box of 10 decks of cards and the Hoyle Card Games Book to learn how to play different card games.
Besides games that can be played with a standard deck of cards, there are tons of games that can be played with specialized cards like Uno, Skipbo, Phase 10, Dutch Blitz and more.
Boredom Buster 3: Board Games & Table Games 
Yes, there are standard board games like Monopoly, Risk, Aggravation, Life, Clue, Axis and Allies, Chess, Trivial Pursuit and others, but we have found some really enjoyable and not as common board games like Pandemic, Wits End, Tsuro, Memoir 44, Worst Case Scenario, Carcassonne, and others.
Some of our favorite table games are LCR, Codenames, 5 Second Rule, RummiCube, Apples to Apples, Taboo, Scattergories, and Outburst.
Boredom Buster 4: Drawing and Art Supplies
It doesn’t take a lot of items to draw. If you have a pencil and a piece of paper, you can draw. Sometimes, especially children who doubt their own abilities, don’t know what to draw and feel overwhelmed by sitting in nature and wanting to draw what they see. A book like 500 Drawing Prompts is a wonderful way to help them get over their hesitancy or the feeling of being overwhelmed. Amazon also has unlined comp books that can be used for drawing.
Boredom Buster 5: Musical Instruments
Unless your children are playing an electric guitar or an electric piano, most instruments don’t require electricity to play. Now granted, when your kids are learning to play a musical instrument, you do have to “pay your dues” as the saying goes. Your kids will stink for a while, but it’s so worth it once they get past that stage. I have two who play instruments beautifully now. One of the others is starting to sound pretty good, and then two of mine haven’t started playing an instrument yet. Then once your children can play together, it will be amazing!
The only thing I want to remind you of when it comes to instruments, please make sure you have extra parts. For a guitar, make sure that you have several extra sets of strings. The same goes for a violin. Have extra reeds for clarinets, etc.
Also if they aren’t already playing an instrument, make sure that you have books on how to play and books that will give your kids actual music to play which will grow with them.
Boredom Buster 6: Fiber arts – Knitting, Crocheting
Knitting and crocheting are both fairly easy to pick up with practice. You don’t need a lot of equipment to do either. You’ll need various sizes of crochet hooks or knitting needles. Circular and double pointed knitting needles are also very helpful, and of course, you’ll need yarn. If you or your children have never knitted or crocheted before, then you’ll also want some knitting instruction books 1, 2, or 3, or crochet instruction books 1, 2, or 3 for each with basic patterns.
Boredom Buster 7: DVDs
We do have a few digital access movies, but we have more DVDs by FAR! There is a method to my madness. If we are ever without electricity, I have a portable DVD player, rechargeable batteries, and a solar power battery charger. (Which is also how I plan to charge my kindles #1 above). If I need some sanity time myself, I can give my kids a DVD on that. Yes, it’ll be five kids huddled around an eight-inch screen, but they will be able to watch a movie!
Boredom Buster 8: CD’s 
While we honestly listen to a LOT of Spotify, we do have over 500 CDs with stories, books on tape, teaching CDs, preaching CDs, and music CDs. These can all be played on the portable DVD player that I purchased.
Boredom Buster 9: Whittling
One way for children to get out some energy while staying still is to use their hands. While whittling takes practice, small wood tends to be fairly plentiful around just about anywhere. Learning how to whittle could give you or your kids something to do to stave off boredom. You’d need an instruction book, a whittling tool, and wood from your backyard or you could buy blocks.
Boredom Buster 10: Needlecrafts – cross stitch, embroidery
These tend to be really long-term types of projects, so they lend themselves really well to being a boredom buster! Counted Cross-stitch can come either as a kit or just as a pattern for which you have to buy the various colors of thread and Aida cloth. Embroidery requires a bit more learning. If you’ve never done it before, you’ll want an instructional book and a kit from which to work.
Boredom Buster 11: Outdoor Games
If there’s no reason to keep your kids inside and it’s not the dead of winter, there are tons of games for your kids to play outside. Besides the ones that take no equipment like “What Time Is It Mr. Fox,” and “Redlight, Greenlight,” and “Mother May I,” and more others than I can count, there are also other simple outdoor games that don’t require a lot of equipment like frisbee, kickball, basketball (if you have a goal), soccer, and others. If you have airsoft guns, that’s a fun way to spend an afternoon, as is archery if you have bows and arrows.
What About You?
Have you given thought to how you will keep your kids and yourself from going crazy if you are without power for a prolonged period of time? What items have you stocked up on to head boredom off at the pass? Are there any items that you feel that you need to buy, but you haven’t yet? I’d love to hear! Comment below or if you got this by e-mail, hit reply to the e-mail and let me know.
Remember, knowledge isn’t just knowing something. It’s living it!
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