Wednesday Nugget -- and a Mouthful

As a teacher for almost a decade now, I strive to find ways to keep my preschool students engaged and busy, mixing fun and learning in the process.  Therefore, it annoys me to no end to see - hear! - children who cry out "Boring!" or "I'm bored!" when they have nothing better to do.  Nothing ruins my day more than being in the company of a kid who can't seem to be satisfied with anything while an adult racks his/her brain to get the little one out of the spell of boredom.

Not!

From here

I get irritated by all this because, the bottom line is, parents - the world, in fact - do not owe the child any entertainment.  Children who are bored are in fact boring.  Super boring, actually, because they are uninteresting.  And the only way for a child to be interesting is to be interested -- in something, in anything.

From here

Whether it's doing art, curling up with a good book, even watching TV or playing video games (the last two options, I do not really espouse as constructive ways to keep interested), the child must learn to amuse himself/herself.

Hon-some does not hide his disbelief when I tell him that when I do not have work and I stay at home while he's in the office, our television never gets turned on.  But I never get bored.  Because I have a lot of interesting things to do.  I have a niece who whiles away time doodling on paper and making her own toys and actually skips nap time so she can do all the things that interest her.  I have never seen her bored.

Having said that, I wish parents would then expose their children to more activities to ignite their potential passions.  Only then will we rid this world of boring individuals.