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bored teen

They’re socially-distanced, hormonal, maybe driving someone crazy. Grab 71 ideas for the quarantined, bored teens in your life.

Bored teens? Start here.

  1. Make lip balm, lip scrub, or bubble bath with stuff you have around the house.
  2. Start a devotional or journal. (My daughter and I are trying The Courageous Creative. Sometimes we double it with face masks.)
  3. Pedicure thyself.
  4. Play the Name Game.
  5. Play the Newlywed Game for families (grab it here).

  6. Camp in your yard.

  7. Help out a parent.
  8. Play Charades or Pictionary.
  9. Go on a bike ride.
  10. Clean out the thing that used to look like your closet.
  11. Create your own memes or social media graphics on Canva.com.

  12. Create a “Quarantunes” playlist to share with other bored teens.

  13. Read to one of your sibs using a book you loved as a kid.
  14. Try out computer games the ‘rents might not mind you playing, like Simple Planes or Simple Physics.
  15. Plan a video scavenger hunt with friends: On a group video chat, a parent/moderator gives a list of items around the house to gather one at a time.
  16. Have a strategy game marathon. My kids like the usuals: Risk, Diplomacy, Dominion, Axis & Allies.

  17. Purchase a pogo stick for big kids/adults.

  18. If your child is a writer, have them sign up for NaNoWriMo.
  19. Make dinner. Crush it.
  20. Order supplies for henna tattoos, and make easy designs on each other.
  21. Read a chapter book together.
  22. Design artwork for your room; maybe start with a canvas.
  23. Read up on tips to great photography.  Challenge yourself to post one of your photos on social media every day.bored teen

  24. Solve a digital escape room.

  25. Find a great audiobook. If you want, make the number of books absorbed a competition with someone else.
  26. Memorize Scripture for a reward.
  27. Download (um, and use) a free workout app, like Down Dog’s HIIT, Barre, or 7-minute workout apps–all free until May 1, 2020.
  28. Take an online course for something you’ve always wanted to do: martial arts, guitar, drawing, architecture, cake decorating.
  29. Practice the instrument you wish you were good at but aren’t yet.
  30. Do at least one positive, productive thing toward social justice: Write a senator. Find out how to be more green. Create a meme. Research what organization doing great stuff in your area you could volunteer for after all this is over.
  31. Hang tissue flowers or origami at different lengths of thread from your ceiling.
  32. Go on a hike.
  33. Make a Tik-tok video.
  34. Make this 5-minute ice cream. Add your best mix-ins.
  35. Walk the dog of a neighbor.

  36. Paint terra-cotta flower pots to plant something you like–a salsa garden?

  37. Design elaborate chalk art on your sidewalk. Or learn to make your own chalkboard mural like a pro.
  38. Paint your room.

  39. Make rock candy.

  40. Pull out colored pencils for an adult coloring book.
  41. Reach out to someone you know is isolated or freaking out.
  42. Create a collage on your bulletin board.
  43. Hello–weekend movie marathon. Lord of the Rings, Back to the Future, The Bourne trilogy, Star Wars. You got this.
  44. Write down your bucket list.
  45. Finish a jigsaw puzzle.
  46. Start a one-line-a-day journal, like this one that lasts 5 years. 
  47. Make slime.
  48. Ask your parent to begin teaching you something–like woodworking.
  49. Make a good movie. Or make a bad one, and laugh at it.bored teen

  50. Perform a totally covert act of kindness.

  51. Create the best recipe for pizza or nachos.
  52. Decorate your own T-shirt with glitter or upcycle it with some easy alterations.
  53. Make a bag out of an old T-shirt.
  54. Find a watercolor tutorial on Pinterest.
  55. Learn how to make no-knead bread in like, 10 minutes. Shock your family.
  56. Go fishing.
  57. Make a time capsule.
  58. Make a photo book (Flickr, Chatbooks, etc.).
  59. Challenge a sibling or parent to a paper airplane competition.

  60. Start a podcast. (Research how to do it well.)

  61. Create a killer smoothie recipe.
  62. Learn to grill. Create your own rub (spice) recipe.
  63. Make popsicles. (My daughter likes berry cheescake ones.)
  64. Make a copycat frappucino.
  65. Go on a run.
  66. Pray for someone.
  67. Create your own bath bombs.
  68. Pick a free workout video on Fitness Blender.

  69. Learn hand lettering.

  70. Surprise someone in a good way.
  71. Make your own kite. Fly it.

I want your ideas, too. Share ’em below!

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