Spin the wheel Bored wheel
Forty ideas, almost all of them away from a screen
The list is built for an afternoon at home with not much to work with: paper, a pencil, a kitchen, a backyard or a sidewalk. Only one entry, the stop-motion video, needs a phone. The rest are things a 9-year-old can start alone, like an origami crane or a pillow fort, plus a few that need an adult nearby, like baking muffins or cooking lunch from scratch.
It works for teens and adults too. Learning to juggle, starting a journal, sorting old photos and writing a letter to a friend are just as good on a rainy Sunday at 35 as at 12. Couples and roommates sometimes spin it together and do whatever comes up side by side.
Some ideas depend on weather or what you own. If you have no dog, delete “Teach the dog a trick” and add something from your own house, like that model kit sitting in the closet.
What's on this wheel
- Build a pillow fort
- Bake muffins
- Write a short story
- Learn a card trick
- Do 20 jumping jacks
- Fold a paper airplane
- Draw your street
- Rearrange your room
- Start a journal
- Indoor picnic
- Learn to juggle
- Make friendship bracelets
- Go for a bike ride
- Plan a scavenger hunt
- Read a chapter outside
- Write a letter to a friend
- Draw a comic strip
- Learn 5 words in a new language
- Plant some seeds
- Hopscotch on the sidewalk
- Clean out one drawer
- Build a card tower
- Cook lunch from scratch
- Try a yoga routine
- Make a time capsule
- Fold an origami crane
- Paint rocks
- Call a grandparent
- Invent a board game
- Write a poem
- Watch birds from a window
- Make up a dance
- Sort old photos
- Make lemonade
- Teach the dog a trick
- Build a marble run
- Chalk art outside
- Sort books by color
- Invent a secret code
- Make a stop-motion video
Advertisement
Getting unstuck in three spins
- Agree on the rule before you spin: whatever comes up, you try it for at least 15 minutes.
- Press Spin. If the activity is impossible right now, like a bike ride in a thunderstorm, one free re-spin is allowed.
- On a long summer break, edit Entries once with your kids so the list has their own ideas on it, and they will argue with it a lot less.
Advertisement
Bored wheel questions
What can kids do when they are bored at home?
Most of this wheel: a pillow fort, paper airplanes, a comic strip, a scavenger hunt for a sibling, a card tower, chalk art outside. Kids around 6 to 12 can start almost all of them without help.
Is there a version for two people?
Swap in activities for two, such as cooking a new dish together, a walk to somewhere you have never been or teaching each other a skill. Rename the wheel so it is saved under My wheels next to this one.
Why are there so few screen activities?
Because a phone or a tablet is usually already the default, and the wheel is there to suggest something else. Add a few if you like, but keep them to a small share of the slices.
Can I keep the wheel for the whole summer?
Yes. Your edited list stays saved in this browser. Use Remove from wheel for activities you have already done, and press Put all back when the summer list runs out.
Advertisement
Similar ready-made wheels
- Superpower wheel40 powers, from flying to talking with animals
- Hair color wheel30 natural and fantasy shades for characters and drawings
- Questions for couples40 short, friendly questions for dinner, road trips and quiet evenings
- Would you rather for kids40 clean, silly would you rather questions for kids
- Getting to know you40 personal-preference and what-if questions for new groups
- Family game night ideas40 game night ideas for mixed ages, no brands needed
More random tools
- Random name pickerDraw one or more names, with no repeats.
- Team generatorSplit a list into fair random teams.
- Secret Santa generatorGift draw by private links, no email needed.
- Yes or no wheelA quick yes, no or maybe.
- Random letter generatorA starting letter for Scattergories.
- Random country generatorA country from any continent, with flag and capital.
- Random word generatorNouns, verbs or adjectives, easy or harder, for drawing too.
- Random Bible verseA well-known verse at random, or the verse of the day.
- Random name generatorReal first names and surnames by country, girl or boy.
- Random city generatorA town or city from 12 countries, Europe or the world.
- Random date generatorA date, month, day of the week or time of day.
- Random color generatorA random color with its HEX, RGB and HSL code.
- Random number pickerDraw one or many numbers from any range, no repeats.
- Bingo caller75 or 90 balls, read aloud, with a board for the projector.
- Printable bingo cards75, 90 or word cards, all different, with IDs.
- Raffle ticket generatorNumbered tickets with a stub, ready to print.
- Random seating chartRows of desks, shuffled seats, pairs kept apart.