My 3.5 years old girl keep saying she is bored!

[nanana]

I am a stay at home mother. My girl attends pre-nursery 3 hour-program daily.
Recently, everyday, she tells me she is bored. Nothing to play.
She has lots of toys at home, but guess she is sick of her toys already.
Normally she will watch baby tv, do coloring, drawing, do activity books with me, play toys, etc.
Recently she was ill and just recovered. She keeps telling me she is bored. She easily gets bored of the activity she is doing. I asked her to do coloring, but within 10 mins, she said she is bored and refuse to continue. I asked her to play with her toys, she doesn't even want to touch them. I pasted big piece of paper on the floor and do some drawing with her, she gets bored too. Watch tv, gets bored too. I bought some post-it notes and get her to write/draw something on them and paste them all over the house. After a while, she gets bored too.

I don't know what to do with her anymore. I have phobia now of hearing her saying "mummy, I am bored", "nothing to do".
There was one time she came back from school and was playing with her blocks and I was using the computer for a while and she suddenly burst out crying! I asked her what happened, she said "nothing to play... nothing to play....nothing to play...."

Oh my god. Any advise parents?

[jedamum]

When my younger boy was that age, he still couldn't speak well but I could somewhat guess when boredom sets in. I try to stop any activity before t he kid gets bored so he look forward to the next day's similar activity. It was very tempting to park him in front of the computer so I make a mental note of his schedule. I even resort to letting him play with a bowl of ice cube as nothing much for him to do otherwise! playgroud visits also quite frequent when he was that age. Then when he started knowing how to read at around 4 years old, it was very much manageable. Maybe you can spend time reading with or to your kid? We have a lot of books at home and I bought flash cards for him to play and taught him housekeeping so he spent some time there too. Then at before 5year old we let him learn piano and he spent his free
time playijg his keyboard. As he is very high energy level, I have to say him learning how to

read is my life saver!

[jedamum]

Your girl may also be trying to seek your attention when she said she is bored. It may be company that she is craving.
My boy's pet phrases are 'what to do what to do what to do today?' And 'my hands feel so empty'.

[nanana]

Hi jedamum,

Thanks for sharing. Yes I must say my girl is a 100% attention seeker. She refuse to play alone, everything she does, she must have someone to do it with her. When I am on the phone or cooking or eating, she will keep pestering me to play with her.
No matter what activity, she wants me to do it with her. So I can't find time for myself, except when she is sleeping.

But these days, even I am spending my time with her, she will still say she is bored.
Oh we have a lot of books at home too, and I read to her A LOT. She can read some books by herself too, by memorizing the words and recognizing the pictures.

Playground visit is very rare, as weather is too hot and playground is not near my place.
She loves to play with iPad but recently she gets bored of it too!

SIGH.

[MMM]

Just a wild thought. Maybe she wants a sibling

[nanana]

MMM,

Having another child is not my option. My plan is just to have one child.
I guess she has to learn to be more independent. Maybe this is just a passing phase?

[Mychildren]

I think she wants your involvement in the activities she is doing, not by herself alone.

Maybe you could arrange with some other parents whose kids about the same age whereby they can play together. Maybe sign up some enrichment programmes for her.

Kids are full of energy even my p3 boy also said boring till I manage to get something that really occupied his time as he has passion in it but not pc games or tv.

I have elder kids so I made them play with my smallest one for about ten minutes or half an hour so I can do other things.

[Oppsgal]

Try hiding the old toys, route the toys available to play and hid after a few days.

That's what I do.

My kid delighted to see the old toys back from sight and start playing them.

Add in a few new toys once a while, then hid again.

[bebebub]

How about organizing play dates with children of similar age?
Swimming or playing at some water parks? Such activities usually tire the kid out. Then u hv a wee bit more time for yourself as she naps longer

My dd2 is also 3.5 y.o. Besides the usual toys, reading, activity books, puzzles, lego, she enjoys meddling with play dough and bouncing clay. Sometimes I turn on the music and does silly dance steps with her

Another thing that keeps her busy is getting her to draw/make paper puppets and thinking up a story line to present to her dad/sister when they get home. This way, she has a goal and something to look forward to. My dd can play by herself, but sometimes she does come to me for ideas in her game/activity/show me her 'master piece'. I think some kids at this age still cannot play by themselves for long, and it can be frustrating to the caregiver. Agree with MMM that it may be a passing phase. It can only get better.

[nanana]

Thanks all for your advices. Yes I agree play dates is good. But I don't have many friends with kids who are available for play dates. Most are working and kids are in childcare or grandparents' care.

Old toys yes, she will get a bit more interested, but after just a while, she gets bored of it too.

Maybe I need to bring her outside for some fresh air cum play, but recently the weather is terrible, she just recovered from viral fever. Need to think of many new things for her to occupy her time. I hope this really is a passing phase!