#LifeSkillsNow Mini-Series: Summertime Boredom Busting
Sixteen Answers to “I’m Bored” That Don’t Involve a Screen or Your Sanity
16 short workshops that hand your kid a real project, a clear first step, and something to show you at the end of it.
It’s 2:15 on a Tuesday in July and Somebody Is Lying on the Floor Being Bored
Summer starts out great. Then about week three hits, the novelty wears off, and your kid follows you around the house narrating how there’s nothing to do while standing in a room full of things to do.
You could hand over the tablet. You could also go find a project, gather the supplies, supervise it, and clean up after it, which is its own kind of exhausting when you already have a to-do list.
This mini-series does the finding for you. Sixteen short workshops, each one a project your kid can start today: squeeze real lemonade, cut a whole watermelon, grow a salad from seed, figure out what’s edible in the backyard, build a summer schedule that isn’t yours, or start an actual neighborhood business. They watch, then they go do it.
He loves becoming capable in skills that he has never practiced before, like cutting up a whole watermelon!
A #LifeSkillsNow mom, on How to Cut a Watermelon
Why Summertime Boredom Busting?
The best summer projects are the ones a kid picks for themselves and finishes without you hovering.
Every workshop here is short, hands-on, and ends with a mission. Nothing takes a whole day. Most take less than an hour including the doing part.
- Sixteen videos between 5 and 25 minutes, so a kid can pick one after breakfast and be building something by 10
- Sixteen different teachers, including an herbalist, a piano educator whose students have played Carnegie Hall, a professional organizer, a plant-based chef and 25-year elementary teacher, a competition BBQ pitmaster, and Katie’s daughter Leah
- Printable handouts, recipes, and worksheets so the project keeps going after the video ends
- A one-time purchase with no subscription, and it’s yours to keep for next summer too
I didn’t think my 8 year old would like any of the videos, but after watching one declutter/organizational video, she set to work cleaning and organizing her entire room over the next two days.
A #LifeSkillsNow mom
What Your Kid Will Actually Make and Do
Here’s what ends up on your counter by the end of a week.
- A pitcher of real lemonade with simple syrup and hand-juiced lemons
- A grain-free summer lasagna for the family dinner, made with garden zucchini
- Seth’s cinnamon roll breakfast sandwich, start to finish, in under five minutes
- A whole watermelon cut three different ways (their pick for the favorite)
- A homemade electrolyte drink with coconut water, and a reason to stop asking for the blue sports drink
- A container of salad greens they planted, watered, defended from slugs, and harvested
- A handful of edible and medicinal plants identified in your own yard
- A song on the piano, plus an honest answer about whether piano is their instrument
- A clean room in five steps, timer and happy dance included
- The hidden clutter under the bed and in the back of the closet, dealt with and kept that way
- A family tech plan they helped write, which is how you get a kid to follow one
- A daily summer plan on a clipboard, theirs to run
- A real business: an idea, a price, a customer, and a way to tell the neighborhood about it
You to stop being the activities director!
What’s Included in the Summertime Boredom Busting Mini-Series
Sixteen video workshops with printable handouts, recipes, and a real-world mission for each one, pulled from previous seasons of #LifeSkillsNow. This is the summer projects track in one place, at a price that won’t make you think twice.
Access to a private, ad-free membership area with no distractions and no autoplay
Lifetime access so the same one-time purchase covers next summer, and the one after that
Downloadable videos for offline watching, including at the cabin with bad wifi
#LifeSkillsNow Mini-Series: Summertime Boredom Busting
Sixteen Answers to “I’m Bored” That Don’t Involve a Screen or Your Sanity
- Downloadable Videos
- Printable Handouts, Recipes & Worksheets
- Access Never Expires PLUS if anything is added, you get that too!
- 16 Kid Workshops for Ages 5 to 12+
- Private, Ad-Free Dashboard
- $10 per Workshop = $160 Value!
$40
Rest Easy with our Happiness Guarantee
You have time to decide what you love! Let your kid watch a few workshops, make the lemonade, see whether the room actually gets cleaned, and if you don’t love it let us know within 30 days of purchase and we’ll give you a full refund.
You have unlimited access to all the content, so even if your kid watches every workshop and you still ask for a refund, we’d give it to you because we believe in this collection so much. That’s our risk, but we trust you probably won’t do that. It’s just important to us that you understand how much care we’ve put into this.
This video was very helpful when explaining how to start a business by giving kids a game plan, how to be safe, and to market online.
A #LifeSkillsNow mom, on A Kid’s Guide to Running Their Own Neighborhood Business
Mini-Series Package, 16 Workshops
Workshops included in the Summertime Boredom Busting #LifeSkillsNow Mini-Series:
In the kitchen
Perfect Homemade Lemonade Masterclass
with Janel Hutton, ages 5-teen, 15 min
The founder of NellieBellie.com teaches why simple syrup beats sugar stirred into cold water, how to juice lemons properly, and how to strain out the seeds. Kids finish class with an actual batch of lemonade.
Seth’s Viral Cinnamon Roll Breakfast Sandwich
with Seth Weiss of Trompo King, ages 8+, 5 min
Basic ingredients, one skillet, under five minutes, and it works at home or at a campsite. Kids will make this one more than once.
Grain-Free Summer Lasagna
with Kids Cook Real Food, ages 5-teen, 25 min
A layered lasagna alternative built for garden zucchini and so simple kids can memorize it. Includes bonus tutorials for dicing onions and peppers, so some knife experience helps first.
How to Cut a Watermelon
with Leah Kimball, ages 8-teen, 5 min
Leah has been her family’s watermelon cutter since she was about 7. She shows several ways to break down a big melon so your kid can pick a favorite. Large-knife experience required.
The Most Important Nutrient Every Kid Needs (+ a Quick Fun Recipe)
with Mary Voogt, ages 5+, 9 min
A Nutritional Therapy Practitioner on why water matters more than kids think, what hydration and dehydration actually mean, and how to mix a homemade electrolyte drink with coconut water and salt.
Outside, in the yard and garden
How to Grow Your Own Salad
with Rose Ortiz, ages 8+, 20 min
A 25-year elementary teacher and plant-based chef covers planting, watering, spotting slug and pest damage, harvesting, and how to keep the greens producing all season.
Wildcrafting Herbs from Your Yard for Food and Remedies
with Kate Tietje, ages 5-teen, 9 min
Earthley’s lead herbalist shows kids that the “weeds” out back include plants you can eat and plants you can turn into simple remedies, plus how to find and harvest them.
Rooms, routines, and screens
5 Simple Steps to a Clean Room (Even When You’re Busy!)
with Diane in Denmark, ages 5+, 5 min
A routines coach turns tidying into a timer-and-music game in five steps. Ends with a happy dance and a big glass of water.
Decluttering the Clutter You Hide
with Tracy McCubbin, ages 12+, 6 min
The CEO of dClutterfly takes on the back of the closet, the drawers, and under the bed. Declutter first, then organize, then clean, then keep it that way.
Take Back Your Homeschool (or Summer) Day from Your Mom
with Brittany White of The Deliberate Day, ages 8+, 8 min
Brittany and her kids share the clipboard system that lets a kid run their own day, get their work done faster, and even ask for a reward for it. Fair warning: your kid may negotiate.
Screen Wellness: Set Healthy Habits for Kids Now
with Dr. Brian Stenzler, ages 5+, 7 min
Devices aren’t going away, so this one is about using them in safer, healthier ways instead of pretending kids can avoid them.
How to Help Your Parents Get Off Their Phones
with Andrea Davis, ages 5+, 5 min
The founder of Better Screen Time and her son walk kids through four steps to build a family tech plan that holds everyone accountable, grown-ups included. Yes, this is the one where your kid comes for your phone.
Music and movement
Explore the Piano: Music to Build our Brains
with Kathryn Brunner, ages 7-teen, 14 min
A recording artist and music educator whose students have played Carnegie Hall walks kids through a 5-step readiness check and a song, so they can find out if piano is their instrument before you rent one.
Building a Habit of Family Fitness
with Shelby Stover, ages 5+, 5 min
A strength and nutrition coach on silly races, challenges, and 5-minute workouts that get the whole family moving without anybody calling it exercise.
Starting a business
Start Your Own Business (No Ideas? No Problem!)
with Monica Louie, ages 8+, 6 min
Monica and her daughter Madelyn show kids how to land on a product or service, set a fair price, decide where to sell, find customers, and spread the word. There’s a bonus challenge for the ambitious ones.
A Kid’s Guide to Running Their Own Neighborhood Business
with Dustin Riechmann, ages 8+, 15 min
A serial entrepreneur and dad of three young entrepreneurs on picking the right neighborhood service idea and getting started the right way.
Sixteen workshops. Two hours and 39 minutes. A summer’s worth of “look what I did.”
What does a workshop feel like?
1. Watch a Short Video
Most run 5 to 15 minutes. The longest, the summer lasagna, is 25.
2. Optional: Print the Handout
Every workshop comes with a printable, a recipe, or a worksheet to follow along or stick on the fridge.
3. Go Do the Mission
Each workshop ends with one specific thing to go do, which is the part that fills the afternoon.
With the Summertime Boredom Busting Mini-Series, your kid has 16 things to try before they get to “there’s nothing to do.”
Got Questions? Here are Your Answers:
Your kid. Every workshop is taught straight to kids. You’re welcome to watch along, and you’ll probably want to for the cooking ones with knives and heat, but the videos don’t need you in the room.
Half are for ages 5 and up. Six are for 8 and up, the piano session is 7 to teen, and the one on decluttering the stuff you hide is for 12 and up. A family with a 6-year-old and a 13-year-old will find plenty for both.
With you nearby, yes. Janel Hutton’s lemonade class notes that most 5-year-olds aren’t independent in the kitchen but make great sous chefs. The watermelon and lasagna workshops involve a large sharp knife, so those are best for kids who already have some knife experience.
Between 5 and 25 minutes, 2 hours and 39 minutes for all 16.
Some workshops need groceries or a few basics (lemons, a watermelon, seeds and a pot, a timer, paper and coloring supplies). Every workshop lists its supplies up front so you can look before you pick, and several need nothing at all.
In a private, ad-free membership area you can get to anytime. Videos are downloadable so you can watch offline, and every workshop includes a printable and a mission.
Yes! It’s a one-time purchase with no subscription, and your access never expires. Buy it this June and use it again next June when the same kid is two years older and ready for the 12+ sessions.
Summer is when “I’m bored” peaks, so that’s the name. The projects work on a snow day, a long weekend, or a school break just as well. Growing salad greens is the one that really wants warm weather.
The #LifeSkillsNow Mini-Series are pulled straight from previous Seasons, so if you already own one or more, chances are you have some of these workshops already. This set draws from all four Seasons.
Yes! Summertime Boredom Busting is one of several. Read about all our #LifeSkillsNow Mini-Series right here.
No, our terms and conditions require you to use your #LifeSkillsNow Mini-Series login solely for personal use. You’re welcome to watch alongside your spouse or invite a friend over to watch with you at your house.
Still have questions? Our Happiness Coordinators are here for you. Start a conversation with the chat icon in the corner of your screen.