What do you boys do?? In the heat esp.

[busymama7]

It is triple digits here. we have no pool. We cant go outside much. We are light schooling through the summer, but there are still many hours of free time my 14 year old is not using wisely right now. Lots of movies and video games. I hate to say no because Im not sure what else he could be doing.

 

He pet sits/house sits but that takes just a few minutes a day. He is going to start volunteering at the library next week. He does chores, but not alot there. Dishes, picking up, that kind of thing.

 

Most of his friends are from our homeschool group and we cant get them together more than 1x a week due to distance and gas prices. And honestly, we have the same problem when friends come over. What can they do beside play video games?? I need some ideas.

 

My daughter is learning to sew this summer and will be doing some cooking projects and such. She's easy. My son is harder. He does not like creative or artistic pursuits of any kind. He does read alot(but not high quality books)

 

I wish he could get a job. I see that drive in him and its not just about the money. He needs to be doing worthwhile, contributing to society things. But what??? He's old enough to be doing physical labor(think farming or whatever) but we dont live in that kind of place.

 

Thanks!

Edited June 16, 2011 by busymama7
ETA: title should say "your"

[Lady Florida.]

:bigear:

[Starr]

Have you thought about more school in the hot weather and less when it's cooler? I haven't found endless days off to work well for teens.

[Danestress]

one 13 year old swims year round, and then in the summer swims on a little neighborhood team too. He practices from 7 - 9 in the morning and either practices again in the evenings or has a meet.

 

Even so, he has more time on his hands than I would really like. He reads a lot and listens to music. He likes to learn new skills. Last summer it was magic, this summer, playing the ukulele (he also plays violin but has not practiced since school ended!)

 

My other son plays tennis. He is at the courts pretty much all day. They play two sessions of a couple of hours each and take a break to swim and eat lunch. It is not triple digits yet here, but pretty close. It does not seem to stop him, though he comes home drained.

 

Even though my boys have sports, though, I relate to your issue. It's harder than it used to be with them. When they have free time, my boys don't have video games, but they do watch more tv than I love - mostly (again) sports. But they don't even like tv much.

[milovany]

I'm having our older teen write a book report a week this summer. He also works with his dad, for physical labor.

[theYoungerMrsWarde]

Would he be interested in getting into woodworking? There's also a kit you can get on Amazon to build a working clock with just paper. If he likes paper models, there's a Cannon website where you can print out a bunch of cool models to build, especially famous world buildings.

 

http://www.amazon.com/Zany-Wooden-Toys-That-Whiz/dp/1565233948/ref=wl_it_dp_o?ie=UTF8&coliid=I1VMO94MVP5SPC&colid=1RQP3USSTK5RN

 

http://www.amazon.com/Make-Your-Working-Paper-Clock/dp/0060910666/ref=wl_it_dp_o?ie=UTF8&coliid=I3W0MHQNMA99O7&colid=1WLIVXSKWO225

 

http://cp.c-ij.com/en/contents/1006/

Edited June 17, 2011 by theYoungerMrsWarde

[Tarreymere]

You mentioned that he is going to be volunteering at the library soon. That is exactly what he needs. Are there any other places he would like to volunteer? Any other community service projects he thinks would be a great idea that he might be willing to set up and run? Mine have volunteered everywhere from senior centers to animal sanctuaries and enjoyed all of it.

[Chris in VA]

I second more volunteering.

How about a "big chore" at your house? One summer, my boys wanted to earn some $, but no jobs would take them. So dh put a one-foot "price tag" with pencil on each wall of the basement. They painted the walls they wanted (eventually all of them) and earned that amt per wall.

Could he paint your basement or another room? How about the outsides of your house windows? (if you have a ladder/are not two stories)

Could he do yard work for an elderly or otherwise infirm neighbor?

[SweetMissMagnolia]

we hibernate during the HIGH HEAT of the summer--looks like it's come early for us down south this year....we just found that our neighborhood has a pool so we're trying to get info on how to join...but we're pretty much in the same situation...too hot to go out.....drives kiddo nutty sometimes-and in turn HE drives mom nutty ..... :glare:

[busymama7]

Thanks for all the ideas.

 

We are in contract on a new house so do not have the extra money to pay him to do work for us.

 

I wish we could do more school in the summer, but it is hard with their friends home and wanting to play during the day. Not so much with him, but with the younger children. Someone gets invited to a friends house nearly everyday. I dont like to say no, cause their friends are only home a short time and then go back to school. It really makes sense though to do more school in the summer when its hot. We do light school, and take off for pool days etc. He is the one that is fighting me on school work so I know I will get a lot of complaining if I up it, esp if the younger siblings are skipping out to go play. My husband also thinks they need time off in the summer to just relax. I get that, but there is too much relaxing happening right now:glare:

 

His sport is running,(he has done others, but loves running. ran a 200 mile relay race last year, The Ragnar) but he doesnt like to run when its so hot. Refuses to join a swim team. Maybe we could go to the rec center and he could run indoors if I could figure something out for the younger ones to do during that time. Hmm, really going to have to think that one through.

 

I can not think of other volunteer activites, but will keep thinking. Thank you all for the ideas!

[KatieJ]

I do remember when my sons were that age.

One thing we did was they had to earn "screen" time by reading.

I was not so very picky about what they read, it could be a novel or cartoons, magazines, it didn't matter, but they had to read. They earned equal time for screen time.

My oldest son did some lawnmowing and yard work around the neighborhood for pay. Later they both got paper routes.

Mostly they do need some kind of physical activity..they are boys. I wish I had known how much this was really needed as we were going thru it. Mine were much more pleasant to get along with when they were physcially active. Sometimes they just moved the wood pile. Maybe have them vacumn every day or every other day.

Another summer they cleaned out their Dad's workshop downstairs.

[Jenny in Florida]

Mine stays pretty busy during the summer. Currently, he's rehearsing four hours a day for a summer stock production and preparing to audition for a second show. He's also still working on finishing up a couple of online classes that got set aside when he got busy during the year.

 

When he was younger and had less to do, we always did "summer school." He would have one subject for which I required actual work (usually math). He'd do that for about 30 minutes each morning. I would also pick a theme for the summer, and we'd do read-alouds and activities and such around that. (Mine were younger at that point. If I needed to occupy a teen, I'd probably be thinking in terms of an online course or some kind of independent research project.)

 

Once he'd had his "intellectual innoculation," he was free to goof off the rest of the day.

 

It worked well for us until he got to the point at which he was too busy with summer camps and dance intensives and such to make it workable (or necessary).

[RanchGirl]

We have a no video games mon - thurs policy during the summer. The boys do a little bit of school work (math, piano, and one other subject) each morning. Most of their free time is sports and getting together with friends. When they don't have plans with friends, we go to the lake, go to the pool, go golfing, bowling, walk the dog, ride bikes, etc. If it's just too hot out, there is always something interesting to do inside - legos, board games, visit the library. If anyone complains about being bored, I give them chores. So they have become very good at inventing things to do.

 

I would start by having a few screen free days and see what he comes up with. Could he join a running club to meet running pals and have regular motivation? Ask him to come up with something.... A place he wants to volunteer that would contribute to ward his career goals or discovering career options? does he want to start a business, learn a language, invent a board game?

[UnsinkableKristen]

 

His sport is running,(he has done others, but loves running. ran a 200 mile relay race last year, The Ragnar) but he doesnt like to run when its so hot.

 

Why doesn't he run early in the morning, then? My Dh is a runner and he gets up about 6am when it is much cooler. It's still warm, but it's not like running at 5 pm :D. We live in Texas and have found that to be the best option for us.

[elfgivas]

we live in the high dessert. we're triple digits usually from mid-june to mid-september.

 

we reorder our lives by season. in the summer, everyone is up by about 5:30am. we have a fast early breakfast that is small. we go outside, ride bikes, walk the dog, do outdoor chores, hike, etc. at 9am, we come inside and have "second breakfast" while i read aloud. then we do 15 minutes of tidying in bedrooms. then, we start school. we do full school in the summer, because we want to have a break when the weather is more pleasant. we have lunch together and i read aloud. everyone has "happy horizontal hour" in their rooms. (they must be happy and horizontal, and may read if they wish. no electronics except for me). then, we finish up school, do music practice, and go on to late afternoon activities (which for us is dance, dance and oh, more dance). we have a late dinner, they get an hour of screen time, and we're done. for the youngest one, i build in two afternoons a week where she has play time with friends who require driving to see. the rest of the time, they can play once school is done.

 

hth,

ann

[Jryanbass]

What about volunteering at an animal shelter or local animal rescue? The ones around here love the help, especially when its hot!

[Rhonda in TX]

Why doesn't he run early in the morning, then? My Dh is a runner and he gets up about 6am when it is much cooler. It's still warm, but it's not like running at 5 pm :D. We live in Texas and have found that to be the best option for us.

 

I agree. I get up and run at 6:30. I'm home by 7:30. I won't say it's pleasant, but it's really not that bad. Mid-70s in the morning. It topped out over 100 today, so it is very hot. We are probably going to have to move it back to 6:00 pretty soon. If a 44 year old woman can do it, a teenage boy can do it. :D (make sure he takes water with him. very, very important.) Can he find a local race to participate in this summer? Even some 5ks would give him something to work on.

 

Have him research some activities and pick one. Make it non-negotiable. He has to find something that doesn't involve the computer or TV.

[kamom]

I grew up with brothers at home. Some things they would do are:

 

weed eating/ mowing for you/relatives/neighbors

 

mechanics/ learn how to change the oil

 

helping Mom in the huge garden/ canning/ picking strawberries and making jam=0

 

swimming. what about an above ground pool

 

Hang out with Dad at work. He was a mechanic and they would also do outside yard work at that place.

 

If your contracted on a house. Is that building? Could they clean up over there? and save you money by not having to pay the contactor for that?

 

late spring cleaning/cleaning out the attic/washing windows/ shampooing carpet Could you pay a small amount for this?

hth