Pgh Lesbian Correspondents

We have a new project. Today, we heard from our friends with kids, our family with kids, and neighbors with kids – all struggling to juggle keeping kids engaged and safe while taking care of other tasks as well. Some are working from home, some are without work, all are feeling the anxiety of these days.

With the help of my contributing bloggers, Ava and E! The Dragnificent, I came up with the idea of them making lists of suggestions about dealing with boredom and finding things to do – speaking kid to kid, you might say. Then I realized other kids may find it an interesting project. A few texts later, here we are.

We are inviting kids and youth from Pre-K through High School to submit a list of 5-10 suggestions of how to avoid boredom. Adults can help, kids can work in teams. They can use bullet points or full paragraphs. They can keep it simple or use extra pages. They can include drawings or instructions or recipes. We’ll publish their first name(s) and age(s) – no other identifying information, no photos.

For each list we receive and publish, we will generate a $10 donation to the Northside Community Food Pantry up to $1000 total. And everyone who submits will be entered in a drawing for some cool small prizes. (If you want to donate small cool prizes, let me know!)

So your kids can get creative with a project that itself addresses the boredom they might be experiencing AND help neighbors impacted by COVID-19. And get to see their list ‘in print’ on the interwebz.

This is meant to be a constructive opportunity to help our kids, our neighbors, ourselves. It isn’t mean to be hardcore or intense or stressful. It is not a competition. There is no hierarchy. I will publish as the responses are submitted and confirmed. I have to communicate with an adult before publication.

Thank you to our sponsors – Scott Noxon and the F. Dok Harris Initiative and anonymous.

You can cut and paste from this post or download the .pdf version

We’ll have a version for younger kids ASAP. Totally cool if you want to modify this version.

Hi.

Thanks for helping create content on my blog that will help other kids and their families during a tough time.

You are going to make a list of 10 suggestions on how kids and youth can keep themselves occupied and learn to cope with boredom. You can go beyond 10 if you like. Each suggestion should be unique, but it doesn’t have to be fancy. You can suggest complicated projects and provide instructions, but try to balance that with some simple ideas most other kids can do.

Here are a few examples:

1. Watch Joe Wos of Mazetoons daily free videos on how to draw: www.Howtotoon.com

2. Surprise your adults. Pick one small space in your room and clean it up without being asked. It can be cleaning out a drawer or under your bed or picking up stuff from on the floor. The adults will be happy and you may even earn more screentime or privileges.

3. Go outside or look outside. Write down five things that you see. The next day write down five different things. Keep going and push yourself to be creative about what you look for each day. See how many days you can keep it up.

4. Find out the year your adults were born. Find five music videos from that year and create a playlist. Do the same for each adult. “Bonus: Make a playlist for the year you were born, too!”

5. Draw a picture of someone who is helping people during the coronavirus.

Simple Rules

• Keep your tone helpful. No cursing, no slang that other kids/youth might not understand.
• No bullying, no mean spirited language.
• Don’t worry about perfect spelling or grammar. Just do your best. Check your work. This is a way to help people, not a graded assignment.
• Do not copy sentences or suggestions from other sources without citing them (giving them credit). If you don’t know what that means, no worries. Just don’t copy from anyone.
• The goal is 10 suggestions. It is okay if you have less or more. You can work as a team or ask an adult to help.
• You can write simple bullet points or paragraphs, your choice.
• If you want to include a drawing or original photo, great. Just please no photos of people to protect their privacy.
• We will use your first name and your age.
• Deadline is rolling until we reach our goal.
• Submit your response via a document or .pdf or via email. Image are fine, but please no photographs of any minors.
• We might follow up about suggestions that aren’t quite ready for primetime. If we think a suggestion could be harmful even by accident, we’ll touch base with your designated adult.
• One list per kid.
• Questions? Pghlesbian@gmail.com

First name and age of everyone who contributed to this.
Your adult’s full name and email address:
What ages are you focusing on with these suggestions?
Please list 10 ways kids and youth can keep themselves busy and avoid boredom. You can use this form or add pages if you like.