This April I had the privilege of attending the CHEA homeschool convention with Gregg and Sono Harris as the main speakers. In one of the workshops, Gregg mentioned that boredom is a good thing: it simply means the child is mentally hungry. Just as we feed our children good food when they’re physically hungry, we need to feed our children’s minds when they are mentally hungry. Just as we are careful to feed our children healthy food instead of junk food, we need to feed our children’s minds with healthy “mental food’ when they tell us that they’re “bored!”

I’ve been reflecting on this idea because my oldest is often bored whenever he is not engaged in any activity. Simply telling him to go play is not constructive enough for him. What usually happens is that he gets in trouble only few minutes in to the play time. I often lament the fact that he can’t play by himself or that he gets bored so easily. Now I know that he is actually hungry, mentally. With this proper perspective, I now know how to feed his mind. I’m constantly researching good books for him to read and hands-on activities for him to do. Instead of complaining that he gets bored easily, I’m happy to know that his mind is extremely active and that he craves mental food. We have since increased his school time to more subjects and activities.

Even though this is harder on me, I know it benefits my son tremendously. His mind is active and I want to make a good use of this critical period. He loves learning and I love the fact that he loves to learn.