I have to admit I’m only dealing with this problem in the most general sense personally, but at the same time, the age of my kids means I have to keep them busy just about all day most days.

My kids are 4 years old and 16 months old. The 4 year old just completed her first year of preschool for 3 year olds, two days a week, three hours a day. And yet it makes such a difference now that she doesn’t have that time out of the house. She’s bored and wants her friends.

I truly believe kids need a lot of time to just be kids, so I don’t want to fill up my kids’ days with formal activities. Besides, then I’d spend too much of my time running from place to place, and any activity I could enroll my 16 month old son in would require me to remain with him.

However, I do think signing a child up for an activity or two doesn’t hurt. My daughter will be starting drama classes shortly. These aren’t long enough for me to run along home during the class, but they should make her very happy and encourage her imagination.

The biggest impediment most work at home parents face to successfully working at home during the summer is bored children. If your children are bored, they aren’t going to leave you in peace to get things done. So the first step is to find things for them to do.

Have lots of games for your kids to play, crafts they enjoy and so forth, things they can do without your help. Yes, sometimes you’ll want to play right along with them, but you want them able to amuse themselves as well.

Try trading time with their friends’ parents. You have their kids over for a while, then they take yours for a while. This both helps you in getting peace and quiet when your kids are out of the house and gives your kids something to do when they’re home. You aren’t necessarily adding to the number of kids to keep busy, you’re increasing the options for play!

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