Say Yes To Everything Challenge: The Best Week Ever!

I played the say yes to everything challenge for a week with my 11 year old. See what rules we had and find out why it was the best week ever.

We do year-round homeschooling, but we both definitely need a week off. So I thought I would start thinking about things to do for bored kids at home. I already knew the “I’m bored” question would come up multiple times a day.

I had work from home to do that week, so I thought it would be super boring for him. But I knew he needed a break from his homeschool curriculum.

I have a strong-willed child, who thrives on structure and routine, and I was concerned that arranging nothing wouldn’t work.

My first instinct was to create a kid’s summer schedule, filled with activities and educational board games. I chatted with some other moms, who told me I was completely bonkers and to let him be bored.

At dinner over the weekend, I told him that we were having a week off, as we both needed to recharge our batteries. This was totally out of my comfort zone and something I have never done before.

He of course was happy but asked what he was going to do instead. So I said whatever you want, you have a week of me saying yes. I am normally fairly uptight, so his beautiful face lit up!

I gave him $50 to spend on whatever he wanted for the week, and said he could do whatever he wanted!

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Say Yes Challenge Ideas

As I am fairly uptight I wanted to create a few rules and boundaries before we started the week. Just so he knew what to expect when I started the say yes to everything challenge!

Set A Budget

Set them a budget a couple of days in advance for them to spend on whatever they want. We agreed on $50 and agreed that there was no more money for the week.

His choices actually surprised me, he brought 2 Lego books and a small lego kit.

Set Out Any Guidelines

We had a few rules:

• no video games before 3 pm (as trust me he would play them 24/7 if he could).
• no more money for activities (unless they were educational)
• video games that were educational (like Prodigy, typing games didn’t have any limits)
• I wasn’t allowed to say “no”
• he didn’t have to do his pocket money chores if he didn’t want to (but that would mean no pocket money)
• not allowed to say “I’m bored”

If you are looking for free printable chore cards then you will love these to encourage the kids to earn pocket money.

Let them plan before

The weekend before the say yes to everything challenge, I asked him to write down a list of all the new things he wanted to do.

I didn’t get involved at all, now trust me, that was super hard. So he came up with:

• Playing on prodigy! (this one really surprised me, as I had already said it didn’t need to be educational!)
• Playing checkers – he has set it up with his favorite lego figures so its more fun
• Star Wars research (check out our Star Wars activities for kids.)
• Watch Star Wars films and Clone Wars
• Reading – Check out his favorite books for 13 year old boys and his favorite books for 9 year old boys.
• Stop motion animation (he took a class on Outschool a couple of weeks ago and is now hooked.
• Swimming and using his punch bag (he got it for Christmas last year.)
• Weights!! (he apparently wants a 6 pack!!)
• Play basketball
• Playing the piano (check our top 18 online piano lessons for kids – most are FREE)

What happened after the week?

As a homeschool mom, I am already with my son 24/7 so I thought I knew what was coming.

I was fully expecting within the first hour “I’m bored ….. mom what can I do?…… mom can you play with me?” Wow, how wrong was I!

When he woke up, he had a big smile on his face and was in an excellent mood. This is very unusual as Mondays are always a bit of a downer, as it’s straight in with the English Language curriculum.

This was the best challenge I have ever done, we had such a good week.

He was not bored once, and he discovered that he really liked the freedom.

He voluntarily did educational activities without being asked. Also, he rediscovered his love of challenging Lego sets, and learned most of the Star Wars themed songs on the piano!

If you are looking for other fun things to do to for bored kids, check out our post on 45 homeschool activities and our favorite boredom busters for kids.

For even more ideas print out over 70 activities in this summer bucket list for teenagers.

Last Updated on 1 November 2023 by Clare Brown