How to Use Boredom to Boost Children's Creativity | Jaques o

The complaint arrives on a wet Sunday afternoon, often in a long, drawn-out sigh: "I'm bored." It is one of the oldest sounds of childhood, and one of the most misunderstood. The instinct is to fix it at once, to fill the gap with a plan or a plastic distraction.

Yet a stretch of empty time is not a problem to be solved. It is the very ground from which imaginative play grows. Left with nothing arranged for them, children begin to invent, and the invention is theirs alone.

At Jaques, we have made toys since 1795, and the sturdiest ones tend to be the ones a bored child returns to again and again. Our wooden playthings are crafted from FSC-certified timber and tested to UKCA and CE safety standards, so a set that survives one long afternoon is built to survive many more. Explore our wooden toys to see the kind of open-ended pieces that reward a wandering mind.

What Is the Link Between Boredom and Creativity in Children?

Boredom feels like a dead end, but researchers have found it often works as a springboard. In a 2013 study, psychologists Sandi Mann and Rebekah Cadman at the University of Central Lancashire asked participants to copy numbers from a phone book before turning to a creative task. Those who completed the dull task first generated more creative ideas than those who did not.

The explanation is simple enough. When nothing external is holding a child's attention, the mind begins to search for its own stimulation. It daydreams, it wonders, it reaches for possibilities that a packed schedule would never leave room for.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, in his 1990 book Flow, described boredom as the state that arises when the challenges in front of us fall too far below our skills. Rather than a failing, he argued, it is a signal — a nudge to seek out something new and more engaging.

For children, that search is where creativity lives. A bored child staring at a wooden brick is not doing nothing. They are deciding whether it will be a car, a castle wall, or a loaf of bread. The lack of instruction is the point.

This is why unstructured time and screen-free play tend to sit together so naturally. When the phone is not there to close the gap, the imagination has to. If you would like to read more on this, our piece on why boredom is good for children looks at the idea in more detail, and our traditional games offer plenty of ways to fill those hours without a battery.

Why Letting Children Get Bored Actually Matters for Their Development

Development thrives on space as much as on activity. Stuart Brown, whose 2009 book Play drew together decades of research, documented that unstructured free time and play are critical for healthy brain development and imaginative thinking in children. The value lies in the freedom, not the supervision.

A child who is always directed rarely gets to practise direction. When every hour is booked, they learn to wait for the next instruction rather than to generate their own. Boredom hands them back the wheel.

Teresa Amabile of Harvard Business School spent years studying what actually drives creative work. Her research, gathered in her 1996 book Creativity in Context, showed that intrinsic motivation — the kind sparked when a child finds their own direction — is a stronger predictor of creative output than external rewards or structured prompts.

Put those findings alongside one another and a pattern appears. Children do their most original thinking when they are trusted to fill the time themselves, not when they are steered towards a tidy outcome.

There is a modern pressure working against this. Screens are engineered to remove every dull moment, which is precisely why they can crowd out the very state that fuels invention. We look at that tension in our writing on screen time and wooden toys for children.

None of this means abandoning a child to endless empty afternoons. It means resisting the urge to schedule every gap. A well-stocked shelf of our board games gives them something to choose from — but the choosing, and what comes after, stays with them.

How to Create the Right Conditions for Boredom to Spark Creative Play

Boredom does its best work when the environment is ready for it. That does not mean more toys; it means the right ones, left within reach and open enough to be used in many ways.

Start by clearing the schedule rather than filling it. A free afternoon with no fixed plan gives the imagination room to move. The discomfort of the first ten minutes is not a sign that something has gone wrong — it is the beginning of the process.

Keep materials open-ended. A wooden block, a set of counters, a length of string can become a dozen different things across a single day. Toys that do only one thing tend to be exhausted quickly, while simpler objects invite the child to supply the story.

Rotate what is available rather than offering everything at once. A smaller selection prompts deeper play, because the child has to work harder with what is in front of them. When the choice is narrow, invention widens.

Model the behaviour too. A parent who reaches for their phone at the first quiet moment teaches that quiet is to be filled. A parent who sits with a puzzle or a game shows that stillness can be productive.

Outdoor space multiplies the effect. A garden, a park, or a patch of grass with our outdoor games turns a listless hour into invented rules, imagined worlds, and improvised competitions. For further practical ideas, our guide on how to nurture children's creativity gathers approaches that sit comfortably alongside a bit of well-judged boredom.

What to Do When Your Child Says They're Bored (Without Handing Them a Screen)

The phrase "I'm bored" is rarely a request for a screen, though it is often answered with one. It is closer to an invitation to be given permission — permission to slow down and find their own way.

Resist solving it immediately. A pause of a minute or two, without rushing to supply an answer, lets the child begin the work of self-direction. The Mann and Cadman study is a useful reminder here: the dull moment before the creative one is not wasted, it is part of the sequence.

If you offer anything, offer materials rather than plans. Setting out a few blocks, a pack of cards, or a building set gives them a starting point without dictating the destination. The aim is to hand back the choice, not to make it for them.

Naming feelings helps as well. Acknowledging that boredom is uncomfortable, and that the feeling will pass, teaches a child to sit with it rather than flee from it. Our collection of mindfulness techniques for children includes gentle ways to steady a restless afternoon.

When a screen is the reflex, it can help to have a ready alternative in view. We gathered a range of ideas in our piece on analogue alternatives to smartphones for children, from card games to hands-on making.

Above all, trust that the child will get there. The discomfort passes, and what follows — the invented game, the elaborate den, the private world — is theirs precisely because you did not build it for them.

Which Toys and Games Help Children Make the Most of Unstructured Time

The best toys for unstructured time share one quality: they do not tell the child what to do. They wait to be given a purpose, and that purpose can change from one hour to the next.

Building and role-play sets sit at the heart of this. A wooden tool kit, at £24.99, becomes a workshop, a repair shop, or the tools for an imagined building site, depending on the day. The child supplies the scenario, and the set simply keeps up.

Traditional games earn their place too, because they combine structure with room for invention. Children often adapt the rules of our traditional games, inventing their own variations and house rules — a small act of creativity in itself.

Board games offer a different kind of open time. Left to play together without an adult refereeing every turn, children negotiate, bend rules, and invent stories around the pieces. Browse our board games for sets that reward repeated play rather than a single sitting.

For active afternoons, our outdoor games turn a garden into a stage for invented competitions and made-up rules. Physical play and imaginative play are not separate things — outdoors, they tend to arrive together.

Whatever you choose, durability matters when a toy is meant to survive years of open-ended use. The pieces across our wooden toys are made from FSC-certified timber and tested to UKCA and CE standards, so they can be handed down as well as played with. A toy that lasts is a toy a bored child can keep returning to, finding something new each time.

Frequently Asked Questions About Boredom And Creativity

Is it good for children to be bored?

Yes — boredom can genuinely benefit children. Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi noted in his 1990 book 'Flow' that boredom arises when challenges feel too low relative to a child's abilities, which can motivate them to seek more stimulating activity independently. Stuart Brown's 2009 research similarly found that unstructured free time supports healthy brain development and imaginative thinking. Rather than rushing to fill every quiet moment, allowing children to sit with boredom gives them the mental space to generate their own ideas and direction.

How does boredom help creativity in children?

Boredom appears to prime the mind for creative thinking. A 2013 study by psychologists Sandi Mann and Rebekah Cadman at the University of Central Lancashire found that participants who completed a boring task before a creative one produced more creative ideas than those who did not. Teresa Amabile's research, published in 'Creativity in Context' (1996), also found that intrinsic motivation — the kind children develop when left to find their own direction — predicts creative output more strongly than external rewards or structured prompts. Boredom can spark exactly that self-directed motivation.

What should I do when my child says they're bored?

Resist solving the problem for them immediately. Boredom, according to Csikszentmihalyi's 1990 work on optimal experience, is a natural signal that a child's current situation isn't stimulating enough — and working through that feeling independently encourages them to seek their own solutions. Offer open-ended materials such as paper, building blocks, or craft supplies, then step back. Stuart Brown's 2009 research shows that unstructured free time, without adult direction, is precisely the condition in which imaginative thinking tends to flourish. Your child's boredom is an opportunity, not a problem to fix.

How much unstructured play time does a child need each day?

No single universally agreed daily figure exists in the verified research available here, so we cannot state a specific number of minutes with authority. What Stuart Brown's 2009 book 'Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul' does establish clearly is that regular unstructured free time — play without adult-set goals or rules — is critical for healthy brain development and imaginative thinking in children. The consistent finding is that quality matters: genuinely open, child-led time rather than loosely supervised structured activity.

What age do children start to get bored easily?

The verified research supplied here does not specify a particular age at which children begin experiencing boredom more readily, so we cannot give a precise figure without risk of inaccuracy. What Csikszentmihalyi's 1990 framework suggests is that boredom becomes more pronounced as a child's skills grow — when their abilities outpace the challenge of their environment. This means boredom is less about age as a fixed threshold and more about the gap between what a child can do and what their surroundings offer them to do.

How do you encourage imaginative play in children who rely on screens?

Transition gradually by introducing open-ended materials alongside screen time rather than simply removing devices. Stuart Brown's 2009 research found that unstructured play — with no fixed outcome — is the condition most associated with imaginative thinking and healthy brain development. Offer materials that have no single correct use: building blocks, art supplies, fabric scraps, or collections of natural objects. Teresa Amabile's work on intrinsic motivation (1996) suggests that allowing children to direct their own play, without external prompts or rewards, builds the creative engagement that screens often substitute for.

What are the best open-ended toys for creative play?

Open-ended toys are those with no fixed outcome — objects a child can use in multiple ways according to their own imagination. Classic examples include wooden building blocks, modelling clay, art and craft materials, construction sets, and simple figurines without scripted storylines. Stuart Brown's 2009 research into play and brain development supports the value of such materials, as they require children to generate their own rules and narratives. Jaques of London has made open-ended traditional toys and games since 1795, with a range designed to support exactly this kind of self-directed, imaginative play.

How do you keep a child entertained without TV or tablets?

The most effective approach is not to entertain a child at all — but to give them the conditions to entertain themselves. Stuart Brown's 2009 research found that unstructured free time, without adult direction, is associated with imaginative thinking and healthy development. Provide open-ended materials: building sets, drawing supplies, board games, or outdoor space. Sandi Mann and Rebekah Cadman's 2013 study also showed that periods of low stimulation can precede bursts of creative thinking, suggesting that letting a child feel briefly unstimulated is itself a useful step before creative activity begins.

Does too much structured activity stop children from being creative?

Research suggests it can. Teresa Amabile's work, culminating in 'Creativity in Context' (1996), found that intrinsic motivation — which develops when children are free to set their own direction — is a stronger predictor of creative output than externally structured prompts or rewards. When every hour is scheduled, children have fewer opportunities to generate their own ideas from nothing. Stuart Brown's 2009 research reinforces this, documenting that unstructured free time is critical for imaginative thinking. A balance that includes genuinely open, child-led time appears more supportive of creativity than a fully structured day.

Why do children say they're bored even when they have lots of toys?

Having many toys does not automatically provide meaningful challenge. Csikszentmihalyi's 1990 model of optimal experience explains that boredom arises when the challenge level of an activity falls short of a child's current skills — regardless of how much material they possess. If toys are too familiar or too prescriptive, they stop stretching a child's abilities. Teresa Amabile's research (1996) also indicates that external stimulation without intrinsic engagement produces little creative motivation. A child surrounded by toys but without open-ended, self-directed possibilities may still genuinely lack the kind of stimulation that holds their attention.