When your teen is bored, everyone knows about it! When the usual things no longer cut it, these fun activities for teens are bound to have some success!

Don’t miss the chance to have your say! We’re looking for parents to get involved and give their feedback on all aspects of family life. Find out more here.

Is your teen complaining of having nothing to do? Give them this list and challenge them to complete it!

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Fun Activities for Teens to Try

#1. Write a Haiku

A Haiku poem should have seventeen syllables, in three lines of five, seven, and five. This is not as easy as it sounds!

A teen writing a
haiku could be a challenge
but you can do it!

#2. Learn to Cook 3 New Meals Well

Here are the rules:

• Create 3 new menus and practice them
• They must include starter, main + dessert
• They must be tried out on your family
• They must be of a high standard i.e. empty plates at the end.

Check our family-friendly Recipes section for some foodie inspiration.

#3. Hold an Open-mic Night

Invite some pals around and hold an open-mic night. You can do one theme eg poetry, comedy, music or a variety.

Tip: keep performances to a minimum/specified time slot, so each performer gets enough time.

#4. Upcycle Some Jeans

Dig up some pairs of jeans you never wear and turn them into something new. Ideas: denim skirt, shorts, oven mitt, book cover, tote bag. More ideas on Allfreesewing.com.

#5. Research Family History

Encourage your teen to visit or get in touch older family members and interview them, they could use tablet or smartphone to video some of the conversation. Things to ask about:

• What was it like when you were a teenager?
• Were your parents strict?
• Who was your favourite family member?
• What did you eat?
• What did you do to amuse yourselves?

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#6. Make a Music Video

We all know Lorde launched her career on YouTube. Your turn to create and produce a new music video. Try the new app Musical.ly.

Now read How to Make Your Music Video go Viral.

#7. Hold a Clothes Swap

Get rid of unwanted unworn clothes and get some new duds in the process. Get your friends to bring round their clothes, put them in a big pile, have a big grab and score some new clothes for nothing.

#8. Learn to Play Poker

All you need is a pack of cards and plenty of M&Ms for chips. And a straight face of course.

Here’s a good summary of the basic rules of poker to get you started.

Other Card Games to Learn

#9. Sleep Under the Stars

Pick a night forecasted to be warm, clear and rain free and grab a sleeping bag, blanket and pillow and head out for a night outdoors.

Are you familiar with the constellations? See how many you can find in the night sky.

#10. Create a Stop Motion Video

Here’s how to create a stop motion video. Take inspiration from these 50 incredible Stop Motion Videos.

#11. Record a Song

Rules:

• Song must be tuneful,
• It must be lyrical
• witty is good.

Either write your own or do a karaoke style number. Now record yourself singing it and file away for viewing in 10 years time.

#12. Do a First Aid Course

This is a good one if you’re planning to do some babysitting, to be able to tell prospective parents that you know first aid.

St John’s Ambulance Brigade run first aid courses as well as Irish Red Cross and there are lots of private organisations running them locally as well.

#13. Plan a Trip Around the World

Make a Dream Destinations Board if you’re on Pinterest. Or hang out online on Lonelyplanet.com and create the best ever round the world itinerary.

• Where to go
• How to get there
• What to do
• Where to stay
• Where to eat

#14. Go Ice Skating or Roller Skating

Skating is fun and you get to exercise at the same time without realising. If you’ve never skated before, here’s some good advice:

http://youtu.be/53KZOPEBHIA

#15. Try Skateboarding

Obviously this suggestion is really for the non-skateboarding teen. Baseball caps worn backwards and baggy pants are not compulsory.

#16. Host a Fiesta

Make a Mexican night with burritos or fajitas, guacamole and tortilla chips and virgin margaritas of course.

#17. Invent a New Combination of Pizza Flavours

Try out some new topping combinations on homemade pizza. Making your own dough is easy to master. Here’s our own super easy dough recipe:

Ingredients

• 450g strong white bread flour or Tipo 00 flour (the Italian pizza or pasta flour)
• 500 ml warm water
• 2x7g sachets of dried yeast
• 2 tblsp olive oil
• pinch of salt

Method

1. Put flour in a large mixing bowl.  Stir yeast into warm water in a jug. Make a well in the middle of the flour and add salt, olive oil then stir in yeast mixture until a dough forms (add a little more water or flour depending on if your dough is too sticky or too dry). Knead for up to 10 minutes. Place back in the bowl and cover with tea towel and leave for at least 1 hour to rise.
2. Divide into 4 balls and knead them a little to make them smooth.
3. Roll out flat to about 1 cm thick and place on your oiled pizza sheet or tray.
4. Now go wild with the topping combinations.

#18. Have a Go at Curating at a Local Gallery

Offer to help at a local gallery or museum.

#19. Go Fishing

Get a hold of a fishing rod and head off to a local stream, river or lake for the day.

#20. Volunteer

Maybe you like animals. Or are happy helping homeless people. You can do this through a local volunteer centre or at a local event or for a local charity, they always need people to help. (PS good for the resume/CV too!)

#21. Have a Water Fight

Fill balloons with water and get on some swimming togs for a water fight in the backyard.

#23. Help on a Nearby Farm or Stables

Get down and mucky on the farm or at the stables and have a bit of fun. You never know you might love driving tractors and feeding cows and horses. If nothing else, it will give you a good appreciation of what a tough life farming is.

#24. Go Geocaching

If you’re not familiar with Geocaching, it is basically a modern-day treasure hunt that uses a Global Positioning System (GPS) to guide you to the treasure. People all over the world have hidden trinkets and objects at various locations, which you can go out and find.

There’s a good chance that there is a geocache hidden somewhere that you pass-by everyday !! When you find the treasure (cache), you trade items in it – swap an object of your own that has similar or higher value, before returning the cache to its original hiding place. 

#25. Go Golfing or Mini Golfing

Check out nearby golf clubs. Many have good coaching deals for teens and some clubs let members collect stray golf balls as well.

Or head to nearest Mini Golf or Crazy Golf and see how many holes in one you can get.

#26. Read a Classic

Check out our 10 of the Coolest Classic Books for Teens. From old classics to new, all of them thought provoking and inspiring.

#27. Have a Home Spa

Make your own face masks + slice up some cucumber, it’s home spa time. Get out the manicure set and those unused foot spas for home spa treatments: mani/pedi/face mask and foot soak.

#28. Design a Dream House

What would your dream house be like? What would it look like outside and in? Where would you situate it? Money’s no object in this exercise in dreaming so fire away with indoor cinemas and swimming pools and separate motorbike garages. Now file it away for when you have made your first million.

#29. Skip Stones

We challenge you to skip 10 in a row on a river/lake/at the sea. And if you can manage 10 in a row, we challenge you to do 15 in a row and tell us (honestly) below on our comments if you managed this amazing feat.

#30. Create Some Street Art

Head on out to a nearby pavement and spend some time with chalks creating a mural.

#31. Catch a Sunrise

Get up in time for sunrise and record it on video or Time Lapse Photos (see next idea).

#32. Take Time Lapse Photos

Do a time lapse photo project, e.g. over the space of a week or fortnight take photos of a plant growing or a street scene.

http://youtu.be/DPeEZn0_ezs

#33. Play A New Board Game

Have you ever played Dixit, King of Tokyo or Small World? Check out these recommended different board games.

#34. Creative Camerawork

Take your camera or smartphone out with you and take a series of photos on a theme. For example, try our Alphabet Photography Hunt or take photos by a colour. Frame your prints then for your room.

#35. Have a Cookout

Find a safe place to set up a bonfire and have a simple cookout with sausages and smore’s.

#36. Build a Raft

Construct your own sailing vehicle from plastic bottles or containers, then sail it on the local river or lake. Rule for this task: must not sink.

#37. Go Zip Wiring or Zorbing

You always wanted to fly through the treetops on a zip wire or roll around in a giant ball, didn’t you?

#38. Redecorate Your Room

Try a new colour if parents will allow. If not, try a furniture rearrange, room clear out, and appropriate some small furnishings from elsewhere in the house. Here are some other tips for quick and easy fixes.

#40. Make a Film

Decide on your film genre, broad story and characters and make a storyboard. You could film your neighbourhood, a day in your life or get friends to be characters in a fictional film.

#41. Play Touch Rugby

Either join a local touch rugby team or set up your own with friends.

Unfamiliar with the rules? Here’s a quick video:

http://youtu.be/dO1BBeNVG24

#42. Ride a Flume

Head to a water park or swimming pool with a flume and ride the waters!

#43. Create a Cartoon or Comic strip

There are lots of free online tools for helping you to create cartoons or comic strips. Here’s a good roundup of some of them.

#44. Throw a Mamma Mia or Grease Party

An excuse to research a long ago decade like the 70s or the 50s

• check out the rock-glam or hippy costumes worn in the 70s or the rockabilly outfits from the 1950s
• find the soundtracks to the film and
• create some of the past food miracles such as cheese and pineapple hedgehogs

#45. Try a New Water Sport

Have you ever been surfing, body boarding or kayaking? Even if you don’t live by the beach, if there’s a river or lake nearby you may find a company that does water sport training.

#46. Try Out a Mountain Bike Trail

Ask Mum or Dad nicely to drop you off for a day’s mountain cycling, don’t forget to take plenty of water with you (and your helmet…).

Coillte Outdoors has lots of bike trails and maps for different counties.

#47. Take a Long Long Walk

Walk somewhere with a group of friends for a day (bring a picnic and drinks), see how far you get and nicely ask Mum or Dad to pick you up at the end.

#48. Learn to Type

Touch typing is a great skill to learn, not only will it stand you in good stead for your own computeration but you will get access to lots of temp jobs if you can type fast and with few mistakes. It also means you’ll get school projects done much quicker too.

#49. Learn 10 Phrases of a New Language

Pick a new language, such as Arabic or Mandarin (current on-trend languages to learn), and master 10 phrases well.

You might also enjoy reading Best Language Learning Apps and Websites

#50. Write an Article for Mykidstime

Katie O’C from Clare aged 13 was the winner of our writing competition on the topic of “A Teenagers’ Guide to Living with Parents“. Here’s her article: “A simple survival guide for teenagers on how to live and deal with parents“. Get in touch if you’d like to write for us!

Have your say! Do you have any suggestions for fun activities for teens? Please let us know in the comments section below.