School engages children for 167 days per year, and for the other 198 we parents are on our own. Summer is the time when this really hits home - literally. Within a week of school letting out the house looks like a bomb site and the children are moaning, "I'm bored." It's tempting to say, "Go ahead, be bored then."

Boredom has its advantages. Faced with a longish stretch of down-time, children become more inventive and creative in their play. There is nothing better for a child's intellectual development than the classic empty cardboard box which becomes a house, then a fire engine. For older children, boredom can be filled with reading and exploration.

"A lot of parents rush to fill the expressed boredom of children. But the boredom is a symptom of parents overly intervening in their development. Children don't know how to occupy themselves when they are always being entertained," says Marie Murray, head of psychology at St Vincent's Hospital, Fairview.

A child needs solitude and peace to learn to discover and enjoy the simple things, such as a caterpillar crawling along a leaf or the shapes the clouds make.

"We occupy our children from birth. We don't give them solitude. We don't give them peace," Murray says. "Even before birth, we are bombarding the child with prenatal music and tapes to encourage maths and concepts. Then after birth we put electronic mobiles hanging above their cots."

By mid-childhood, we're scheduling them every minute of the day. In summer, the temptation is to sign them up for everything going. "Collecting children from camp, to be taken to bowling, to go to McDonald's, to go home and put on a video is not a good idea," she advises.

Hyper-stimulation is not the intention of most parents, but it can easily happen in today's parenting environment. We're rearing children now in limited, confined and denatured urban landscapes where exploration and adventure are often impossible and usually too risky.

Children need to take reasonable risks in order to develop self-confidence, but this is difficult when their world does not go far beyond the three square metres of floor in front of the TV.

The once common experience of running out the door and through the fields is unknown to most children today. Some 20 years ago, a child might have a three-mile radius around the home in which he or she felt safe.

Today, we're terrified to let our children into our front gardens, unless we happen to live in especially safe cul-de-sacs.

Urban parents who can afford second homes or mobiles in rural areas where children can run free are doing their offspring an enormous favour, but unfortunately, house prices being what they are, maintaining a first mortgage is becoming a problem for most families, never mind a second one.

There has to be a more affordable antidote to the typical urban existence where children face long hours in front of the TV and video.

The first thing parents need to do is realise that their children are far more capable of entertaining themselves than they realise, and that too much stimulation and activity can limit a child's intellectual growth, rather than nourish it. So turn off the TV.

Do provide some structure, however. A morning summer camp or arts and crafts class can be an enriching experience, particularly if children set goals for learning new skills than they can meet by the end of the summer. Summer is also an opportunity to get older children, aged 10 to 12, involved in activities like sailing, horse-riding and tennis in the hope that in their teens, they'll be too occupied with these to develop shopping-centre syndrome.

At home with children under 10 for the summer, don't think that you have to keep your children continually entertained. Traditional games are best. Hopscotch encourages co-ordination, balance, and numeracy skills. Bouncing a ball off a wall develops important brain reflexes.

Treasure hunts (organised by a parent) encourage literacy and analytical skills. Take long walks on the beach or in the countryside. Children enjoy collecting things along the way (seashells, leaves, stones).

To nourish creativity, keep a dress-up box, arts and crafts supplies, clay, lollipop sticks (for building things), glue, paper and jigsaws. Invest in a basketball net for the garden and buy bicycles if you can afford them (assuming you have some place safe for children to ride them). Trampolines, climbing frames and slides are all worthwhile expenditures - buying one of these will bring more pleasure than the dozens of cheaper toys children may ask for.

Complex computer games can be harmful to children's self-esteem because children never win, they merely proceed to higher and higher levels so that they never experience the gratification of becoming proficient, Murray warns. This isn't to advocate a return to the past; PCs provide valuable learning experiences in small doses, she adds. But the childhood years are so short and so magical that it would be a mistake to let children become completely absorbed by the Information Age too young.