Caroline, Tom and Bob had been staying with Liana and Richard for a week now. It has become a good tradition for them to come to the Islands for the holidays. The Islanders are happy to play with the children, and the sea air is good for children’s health. In addition, there is a huge space for games here!

But the children’s joy did not last long. Liana noticed that in the last couple of days, laughter was rarely heard from the tree house, and the board games were sadly lying in the corner of the living room. Over dinner, she decided to ask the children.

– How are your holidays going? — she began from afar. — Where did you manage to go, what games did you play?
– We walked along the beach, explored the whole town, found all the stray cats… — Caroline began to list.
– We played all our board games. Three times each, — Tom continued, frowning.
– Y-yesterday we spent the whole day at h-home because of the thunderstorm, — Bob muttered. — And we played e-every game for the fourth time.
– You managed to do so much! There’s still a whole week ahead, what do you want to do? — Liana tried to cheer them up with her smile.
– We don’t know… We’ve probably done everything already! There are no interesting things to do left, — Caroline sighed.

Liana spent the rest of the dinner trying to think of something to entertain the children. She would have loved to come up with a game for them, but she had to go to the market in the morning. The restaurant needed supplies, and that was all she could think of.

Of course, they could have asked the neighbors to help, Gaspar would have been happy to come up with an activity for Caroline and her friends, but he was also busy: it was time to harvest oranges. Maybe Amelia could have taken the children for a ride in a helicopter and inspired them to play new games… But yesterday’s thunderstorm had broken the helicopter and the roof of the hangar. The situation seemed hopeless, but Liana was not upset. Richard could always help with an interesting idea!

After dinner, when the children had left, Liana approached her husband. He, as usual, was relaxing in the yard with a cup of tea, reviewing the drafts of his novel.

– Richie, honey, I’m worried about the children. They’re so bored here…
– Don’t worry. They’re already twelve. They can think of something to do.
– Richie, they only have a week of vacation left. They’ll soon be going home, back to school, getting up in the morning and doing their homework again… I want them to go home rested, not exhausted by boredom and idleness! Maybe you can think of something for them? My head is full of the restaurant, no games come to mind.
– Okay, okay, — Richard smiled. — I’ll definitely think of something.
– Thank you, honey! I knew I could rely on you.

Richard put the novel down and thought. The children should be busy with something useful. It wouldn’t hurt for them to learn something. You never know where knowledge and skills will come in handy. But they had enough studying now. He remembered himself at their age. As a child, he loved competitions. So much so that he would even wash the dishes if there was a prize for the fastest dishwasher.

What if… Richard has an idea. But to implement it, he needs the right badges.

Find out the rest of the story on the next expedition!