Want to keep your preschooler busy at home without screen time? Whether you are looking for a very structured 3 year old schedule with time stamps or a more relaxed 3 year old routine to loosely guide your day, I’ve got you covered with both in this post.
Plus, I’ve included access to a free printable visual routine for kids and tips to have successful days with your 3 year old without leaning on the electronic babysitter.
As a mom who has entertained many 3 year olds without TV and lived to tell the tale, I am here for you with all the preschool mom tips.
Easy 3 Year Old Schedule
(How To Keep 3 Year Old’s Busy At Home Without Screen Time)
Morning Hygiene
Breakfast
Morning Basket & Memorization
Outdoor Play
Learning Activities
Art Time
Simple Chore
Sibling Play
Lunch
Read Aloud
Nap or Quiet Time
Poetry Time
Free Play
Help Mama Prepare Dinner
Eat Dinner
Family Time
Evening Hygiene
Bed Time
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3 Year Old Schedule
(Sample Schedule With Time Blocks)
7:00 Morning Hygiene Routine (brush teeth, wash face, use bathroom, get dressed, brush hair).
7:30 Make bed, snuggle, and spend a little one-on-one time with Mama.
Use this time to fill your 3 year old’s love tank through hugs, smiles, tickles, and words of affirmation.
If breakfast isn’t ready quite yet, remind your 3 year old that they are always welcome to enjoy a piece of fruit while you prepare breakfast.
8:00 Breakfast at the table altogether and Morning Basket / Gather Together Time. (No screens in sight!)
Recite nursery rhymes, sing a song together, memorize poetry and bible verses, read aloud a beautiful picture book, pray, and teach your little one things you want them to know.
Use this time to connect with your children. Feed their mind beautiful words while they fill their bellies with delicious food.
Once your 3 year old finishes breakfast, allow them to do something with their hands like a coloring sheet, sensory bin, play dough, kinetic sand, or lacing cards while you continue reading.
9:00 Take your 3 year old outdoors to “get the wiggles out.” Give them plenty of time to play and explore.
Unstructured play is incredibly important for kids in the preschool years. Try to get your 3 year old outside to play several times each day.
10:00 Educational Activities with Mama such as learning phonetic sounds, how to write name, counting bears, scissor skills, matching games, reading books, etc.
10:30 Art Time. Let your 3 year old do simple art activities such as free drawing, play dough, stickers, or watercolor painting.
10:45 Chore Time. Have your 3 year old do an easy chore that they enjoy alongside the rest of the family.
Many preschoolers like to fold wash cloths, sort socks, spray windows with child safe cleaning spray such as vinegar and water, or use the Swiffer Wet Jet to clean floors alongside their Mama.
11:00 Unstructured play with siblings. This could be outdoor or indoor play, but the more outdoor hours your 3 year old gets per day, the better for their development!
You can also reserve special bins of toys for this time block and for rainy days.
12:00 Lunch Time.
12:30 Read aloud time. Read a stack of picture books and/or a chapter from a children’s novel as 3 year old winds down.
I have a list at the end of this post with the best books to read aloud to your preschooler.
1:00 Nap on days that the child will fall asleep and “Quiet Time” with an audiobook on days that the child does not fall asleep. Many 3 year olds still need a nap most days, but skip it on occasion.
2:00 Poetry recitations. We spend about ten minutes sharing Mother Goose poems and bible verses we have hidden in our heart. Each sibling shares “on stage” (the coffee table) and then we all clap and cheer for one another.
Memorization work is so good for the brain.
This practice will also help your 3 year old build confidence. Most children are like sponges at this age and can retain memory work with ease.
Think of how easily your preschooler memorizes theme songs from their favorite shows without effort.
Lovely Passages to Memorize With Your Preschooler
- Fiddle-De-Dee
- Hey Diddle, Diddle
- Little Bo Peep
- Little Boy Blue
- Mary Had a Little Lamb
- Sing a Song of Sixpence
- John 3:16
- Luke 15:1-17
- Psalm 23 (whole chapter)
- Psalm 145:8-9
- Zephaniah 3:17
- Hoppity by A.A. Milne
- The Swing by Robert Louis Stevenson
- Patience is a Virtue by Dick King-Smith
2:30 Free play (preferably outdoors). Outdoor play is critical for child development in the early years. Aim to get your kids out for a minimum of 3 hours a day, if you can.
Replace screen time with a whole lot of green time!
Let your child pick flowers, chase butterflies, jump on the trampoline, garden with you, ride their bike, and explore.
Outdoor play time is a great way to pass the hours and improve your preschooler’s mood.
4:00 Let your 3 year old help you prepare dinner. I have tons of ideas for you later in this post on how to incorporate your child into cooking.
There are plenty of simple tasks your 3 year old can do to have fun in the kitchen with you.
5:00 Family dinner and devotions. Dad is typically home by this time. In our family, we eat together and read together. Some nights we have other families over for dinner.
5:45 After dinner clean up. Some older 3 year olds have the motor skills to scrape their food into the trash and put their plate into the sink with a little assistance from Mama. Let your little one be your shadow and help out as you wipe crumbs from the table and load the dishwasher.
6:30 Relaxed family time, games, talking, and more outdoor play if weather permits.
I have a list at the end of this post with the best games to play with your 3 year old.
6:45 Evening Hygiene Routine (take bath, brush teeth, get into pajamas, brush hair).
7:00 Parents tuck child into bed. Let your 3 year old flip through books quietly as they wind down for the night.
7:30 or 8pm Lights Out. If your 3 year old has stopped taking daily naps, you are limiting screen time in the evenings, and they are getting lots of outdoor play hours during the day, they will most likely fall soundly asleep for an early bedtime.
Adjust the time stamps on this schedule to fit your unique family circumstances.
Need a more loose flowing routine for your 3 year old without the time stamps? I have that for you below, but first let’s chat about whether or not preschoolers need a schedule.
Do 3 Year Old’s Need a Schedule?
Yes! Children thrive on structure, stability, and predictability, with lots of room for fun and exploration built into their days.
If you are a stay at home mom to an exuberant 3 year old and your days feel like a ride on a rollercoaster without a harness, I feel you. Some of my little people have been easier to handle than others.
Before I established a consistent 3 year old daily schedule, our days were off the rails.
As a mom of four, I know the struggle to create structure as we enter the great unknown of a new developmental stage with our precious ones.
Three years old is a sweet but challenging age. Our daily plan (or lack thereof) can either make or break our 3 year old’s days.
If you are noticing frustrating behavioral issues in your child and you are tempted to give them extra screen time to solve the problem, try implementing a 3 year old schedule they can count on instead.
During the little years, be sure not to jam-pack their days with extracurricular activities just to keep them busy. Keep their days simple. Kids thrive when they get to bond with their family and play outside.
They need time and space in their daily routine to expend their energy and freely explore.
Kids also crave intellectual stimulation. They want to investigate the world around them. Also, they feel ready to do things their big siblings are doing even if they aren’t truly ready quite yet.
As our 3 year olds outgrow diapers and naps, they get their very first tastes of independence.
But for us moms, this increased busyness and loss of midday rest time means more hours in the day to fill for our child who, just a short blink ago, was an immobile baby.
What’s a mom to do all day with their precious albeit high octane three year old?
Without routine, you might feel like you are living your most frustrating day on repeat, just like in the movie Groundhog Day.
When my first child turned 3, I remember feeling like her energy was endless, my house was always messy, and the days were excruciatingly long.
Several kids and many years later, I have learned the power of a solid 3 year old daily routine.
Keep reading to learn how to entertain a 3 year old without losing your mind and without depending on electronic devices.
3 Year Old Daily Routine
Some mamas thrive on a regimented schedule attached to specific time blocks, while others prefer a more relaxed flow without any constraints to follow. In this post, I am sharing both.
The goal of a good daily routine for your preschooler is that it would eventually become second nature to them.
We want to help our little ones establish healthy and productive habits that will serve them for the rest of their lives.
This will take time. Implementing a new routine for your 3 year old will require lots of reminders and hand-holding at first.
The time investment up front to train them will pay off later as they learn to happily do their schedule on autopilot (most of the time.)
In the rest of this post, I will go into depth on how I entertain my 3 year old without TV. But in case you are looking for the Cliff Notes Version, here are simple elements for a 3 year old daily routine:
- Rest
- Meals
- Outdoor Play
- Free play
- Reading with caregiver
- Flipping through books independently
- Listening to audiobooks
- Educational activities
- Sibling Play Time
- Independent Play
- Simple Chores
I like to incorporate each of these into my preschooler’s days.
These routines keep my three year old on a predictable schedule and keep me from feeling stressed.
You don’t have to attach these elements to specific timeframes, but the more consistently you put them in your 3 year old’s daily routine, the smoother your days will be.
Kids like to know what to expect.
They need to know what their options are and what is off the table. Especially when it comes to TV and screen time.
Setting expectations for what will happen in what order is a great way to reduce screen time for your 3 year old.
They won’t need to constantly ask for a device if they know what they should be doing instead of screen time.
A daily routine for your 3 year old will provide them with a sense of security and provide you with blocks of time to get things done as a SAHM.
Easy Routine for 3 Year Old
Rest
Early bed times are a great way to provide your 3 year old with the rest their little body needs and also give you a break as a mom.
We stay consistent with early bedtimes by wearing our preschooler out with good activities during the day and also by limiting screen time.
If you allow your child to be overstimulated with shows, movies, video games, and educational apps in the evenings, sleep is going to be an uphill battle. The next day will be hard too if you have an overtired preschooler.
Instead of screens, make family bonding time, unstructured outdoor play, and flipping through picture books the only evening options available to your 3 year old.
These are fun activities for kids that also help them to wind down and sleep soundly all through the night.
Mom Hack
If your child wakes up at the crack of dawn (earlier than you prefer) and you want them to stay in their bedroom a little bit longer, try creating a book rotation.
Take an inventory of the picture books you have in your home. Instead of making all of these books available to your 3 year old all day long, put a stack of them in your closet or basement where they will forget about them.
Bring your preschooler a cup of water and a pile of fresh books each morning from your personal stash or from the library.
Instruct your child to stay in their room for an extra ten minutes and flip through a story quietly.
Be sure to give your little one lots of accolades for the progress they make in staying put and perusing their books!
The more you limit screen time for your 3 year old, the more appealing picture books will become.
Meals
As a stay at home mom, I aim to keep my three year old’s meals around the same predictable time every day. This helps me to fill their belly up preemptively, before they reach the point of a meltdown.
With a very simple meal plan in place, I save myself time, energy, and tantrums.
Fruit, veggies, cheese sticks, and squeezable yogurts are great snack options to have available in between meals.
Preschoolers love to grab an apple, unwrap a banana, peel a mandarin orange, or open a cheese stick all by themselves.
This gives them a little of the independence and freedom of choice that they crave as they grow.
How do you spend the day with a 3 year old?
Instead of setting your 3 year old up with screen time, cook and bake with them!
Meal times come every day and they are an excellent opportunity to connect with your three year old.
I used to feel like I needed to turn on a show for my children in order to get dinner prepared, but now I realize that meal prep is a golden opportunity to bond with my kids, help them to develop life skills, build their confidence, and foster independence.
Three years old is about the age that I begin including my little ones in meal preparation consistently.
Preschoolers long to engage with their parents.
Meal prep is a very simple way to include them while doing something you already need to get done.
During meal prep, there are lots of opportunities to smile at your child, make eye contact, laugh together, taste new flavors, and encourage them in their growing abilities.
This is the beautiful stuff of a screen free childhood! Parents are able to truly connect with their children and give them the love and affirmation their little hearts crave over good food.
How Do I Incorporate My Child Into Cooking?
There are so many simple tasks a three year old can do in the kitchen. Here are some ways you can engage your child without screens and incorporate your child into cooking:
- Have your three year old scoop rice into a measuring cup and press the buttons on your rice cooker
- Include your kid in making smoothies by letting them scoop yogurt, frozen fruit, and powder into the mixer
- Let your kid drop a bowl of chopped potatoes, carrots, and other veggies into your simmering stew
- Buy a child-safe knife and allow them to chop things like butter, fruits, and vegetables right beside you
- Let your preschooler pour oil and water into your measuring cups during baking
- Let them crack the eggs into the bowl and wipe up the mess with a napkin
- Have your 3 year old break up crackers by hand and sprinkle them into your mixing bowl
- Let your little one pour their own cereal and milk into a bowl for breakfast
- Allow them to spread peanut butter and jam onto a slice of bread for lunch
- Let your child pour chicken stock into your pot of soup and stir with a long ladle
- Allow them to shake salt, pepper, and other seasonings onto your roast
- Teach your three year old how to use a garlic press to season a pan of vegetables
- Allow them to sprinkle chocolate chips into your muffin mix and of course, sample a few
Outdoor Play Time
We aim to get at least three hours of outdoor play into our 3 year old schedule each day.
Typically this will include an hour in the morning, an hour in the afternoon, and an hour in the evening.
You can get your kids outside rain or shine.
We dress our children appropriately for whatever the weather may be and then we encourage free play. Our kids know how to make their own fun outside.
It is no secret that frequent outdoor play is excellent for child development. There are so many benefits to giving your three year old ample time to run and play outdoors.
Why outdoor play is important in the early years?
Here are just a few awesome benefits to including outdoor play in your 3 year old daily routine:
- Increased free play outside will naturally decrease the amount of screen time your child gets
- Frequent outdoor time means less mess inside your house because your kid will be playing on nature’s playground rather than your living room floor
- Soaking in the sun can improve mood, strengthen bones, improve sleep quality, and protect your 3 year old from illness
- Your preschooler will benefit from great exercise when they run, jump, climb, explore, and free play outdoors which will strengthen their muscles and help them maintain a healthy weight
- Lots of outside time can increase sensory skills, encourage curiosity, and ignite imagination
Learn more about the importance of unstructured play for kids in this post:
How Do I Entertain My 3 Year Old Outside?
The awesome part about preschoolers is that they are innately curious and naturally good at play. You as a parent don’t have to “entertain” them outside. Take your child outdoors and let them…
- Play pretend
- Collect rocks
- Dig in the dirt
- Find worms
- Pick flowers
- Chase butterflies
- Water the grass
- Pick veggies from the garden
- Play with sticks
- Build a fort
- Jump on the trampoline
- Swing in the hammock
- Swim in the pool
- Run through the sprinkler
- Jump in a pile of leaves
- Make snow angels
- Ride their bike
- Play with their siblings
- Write with sidewalk chalk
- Color a picture in a chair in the shade
- Paint at the picnic table
- Play with pets
- People watch
- Catch fireflies
- Enjoy a snack
Reading
Reading is by far our favorite screen free activity for 3 year olds.
Cozying up with a good book is a great way to bond with your preschooler, stimulate their brain, enhance their vocabulary, ignite their imagination, help them relax, and keep them occupied without a device.
There are several categories of reading you can do with your preschooler in order to get the most bang for your books. Try these…
- Mom reads aloud to all the children as a group
- Mom reads aloud to each child one-on-one
- Children flip through books quietly on their own
- An older sibling reads to a younger sibling
- A preschooler retells a story from memory to the family
- 3 year old “reads” the baby one of his board books
- The whole family listens to audiobooks as a group while doing a hands-on activity
- The kids listen to audiobooks independently during quiet time
- Listen to audiobooks in the car on the way to run errands
Structured Learning Time
Children learn when they explore outside, play independently, and interact with their siblings.
They learn when we go new places, when we read books, and when we make meals together.
Preschoolers are natural learners. They get an education all day long, whether we facilitate it or not.
However, creating a chunk of time for structured learning in your preschooler’s day is a productive activity that can help you to reduce screen time, bond with your child, and teach them valuable skills.
The main way that I facilitate a structured learning time for my three year old is by providing her with simple, inexpensive supplies.
Each one of my children has their own learning drawer in an end table that sits beside our couch.
The big kid’s drawers have homeschool curriculum books for their studies. I have stocked the three year old’s drawer with learning supplies that I knew she would enjoy such as:
- A Preschool Letter Tracing Workbook
- ABC phonics sticker learning book
- A pouch of markers and child-safe scissors
- A pile of colored construction paper
- A booklet of animal stickers
- Animal shaped lacing cards with shoe laces
- A Melissa and Doug Water Wow book
- A sketch book and set of water color paints
My three year old knows that this particular drawer belongs to her. She often goes in and grabs some preschool supplies during family read aloud time or during homeschool time for the big kids without me even asking her to do so.
Our little one happily sits beside us and does her own learning activity while listening in to the story I read.
Her school supplies have provided her with independence, helped me to get my to-do list done, and prevented us from turning to excessive screen time.
Sibling Play Time
Another way I keep my three year old busy without screen time is by assigning sibling playtime. For most of the day, my children play together creatively without being asked.
But, sometimes I assign a specific big child to a younger child and give them a fun activity to do. Here are some easy activities you could have an older child do with your preschooler:
- Build with magnetic blocks
- Play with paper dolls
- Free play outside
- Paint pictures or wooden objects
- Play with barbies or baby dolls
- Build with Duplo Legos
- Play with small animal toys
- Play a bored game
- Bake some muffins
- Listen to an audiobook
Independent Play Time
Sometimes during homeschool, my three year old will head to the nearby coffee table with a coveted toy and enjoy some quiet play time. Other times, I will require a session of independent play.
I have organized bins of toys on a shelf in our basement. These toys are not available to play with at all times.
For most of the day, they are out of sight and out of mind.
During independent play time, I take my three year old to choose a toy bin. She chooses a quiet space to play.
I use a visual kitchen timer to show her how much time she is expected to play independently for.
Chore Time
When the rest of the family does chores, our three year old is right alongside us. Chores are not a burden to a preschooler. They long to splash around in the sink and “wash dishes” or be Mama’s Buddy and “help” fold laundry.
Here are some simple chores that my three year old requests to do on her own for fun:
- Clean the windows, mirrors, and glass doors with a rag
- Use our broom or Swiffer mop to clean the floors
- Fold her clothes, the baby’s clothes, and wash cloths beside me while I fold a large basket of laundry
The Best Screen Free Activities and Supplies To Include In Your
3 Year Old Daily Routine
Fabulous Books to Read Aloud to 3 Year Old:
- The Three Bears by Byron Barton
- Ms. Maple’s Seeds by Eliza Wheeler
- Little Nino’s Pizzeria by Karen Barbour
- Jesse Bear, What Will You Wear? By Nancy White Carlstrom
- The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry, and the Big Hungry Bear by Audrey Wood
- Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey
- Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey
- The Three Bears by Paul Galdone
- The Three Little Pigs by Paul Galdone
- Winnie the Pooh by A.A. Milne
- All the Alfie books by Shirley Hughes
Beautiful Books Your 3 Year Old Will Enjoy Flipping Through Independently:
(Grab oversized hardback copies if you can)
- Favorite Nursery Rhymes from Mother Goose by Scott Gustafson
- Jamberry by Bruce Degan
- Quick As a Cricket by Audrey Wood
- We’re Going on a Bear Hunt by Helen Oxenbury and Michael Rosen
- All the Alfie books by Shirley Hughes
- All the Angelina Ballerina books by Katharine Holabird
Audiobooks Your 3 Year Old Will Enjoy Listening To:
- Beatrix Potter The Complete Tales
- The Beginner’s Bible Audio
- Night Night Bible Stories: 30 Stories for Bedtime
More great audiobooks included in this post:
Screen Free Supplies for Your 3 Year Old Outdoors:
- Sidewalk chalk
- Small shovels
- Watering can
- Buckets
- Baskets
- Bubbles
- Bubble Guns
- Bouncy balls
- Tricycle
- Hula-hoop
- Hammock
- Trampoline
- Sprinkler
Easy Indoor Screen Free Activities for 3 Year Old:
- Safe sensory bin
- Kinetic sand with molds
- Plain sketchbook or coloring book related to their interests (princesses, outer space, animals, etc.)
- Markers and colored pencils
- Construction paper, child-safe scissors, and stickers
- Chunky wooden puzzles
Favorite Screen Free Toys for 3 Year Old:
- Magnetic Dress Up Characters
- Magnetic Tile Building Blocks
- Plastic Flower Garden
- Duplo Legos (larger child-safe pieces)
Screen Free Games To Play With Your 3 Year Old:
- Hide and Seek
- Candyland
- Twister
- Hedbanz
- Hi Ho Cheery-o
- Charades for Kids
- Memory matching card game
- Outdoor scavenger hunt
- Go Fish
Whether you decide to create a 3 year old schedule with specific time stamps or a loose and flexible 3 year old daily routine, I hope you snagged some great ideas here to get you started.
Need more screen time alternatives for your preschooler so that you can get a break as a mom? Check out this post:
Let me know in the comments below, what has been your biggest challenge when it comes to occupying your 3 year old’s time each day?
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