Sick of hearing the phrase “I’m bored”? Here are eighty five screen free activities your kids can do to entertain themselves! Most of these ideas can be done independently depending on the age and maturity of your child, but some require supervision and are great things for parents to do with kids.
After the activity list, I have technology detox tips to help you get your kids off electronic devices.
85 Screen Free Activities for Kids
- Conduct simple science experiments at home
- Backyard archery with a child-safe bow and arrow
- Outdoor target practice with a child-safe slingshot
- Learn outdoor survival skills through books and practice (how to build a fire, how to find clean water on a hike, how to use a compass, etc.)
- Unstructured outdoor play such as tree climbing and exploring
- Build creations with STEM building block toys
- Do a kinetic sand sensory bin
- Play with baby dolls
- Play with barbies
- Play with pets
- Play with magnetic dress up animals and characters
- Complete challenging puzzles
- Solve math riddles
- Build indoor and outdoor forts
- Make paper airplanes
- Jump on a trampoline
- Create a tin man from materials at home
- Listen to engaging audiobooks for kids
- Play backyard sports with siblings
- Learn an instrument and practice
- Brainstorm, write, edit, and illustrate a story
- Go on a nature scavenger hunt for pine cones, rocks, leaves, and flowers
- Complete word searches
- Build with Lincoln Logs
- Learn how to draw from art books
- Create a neighborhood newspaper
- Write letters to family and friends
- Make crafts out of popsicle sticks
- Play with remote control airplanes
- Participate in a book club
- Ride a bike or scooter
- Take a walk
- Play board games with siblings
- Make homemade play dough
- Race remote control cars
- Build with Legos
- Make origami
- Build something out of wood
- Sculpt with clay
- Turn something / Woodworking
- Whittle shapes out of wood
- Write and act out a play with siblings
- Bird watch with binoculars
- Play dress up with costumes
- Jump rope
- Play Kanoodle
- Make jewelry with beads
- Bake and decorate a cake
- Make homemade candy molds
- Learn how to cook from a recipe book
- Jump on a trampoline
- Research and draw a family tree
- Create wooden ramps for toy cars
- Build with magnetic blocks
- Shoot empty cans on tree stumps outside with nerf guns
- Dress up in costumes and play imaginatively
- Memorize historical facts and presidents
- Memorize historical speeches
- Memorize poetry
- Memorize Psalms
- Dart board practice
- Make homemade soap
- Play logic games
- Nature journal
- Rollerblade
- Make slime
- Craft with fabric and felt scraps
- Garden
- Journal
- Scrapbook
- Skateboard
- Swim
- Hunt
- Fish
- Hike
- Camp
- Canoe
- Kayak
- Read
- Dance
- Exercise
- Knit
- Crochet
- Sew
- Cross stitch
How do I get my child off technology?
Are you feeling frustrated with how much time your child is spending on electronic devices? First of all, you are not alone. All of us modern day mamas are facing the same dilemma. The amount of screen time we have allowed in our family has fluctuated over the years, but I will tell you from experience that family life is so much more enjoyable without digital distraction. As easy as tech was meant to make things, it has made family relationships harder. If your child is obsessed with their devices, consider a technology detox.
Technology Detox Examples
Here are some fictional examples of what a break from screens could look like at a variety of ages and stages. I have technology detox samples for preschoolers, elementary kids, middle schoolers, and teens below.
Preschooler
Ever since Maya turned 3 last month, her parents started letting her play games on one of their electronic devices. Lately, it seems as if Maya doesn’t want to do anything except play these games. She screams and cries when tech time comes to an end. She sneaks their device into her room at bedtime and plays her games until it dies.
Her parents have decided to remove the electronic device cold turkey. They no longer let her play games on their smartphone either. For 30 days, Maya has zero screen time except on Friday evenings when she watches one episode of Clifford the Big Red Dog with her mom for about 30 minutes.
After four days without the electronic device, Maya stops asking for it. She has so much fun spending quality time with her dad, helping her mom in the kitchen, and playing outdoors with her siblings that she forgets about the alluring interactive games that once dominated her attention.
Maya’s screen time related behavioral problems seem to have disappeared. She still cries on occasion over things like her favorite pink cup being dirty or not being able to find the dress she wants to wear, but her parents are able to easily talk her through these situations. Maya is able to respond rationally and calm down quickly. Before, when Maya got excessive screen time, she had a lot of trouble recovering from meltdowns.
Transferring to new activities also used to be a problem for Maya, but now she happily goes from play to reading time to chores to preschool work without a problem.
When her 30 day technology detox is over, Maya’s parents decide not to reintroduce electronic games. They will revisit the issue in a year when she is 4 and has grown developmentally. For now, they decide to focus on giving their preschooler the ingredients of a low-tech childhood: quality time with family, frequent read aloud sessions, and an abundance of time to play freely outdoors in nature.
Elementary Age
10 year old Damien got his big brother’s old smartphone when big bro upgraded to the newest edition. Damien used to be a lively kid who monopolized family meals with elaborate stories about his day. But now, instead of telling his parents all about school and basketball practice, all he does is scroll on his smartphone during dinner.
If his mother asks him a question, he says “huh?” multiple times while not looking up from his phone. When she asks him to put his phone down, he snaps at her in anger.
Mom decides that Damien needs a technology detox. She takes his smartphone for 2 weeks, but allows him to watch one hour of TV in the evenings after his homework is done.
After the 2 week period is over, Damien and his parents agree on specific screen time boundaries. He is no longer allowed to use his phone during meals and he must turn all of his tech in to his Mom at her public charging station two hours before bedtime. Additionally, his dad set up parental control blockers that only allow Damien 30 minutes per day on gaming apps. Sundays become low-tech family days. Instead of being on their devices, the whole crew goes to church, takes a picnic lunch to the park, reads books, and takes an evening walk.
Middle School
12 year old Nicolas is only allowed to play video games on the weekends. When he gets home from school on Fridays, he throws his backpack on the floor, forgets about his homework, and starts gaming. His parents work late and don’t realize what time he started. He’s old enough to manage his own bedtime so they also don’t know how late he continues gaming, since his video game console is in his bedroom.
Nicolas games from 4pm in the afternoon to 3 in the morning before falling asleep with the controller in his hand. When he wakes up at noon the next day, he does it all over again.
On Sunday evening, his parents hear a loud thud. Nicolas punched a hole in his wall because of an angry outburst about something that happened in his video game.
They get concerned and decide he will lose the gaming console for one week. Nicolas flies into a huge rage over this decision and throws a stainless steel water bottle across the room. After this, his parents realize his issues with screen time may be worse than they thought. They talk to his school teachers and find out that his grades have been dropping and he’s been lethargic in class.
They decide to give Nicolas a 60 day digital detox. For their family this means removing the gaming console from his bedroom, revoking his smartphone, taking away his laptop, and requesting paper assignments from school instead of digital homework so that they can keep him as screen free as possible for the next two months.
Within 2 weeks of the tech detox, Nicolas is more like his old self. He participates in family meals, plays board games with his father, kicks the soccer ball around the yard with his sister, and falls asleep reading books at a reasonable hour.
A month into his screen detox, Nicolas thanks his parents for taking away the video game console. He confesses that he’d been sneaking gaming time even on school nights when he wasn’t supposed to and that he’d stay up until 3 in the morning on weekends. He shared openly how he felt like he just couldn’t put the controller down. Sometimes he’d wait hours to use the bathroom even though he really had to go.
His parents were so grateful for his vulnerability and the line of communication that had been opened during his detox. Nicolas said that even though he knew how negatively the games were affecting him, he still wanted them back. He wanted to fit in with his group of friends that gamed together. His parents understood and thought it over.
In the end, Nicolas’ parents decided to sell his video game equipment and smartphone on Facebook marketplace. They downgraded him to an old school flip phone that only had call and text capabilities.
Despite Nicolas’ fear of missing out, he was genuinely relieved. He knew his parents were putting his mental and physical health above their desire to be liked by him and their own fear of being the oddballs out in the neighborhood.
Nicolas’ parents let him decide how he wanted to use the money from the sale of his technology. He wanted to go to an amusement park. They thought that was a great idea. One weekend, their family plus two of Nicolas’ closest friends took a day trip to his favorite amusement park. Nicolas’ mom insisted that his friends leave their smartphones and other electronic devices at home during the trip. They obliged and all the boys had the best time they’d had in a very long while.
“You have the coolest parent’s ever,” one of the boys said on the drive home.
Nicolas’ parents smiled and decided that their home would be the new spot for middle schoolers on the weekends. They made a commitment to provide pizza, snacks, and screen free activities every other Saturday for anyone who wanted to come. The only rule was that tech had to be left in a basket by the front door when kids arrived.
On any given Saturday, Nicolas’ house is bursting with activity. The boys organize neighborhood basketball tournaments, games of soccer in the backyard, and family friendly board game nights on rainy evenings.
When Nicolas used to play video games, his parents got a lot of peace and quiet on the weekends. They were free to watch movies, scroll on their smartphones, and go to bed early while their kids enjoyed their own technology. But once they realized how negatively screens were affecting their son, they realized the price of their leisure was way too high. They weren’t willing to sacrifice his mental or physical health for their own relaxation.
The cost of hosting isn’t cheap either. There is a sacrifice of time, energy, and money that goes into making their home available for screen free Saturdays. But Nicolas’ parents have decided to gladly pay the cost in exchange for their son. He is so glad they did.
High School
16 year old Michelle has not been the same since getting her own social media accounts. Her family has noticed how her emotions ebb and flow based on her current social status with the in-crowd. When she is favored by them, her family sees her smiling and giggling over her phone. When she is on the outs, she stays in her room with earbuds in, sulking.
Last night, her younger sister saw a photo Michelle posted online wearing a revealing dress and make up that she knew her parents wouldn’t approve of. She told her dad. When they asked to look through her phone, Michelle refused and had an emotional outburst.
Michelle’s parents decided to give her a technology detox. For them, this meant no social media for 3 weeks. During that time period, they focused on restoring familial relationships. Michelle’s mom took her shopping for new clothes and her dad took her fishing like they used to do all the time when she was younger. Tuesday evenings became family game night. With nothing to do on her phone, Michelle decided to team up with her sister and beat their parents at some of their old favorite games.
Despite all her efforts to resist, Michelle actually ended up having fun. She remembered what it felt like to be light as a feather again and to not worry about whether or not people “liked” her online. Michelle stopped wearing so much makeup and dressing in ways that made her uncomfortable. Without selfies to take and “likes” to chase, she felt like she could just relax.
At the end of detox, Michelle’s parents said she could have social media back, but they wanted to be more intentional to help her navigate her virtual life. They knew that her 17th birthday was right around the corner. Soon, she would be graduating high school and managing her smartphone alone at a college out of state.
They realized that they had made some major mistakes with Michelle and electronic devices over the years. They’d given her a smartphone with access to just about anything at 12 years old. They’d allowed her to make social media accounts when all of her friends did around 13. She’d always been a responsible kid and a straight A student. They trusted her to handle her phone responsibly just as she had handled nearly everything else.
But the truth was, this was way too much for a teen to handle independently. Most adults find it hard to keep their tech usage in check. After her technology detox, Michelle’s parents realized it was their job to equip her with skills to handle technology wisely. She agreed and gave them the passwords to all of her social media accounts.
Her dad installed parental controls and protections on her phone. Together, Michelle and her mom decided on boundaries. They agreed that she shouldn’t scroll on social media for more than 45 minutes a day. The parental controls app allowed them to set a password protected time limit to remind Michelle of this boundary.
Michelle and her dad signed up for a weekly self-defense class that he thought would equip her with important skills before she graduated and lived on her own soon. Wednesday’s became their special night together. They locked their phones in the center console of his car, went to self-defense class, and then got burgers and milkshakes at their old favorite restaurant.
On Sundays, Michelle decided to stay offline and spend time with her little sister like she used to. They ran together at the local track, painted each other’s nails, reminisced over favorite memories, and laughed about awkward things their parents had done over the years.
Michelle still spent quite a bit of time on her phone, but she was beginning to remember what life without tech had been like. It was simple and rich in authentic human relationships. She tried to find a balance between keeping up with peers online and logging off to engage in-person with the people she loved most.
Need help reducing screen time for your kids? Start here:
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