Our littlest learners are naturally curious. Toddlers see adults staring into their own devices nearly everywhere they go and they want to know what all the excitement is about. Despite the recommendations to restrict screen time in early childhood and delay purchasing kids individual devices as long as possible, we’ve all seen little ones swiping on screens out in public.
Maybe you’ve found your own preschooler huddled in the corner with your smartphone or splashing their fingers across your laptop keyboard. If so, you are not alone, but the battle to limit screen time in early childhood is one worth fighting.
Below I have a sample screen free toddler schedule to get you started, simple tips on how to do a toddler screen detox, and five important reasons to keep your toddler screen free as long as possible.
Why is screen time bad for toddlers?
Excessive screen time can negatively impact a toddler’s behavior, reduce the quality of their sleep, and replace the time that they should be bonding with caregivers, learning critical communication skills, and getting in healthy physical movement outdoors. Screen time in early childhood may be related to increased developmental delays and a child’s future academic performance. Screens also influence a child’s comfort level with boredom. Kids who are used to screen based entertainment have trouble entertaining themselves without electronic devices. Independent play, unstructured play, and outdoor play are essential to a healthy childhood, but children who are used to lots of screen time struggle to engage in these types of play.
Screen Free Toddler Schedule
Here is a sample no screen time toddler schedule for your 1 to 2 year old. As always, take what is helpful and tweak it as needed to meet the needs of your specific family. Don’t forget to grab my free printable morning and evening visual routines for toddlers below too!
Early Morning Block:
Wake up
Eat breakfast
Sing preschool songs and listen to Mother Goose poems in high chair
Get cleaned up and dressed for the day
Free play (lots of time to move around)
Outdoor exploration
Neighborhood walk with caregiver
Late Morning Block
At least an hour of outdoor play on fair weather days (running, jumping, exploring, writing with chalk, picking flowers, collecting natural items in a basket, blowing bubbles, chasing pets, etc.)
On harsh weather days, do simple indoor toddler activities (build with blocks, mold with playdough, etc.)
Enjoy a snack
Read books with caregiver
Afternoon Block
Lunch time
Listen to a book in the highchair
Get cleaned up
Take a nap
Late Afternoon Block
Wake up
Get cleaned up
Free play with strewn toys
Go to the local playground and get pushed on the swings
“Help” caregiver prepare dinner or enjoy a snack nearby in the highchair
Evening Block
Family time
Read books together
Dance and get the wiggles out
Eat dinner as a family
Take a walk in the stroller
Wind down
Bath time
Bed time
How do I substitute screen time for my toddler?
The easiest way to substitute screen for a toddler is to create new habits around going outside. Try morning walks around the neighborhood, time to explore the backyard, lots of trampoline jumping, and plenty of playground playdates with friends.
Here are some other screen time alternatives my toddlers have enjoyed:
- Free play with siblings
- Building with Mega Blocks
- Building with Magna-Tiles
- Stacking red solo cups
- Flipping through board books
- Playing with toy instruments
Grab my free printable Screen Free Toddler Schedule below!
- Visual Morning Routine
- Visual Evening Routine
- Screen Free Activities List
How can I engage my 2 year old without screen time?
Two years old is a really fun age. By 2, many toddlers are past the point of putting everything into their mouth. This means you can start introducing fun activities such as kinetic sand and playdough. These types of activities will not only keep your child busy, but they also have fine motor benefits that children need in the toddler years for future academic success. Some of my toddlers have enjoyed homemade sensory bins filled with multicolored kinetic sand, shape molds, rocks, scoops or measuring cups, and mini characters such as mermaids, dinosaurs, and astronauts. Always stick close by when your toddler is using a sensory bin and be sure to avoid the ones that have water beads as these can be toxic to children and pets if ingested.
How do I break my toddler from screen time?
Start with a toddler screen detox. If your child is used to lots of time on screens, there may be some initial pushback after you take away electronic devices. But the challenging phases usually passes with in a couple of days. After that, children tend to adapt well to their new screen free environment.
Kids will rise to the bar we as parents set for them. If our standard is screen free days, lots of time outdoor, picture books for entertainment, and free play, most children will not only adapt but thrive. The easiest way to break screen dependence is to simply resolve that screen time is no longer an option.
I have found that is way harder for parents to stick with this choice than it is for children to adapt to this new lifestyle. This is simply because we as parents have bought the lie that we need the electronic babysitter in order to get breaks from the physically demanding work of parenthood.
Here’s how you can get breaks as a mom without giving your kids screen time:
5 Reasons To Keep Your Toddler Screen Free
(as long as possible)
Toddler Sleep Benefits
Excessive screen time is disruptive to sleep, especially for young children. If you have seen a connection between toddler screen time and sleep issues, you are right. Toddler screen time before bed increases challenges we as parents experience when we try to get them to sleep. If you want your toddler to take great naps and sleep soundly through the night, try the following three strategies:
- Eliminate all toddler screen time except the occasional and brief video chat with family members who live far away.
- Fill your child’s day with age appropriate physical exercise. Outdoor play provides plenty of opportunity for the high quality physical movement that young kids thrive on such as running, jumping, digging, and climbing. Plus, getting natural sunlight throughout the day has been known to improve sleep at night. Instead of allowing your toddler to be stagnant and stare at the blue light of screens throughout their day, get them outdoors for 3 or more hours whenever you can.
- Tire your child out with positive mental input as well. Read them great books, let them help you prepare meals in the kitchen, talk to them, and provide open ended toys for them to engage with. Children who get lots of opportunity to exercise their body and mind offline often sleep better than their screen dependent peers.
Toddler Bonding Benefits
When a child is staring at a screen, they are not interacting with their caregivers. It’s plain and simple. Kids on devices aren’t looking into their parent’s eyes, snuggling up and reading beautiful picture books, or having thoughtful conversations. Children thrive on bonding experiences in early childhood. If you choose to keep your toddler screen free, they will have many more hours each day to learn from you as an intentional parent.
Grab my free printable Screen Free Family Bingo Challenge!
Toddler Physical Benefits
Kids on devices are generally not moving their bodies in the healthy ways they are otherwise naturally inclined to in early childhood. Time on screens is spend passively in a virtual world. If you choose to keep your toddler screen free, they are going to be in motion for more hours each day. As they run, jump, climb, and play, they will be building strong muscles and endurance.
Toddler Brain Benefits
Let’s not allow our child’s potential to atrophy at the hands of addicting entertainment. Children who spend hours each day passively accepting digital information via fast paced cartoons and games are not exercising their minds. In contrast, screen free kids are learning all the time. Low-tech kids learn through doing, observing, playing, talking, listening, reading, and trying new things.
Toddler Behavior Benefits
Have you ever witnessed a toddler screen time tantrum? You don’t have to go very far to see a child have a complete meltdown when a parent takes back their smartphone or announces that game time has come to an end. When our firstborn was a toddler, she struggled to accept screen time boundaries, especially when TV time was over. The fast paced, overstimulating cartoons marketed to kids her age easily drew her in. Turning them off, on the other hand, was not so easy.
Toddler screen time withdrawal is something we are seeing more and more as parents across the world wake up to the damaging effects of screen time for kids. As caregivers make efforts to set healthy boundaries and restrict screen time, they often receive push back from their kids. If that is the stage you are in, don’t stress. The withdrawal issues that come from a screen detox are typically very short term. Once you get through the initial challenges, even a very high-tech kid can adapt to a low-tech lifestyle and thrive. I know this from experience.
Since making counter cultural changes to our life and becoming a low-tech family, the improvement in my children’s behavior has been unbelievable. I used to think that I needed to utilize screen time in order to get things done as a mom and get a break from my kids. As an overwhelmed stay at home mom, I would turn on a show for the little ones to calm the chaos of all the noise and needs.
It never quite worked out how I had envisioned though. My children were way harder to parent on screens and when screen time was a daily option. When my husband and I removed the TV from our living room, cancelled the streaming services, and worked on our own tech dependency, we saw incredible improvements in our family life and our children’s behavior.
Toddler Screen Detox
Struggling with device induced behavioral issues in your home? Try a toddler screen time detox. Here are some tips to get you started:
Toddler Tech Journal
Keep a journal. Being an intentional parent takes a lot of time and mental energy. You are most likely meeting needs and taming chaos all throughout your day if you’ve got toddlers and preschoolers. You may not have realized how much stress your child’s post screen time behavior issues were adding to your day until now.
You also may not have realized how much time your child truly does spend on electronics either. Streaming services and apps make it easy to keep watching the next episode of the cartoon or going on to the next level of the game without any need for a parent to push a button and consent. Take a couple of days to keep a log of…
- How many hours your toddler is spending on screens
- What behaviors your toddler displays before and after screen time
- How many hours your toddler plays outside per day
- How much screen time your toddler gets in the evening
- How your toddler is sleeping
Once you see it all down on paper, you will be able to make the connections for yourself.
Delete and Power Down
I challenge you to delete every app, video game, and streaming service that is no longer serving your family well. Power down electronics for a minimum of 7 days. Give your kid the time and space from devices they need to digitally detox. After one week without screens, you will have the clarity you need to boldly move forward as a no longer device dependent family.
Plan Fun Activities
If screen time used to take up a lot of your toddler’s day, you will need to find ways to replace that time. It’s not enough to get rid of bad thing. Bring in something better to replace it. Here are some simple ideas to fill your toddler’s time off screens:
- Play outside for 3 or more hours per day
- Go to the playground
- Feed ducks at the pond
- Visit the library during story hour
- Meet friends at the park
- Grab some crafts to paint at Dollar Tree
- Stock up on playdough and kinetic sand
- Invest in Mega Blocks and Magna-Tiles
- Read your kid stacks of picture books
Permanent Screen Detox
Let your toddler screen detox morph into a permanent way of life. In the little years, children do not need electronic devices. Screen time, even when marketed at vulnerable parents as educational, often does way more harm than good in areas like behavior, family relationships, and cognitive development.
It’s not too late to turn a new leaf as a family. Consider shelving the devices for several years and revisiting them in the future when your child is older, mature, and more developed.
Need help managing the witching hour with toddlers without screen time? Check out this post:
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