Skip the screen-time with these fun, simple, and affordable activities that kids of all ages will love!
When I told people during my pregnancy that my child wouldn’t have a tablet at the age of three or watch TV every day, I was met with comments like, “Just you wait!” and “You’ll change your mind!” every time.
This was always a little surprising to me, because these comments were usually coming from adults who I know did not grow up with technology being so enmeshed in their childhood. But now, they were the ones telling me to just accept that it’s just the way things are.
Well, my daughter turns five this summer, and guess what? She doesn’t own a tablet, and my fiancé and I got rid of our TV entirely a few weeks ago. So now, I can back up my opinion with years of parenting experience, and I stand by what I said.
And look. This is not to say that technology is bad all the time and that it should be avoided at all costs. I personally enforce a strict no-technology rule in my home, because I know that when my daughter is with her dad half the time, no such rule exists. Since I’m not parenting her 100% of the time and have zero control over her screen time for half of the week, I control what I can. I know she plays games on her dad’s phone, and watches shows and movies when she’s with him. I do not care. I poke fun at my ex-husband about the fact that our daughter knows how to unlock his phone, but I really do not care.
The same is true for my two stepchildren. I know there are different rules at their mom’s house, and that’s fine. I would never tell someone else how to parent their own kids.
But my fiancé and I decide the rules for our house, and keeping our home as technology free as possible is something we agreed on early on. With three kids in a two bedroom apartment, we heard the same things I did when I was pregnant: “Just you wait” and “You’ll change your mind.”
We have been together almost two years and have survived potty training two toddlers, multiple road trips with the kids, and countless rainy days cooped up inside. Our opinion has not changed. We have founds that our kids are calmer and play more creatively without screens, so we still try to limit screen-time as much as possible.
I could list all the negative effects of technology, but we’ve all seen and heard them. Instead, I want to share some of our favorite activities we use to replace screen time with our young kids.
1. Baking and Cooking Together
This screen-free activity is perfect for a rainy day, and I promise it’s not as messy or stressful as it sounds. Am I capable of making sugar cookies and croissants from scratch? Yes. Is it that the type of of baking that I’m talking about here? Absolutely not.
One of our favorites is banana bread. The kids help mash the bananas, and then I’ll measure out the different ingredients and give each kid a turn dumping it in the bowl. Then, they’ll all take turns mixing it, before I finish it up and pour it in a bread pan.
But if you want something even more mess-free? Those boxed cake and brownie mixes are perfect! They normally just require two extra ingredients in addition to the mix, so it’s just the right amount for our three kids. Everyone gets to take a turn pouring something in the bowl, and everyone is happy.
Cramming three extra pairs of helping hands into our tiny kitchen is a lot, but it’s so worth it. The kids love feeling like they’re helping, they always end up asking so many questions, and they feel proud of how they helped. Little kids like to feel helpful. They get so excited when the food is done baking, because then they get to actually try what they helped make. Baking is a great way to practice fine and gross motor skills, delayed gratification, and to talk a little about science along the way!
2. Spending Time Outside
I read a study years ago that kids these days can identify hundreds of corporate logos, but cannot identify even ten native plants and animals. As someone who grew up playing in the woods behind my house, this was shocking to me. It was a wake up call for me, and served as a reminder to try and give my daughter the same technology-free, nature-focused childhood I had.
There are endless ways to keep kids engaged outside! Currently, we have no backyard, so getting our family of five outside isn’t as easy as we would like sometimes. Instead, we often load up the car and drive to a local playground or park. When we do, we make sure to bring a bag with snacks, water, wet wipes, band aids, sunscreen, and a change of clothes for each kid. Whether it’s a hot day or a little breezy, the kids will normally play outside for at least an hour! They have fun running free and using their imaginations, and often meet other little friends at the park to play with.
Even on days where loading up the car and driving across town feels like too much, there are a few activities we do right outside our apartment complex. Blowing bubbles, playing “Red Light, Green Light,” and going on nature scavenger hunts are just a few examples of close-to-home outdoor activities. You’d be surprised how much kids love playing with just rocks, sticks, and grass!
3. Painting and Coloring
As someone who hates messes and is a borderline neat-freak, I’ll admit, it took me awhile to warm up to painting. We started small with the big toddler crayons when my daughter was a little over a year old. I would tape a piece of paper to the table to make it easier for her, show her how the crayon worked, and she would just go to town. It’s simple, but if you haven’t caught on by now, kids really do love simplicity!
As my family has grown and I’ve gained more experience as a mom, messes have naturally bothered me less. After all, if you buy washable paint, there’s really not much that you can’t clean! Now that we have three kids who are all a little older (7, 4, and 4), we love fingerprinting, making handprint art, using sticks and leaves as paint for a nature-inspired activity, and buying wood or glass figurines for them to paint. When they’re done, we hang their art on the fridge or on the art wall in their room, and many of their creations become such adorable keepsakes!
4. Reading Books with your Kids
I cannot stress enough how important reading is for kids. One study found that simply having books in the home positively influences a child’s education, even if the books aren’t actively read with them. The study revealed that, “the difference between being raised in a bookless home compared to being raised in a home with a 500-book library has as great an effect on the level of education a child will attain as having parents who are barely literate (3 years of education) compared to having parents who have a university education (15 or 16 years of education).”
Now, I’m not saying to go out and buy five hundred books. But reading age-appropriate books with your children is a great place to start. Our four-year-olds still love board books, including pop-up books and touch-and-feel books, and our seven-year-old is just getting into smaller chapter books like Junie B. Jones and the Magic Treehouse. We make an effort to read with our kids every day, and nothing is more rewarding than finding them flipping through their books on their own accord.
5. Sensory Activities
Sensory play has so many benefits for toddlers and young children. It helps develop fine and gross motor skills, language skills, and can even help reduce a child’s anxiety.
Sensory bins have exploded in popularity in recent years, and were a big hit with my daughter between the ages of 18 months and 3 years old. I always used dried oats or “sand” made from blended cereal, and then I would fill the bins with little toys, measuring cups, and utensils. As long as none of it’s a choking hazard (since we all know that kids put everything in their mouth), a sensory bin creates an opportunity for children to explore different textures and play with their imagination.
As kids move out of the toddler years, other fun sensory activities include Play-Doh, watercolors, and playing with musical instruments. It doesn’t have to be complicated! Anything that allows them to explore their senses — sight, sound, touch, feel, and taste — is a “sensory activity” and helps unlock their creativity.
Let Your Kids Being Bored
If I listed every technology-free activity for kids, this post would take an hour to read. But at the end of the day, what our kids do in the absence of screens isn’t always a problem for parents to solve.
Sometimes, kids just need to be bored.
In a world that is constantly trying to sell us solutions to problems we didn’t even know existed, and fill our homes with noise and clutter and chaos, I believe one of the best gifts we can give our kids is the gift of quiet, simple play time that allows them to unlock their creativity and use their imagination.
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