100+ Kids Activities Without a Screen
art, music, indoor and outdoor activities, make believe, chores and fun academics
Today I thought we’d switch gears a bit to focus on activities for kids. More specifically, 100+ non-screen related activities as there’s been a lot of chatter about children, teens, screens, and mental health lately. This is a conversation I feel very invested in, as all we hope to do as parents is ensure the best for our children, giving them every opportunity to thrive. The urgency around this topic, which many call a crisis, feels pressing.
The social experiment of tech and children has unfolded right before our eyes over the last two decades, which was then, of course, exacerbated by the pandemic. Over these years, the data collected continues to show the impact screentime has on mental health:
Rates of depression and anxiety among U.S. adolescents were "fairly stable in the 2000s" but "rose by more than 50% in many studies from 2010 to 2019," Jonathan Haidt writes in The Atlantic.
The suicide rate for kids between the ages of 10 and 14 tripled between 2007 and 2021, according to the CDC.
The share of U.S. high school girls who seriously considered attempting suicide jumped from 19% in 2011 to 30% in 2021, per the CDC. The share of boys who considered suicide rose from 13% to 14%.
Just 1 in 3 12-to 17-year-olds say things are going well for children and teens today, per a recent Common Sense Media survey.
Frequent social media use may be associated with distinct changes in the developing brain in the amygdala (important for emotional learning and behavior) and the prefrontal cortex (important for impulse control, emotional regulation, and moderating social behavior). Via The U.S. Surgeon General’s Advisory about Social Media and Youth Mental Health.
All that said, it feels like change is happening to help protect our children and I’m thrilled to see more than parents entering the chat. In the spring of 2023, United States Surgeon General Vivek Murthy released an advisory called Social Media and Youth Mental Health, in which he said there is growing evidence that social media is causing harm to young people’s mental health. Soon after, the American Psychological Association (APA) issued its own health advisory.
There are also states signing laws to ban social media until kids are 14 and neighborhoods are pushing the ‘wait until 8th’ pledge which empowers parents to rally together to delay giving children a smartphone until at least the end of 8th grade. I love this initiative in particular, as I’d imagine, for parents who have kids old enough to have phones and social media, the “everyone else has it” angle is complicated to navigate. If social media was banned for anyone under 14, like smoking at 18 or drinking at 21, wouldn’t that make it easier for all of us as a country to wrap our arms around this crisis? And wouldn’t it drastically help kids’ mental health and brain development? Don’t we want younger generations to thrive? It sounds very logical to me.
I don't have kids old enough to have phones or social media - mine are 4, 6, and 5 months, but they do see kids with iPads and have asked for them. At this point, we don't feel like screens are right for us and have held off, with the exception of allowing some TV. While we can fully control limiting screens, why not?
No screens means a lot of boredom, but that’s by design. We want our kids to feel comfortable being bored, figure out how to entertain themselves, use their imaginations, soothe creatively, and find ways to work and play together. Skills that we know will serve them well through life, particularly when it comes to regulating their nervous systems and attention spans. Of course there are days when I’d love to plop them in front of a screen to get shit done or take a break but truthfully, between school, extracurricular activities, and bringing them on all the errands (something they really love), our days fill up. And they find all sorts of creative ways to entertain themselves which is beautiful to witness - it’s sort of like growing up in the'90s!
Here are 100+ activities including art, music, indoor and outdoor activities, make believe, chores, academics and more that fill our days with 4 & 6-year-olds:
ART & CREATIONS:
Chalk (there’s chalkboard peel & stick wallpaper which looks so cool, and paint of course)
Drawing/coloring (it’s helpful to have sketch pads, a good assortment of colored paper, rolls of paper which live at the end of our art table, colored pencils, gel pens, glitter pens, gel crayons, sparkly markers, paint sticks, fun crayons, etc.)
Coloring books
Fashion design books (this one and this one are big hits in our house)
Rock painting
Potion making (there’s a kit or you can use water/glitter/stickers to DIY)
Wood painting (think bird houses, planter boxes, etc.)
Paint on canvas
Stencils
Decorate sweatshirts or t-shirts with puff paint
Pottery painting (like these)
Necklace making
Writing tablet drawing doodle board (sort of screen like but different!)
Other items to have on hand for creative art play: glue sticks, fun tapes like this and this, stickers, pipe cleaners, rhinestones, pom poms, etc.
MUSIC:
Tonies (this is a big thing at night for us)
Piano (they’re in lessons but even when they weren’t, they loved to bang on a toy piano)
Drums (at your own risk!)
Guitar
Sing in a microphone
Dance parties (there’s A LOT of this)
TOYS, CARDS, INDOOR ACTIVITIES & GAMES:
Camera / photography adventure (they each have this camera in their favorite color and love it! It’s also really fun to download and see what they shot. And yes, there’s a little screen to see the photos but I’m not counting this as a “screen.”)
Flower garden building set (this is my 4-year-olds favorite)
Tent (this has been open in our family room since October - they love to play in it)
Build a fort
Barbies
Baby dolls (they play a LOT of “moms”)
Horses and farm animals
Legos
Cars and trucks
Hide and seek
I spy
LOVEVERY kits
OUTDOORS:
Dig in the dirt (literally, they love this)
Nature walks (it’s fun to make it structured by color every now and then with something like this)
Play with refillable water balloons
Play in bubbles with the bubble machine or blow them yourselves
Play in the sandbox
Play in a water basin
Ride bikes
Ride scooters
Treasure hunt for special rocks
Jump in puddles
Play in the creek
Play on the swing set
Tire swing (huge hit around here)
Climb trees
Collect shells at the beach
Play in the sprinklers
Swim
Play in an inflattable pool
Drive around in a car (mine love this Jeep)
Collect leaves and flowers to make flower salads (another huge hit around here)
Soccer
Frisbee
Catch
Gardening
Flower arranging
Picnic
Science experiments (you can DIY these or get kits)
Push their baby-doll strollers around (this is a favorite daily activity)
Build things (my oldest is obsessed with building things with her dad like planter boxes)
Hopscotch
Play with their dog
MAKE BELIEVE IDEAS:
Dress up (we have a little setup of old Halloween costumes/princess dresses and fun accessories from SUPER SMALLS for this)
Cooking show (they literally pretend they’re on a cooking show like Pioneer Woman which is one of the shows they watch)
Dance recital
Traveling (they pack their carry ons and suitcases and pretend to travel - super cute!)
Beach (they put on their bikinis and lay on towels pretending like they’re at the beach)
Moms (one is usually me and another picks another mom we know - so funny!)
School
Tea party
Restaurant
Coffee shop
Clothing store
Grocery store (a cart and a cash register make this extra fun for them)
COOKING & FOOD:
Help prep dinner (they use these kid knives)
Help make lunches
Help make smoothies
Bake (muffins, cookies, cakes, oh my!)
S’mores
Fridge clean out salads (I let them play with anything that’s no longer good in the veggie drawer)
ACADEMICS:
Reading
Practicing letters
Practicing numbers
Head to the library
Tell stories where everyone participates
CHORES AROUND THE HOUSE:
Help dad with outdoor chores (grass care, raking, compost, etc. - they’re obsessed with this)
Clean up their messes
Organize toys
Help with walking the dog
Mommy helpers with baby Jack
And so much more! Please share what your kids like to do in the comments!
Love this list 🤍
Love this 🙏🏻❤️