Screen Free Ideas to Entertain Kids

Got kids who love their Roblox, YouTube Shorts and Minecraft? We know that children learn a lot through play and they can create little worlds online to play with their friends. It’s also nice to have a stack of activities in your back pocket to pull out when you want them to have some screen free time. So we’ve come up with some screen free ideas to entertain your kids no matter what the spring weather.

 

Street Games

Remember all the classic games you played as a kid? Plus, your parents and grandparents. There’s a reason these games stand the test of time. They are simple, quick to learn and will entertain your little ones without needing lots of toys or equipment.

Grab some chalk and draw out hopscotch. All you need is to find a nice stone and start hopping on all the numbers apart from the one you throw the stone on. This is a great way to find out how well you can balance and how much better at hopping your child is!

Next, grab a bag of marbles. You’ll need chalk for this one, too. Draw a circle and put 5-10 marbles in the centre of the ring. Pick your shooter marble and flick it with your thumb. The aim is to knock the other marbles out of the ring and win them.

Marbles is great for getting that hand-eye coordination in your toddler and for getting bigger kids to practise their aim. There’s a few different rules for playing marbles, but we like to keep it simple.

 

Treasure Hunts

Setting up a treasure hunt is a great way to play offline. All you need is pen and paper plus some treasure at the end of the hunt. You can hide a little treat inside your TeeBee or Trunki.

The easiest way to do a treasure hunt is to make your clues backwards from the treasure. If your little one is reading, then write down simple clues so they can find the next hiding place. If they are too young to read, then you can draw where the next clue is hidden.

They get to run around the house or garden looking for the clues. And you could even create a pirate treasure map for the final clue so that X marks the spot of their hidden booty.

When they’ve found the treasure, challenge them to make a treasure hunt for you.

Replicate the online games offline

The great thing about most online games is that they are inspired by offline games. Does your child love playing Minecraft? Create a world out of Lego or other blocks.

Are they into Roblox? You can play lots of the games offline. The Floor is Lava is easy to set up in a living room using cushions and blankets. You can also play this in the playground, getting your tot to run and climb on the nearest swing or slide when you shout “the floor is lava”.

There are also lots of games on there were your little one creates a shop. Grab some toy food and make a pretend shop that’s just like the game. Or if they like the drawing games, come up with some quick prompts and have a drawing competition with them.

 

Baking

Baking is always a great way to entertain your little ones. They get to have fun weighing and measuring ingredients. They get to lick the spoon and make sure the bakes taste great at the end.

If you want to make this super simple, grab a kit from your local supermarket and do the baking that way. Then you can store your bakes in snack pots ready for your next picnic or outing.

 

Screen Free Ideas to Entertain Kids in the Car

We know that having a tablet in the car can make the journey go much quicker for the whole family but you might also want to pack some back up entertainment for if the tablet fails or the battery runs out.

Classic games like I-Spy and First One To See can keep your little ones entertained for a bit. Although there is only so much you can spy on a moving car, train or plane. If you’re not behind the wheel, grab some pen and paper and play this simple drawing game.

You take it in turns to draw a part of a body. One person draws the head, folds the paper down so the next person can’t see. They draw the arms and shoulders. Fold and pass. The next person draws the body. And so on until you reach the feet.

Then one of you unrolls the whole sheet to reveal what you’ve drawn together. You can get super silly and add on extra heads, arms, legs or tails. You can always use the TeeBee to rest on and store your playthings in there for the journey.

Memory games are also easy to play on a journey. I game of “I went to the shop and I bought…” can test how good your memory is compared to your little one’s.

Or pack up some mini world figures, bricks and little toys into the TeeBee and let their imagination fly.