Looking for simple, easy, and mostly free, screen-free indoor or outdoor activities for your child? Here’s our fun list of screen-free things to do! This is the perfect way to have an old-fashioned, fun, and memorable summer! We are also including this as a handy 101 Indoor & Outdoor Activities Printable!
Screen-Free Indoor activities:
- Make and play with Play-Doh
- Make a sensory bin with beans, rice, or water. Throw in some containers and let them scoop, pour, and play!
- Bake together, cook, or make snacks together (peanut butter ball recipe (feel free to use whole oats and ground flax))
- Organize a closet
- Play dress-up and put on a fashion show (use parents’ clothes too!)
- Build a craft/city with recyclables
- Paint artwork
- Read a recipe and cook a meal together
- Sew a pillow with your child
- Fix things! Find things that need to be superglued or taped and have the kids help. Get a screwdriver out and help kids switch out batteries of broken items.
- Write a card to a family member or friends and teach them how to address the envelope
- Water or repot indoor plants
- Go through your child’s baby book with them
- Sort toys
- Play board games
- Make sticker art
- Teach kids card tricks
- Read stories aloud
- Cut shapes out of cardboard, sort them, and paint them
- Read alone
- Make a fort
- Make artwork with glue and pom poms
- Create a birdhouse with popsicle sticks
- Do puzzles (make it more difficult by combining puzzle pieces from two puzzles so they then have to sort)
- Practice tying shoes
- Decorate for Easter and practice Easter eggs hunts
- Sort through clothes
- Take toilet paper rolls and tape them to the wall with painters tape and have balls, cotton balls, toy cars, or pom poms zoom through them.
- Paint your child’s foot or hand and make artwork for yourself or the grandparents
- Have an indoor parade
- Hang contact paper on the window and have kids place cut pieces of tissue paper (which makes it look like stained glass)
- Put on music and have a dance party
- Play instruments
- Play hide and seek
- Work out with your kids
- Paint kids’ fingernails
- Stretch with your kids
- Make paper airplanes
- Tell kids stories about your childhood, how you and your partner met, stories about their grandparents, uncles, aunts, etc.
- Give kids items to sort by color or numbers (pom poms, beans, blocks, etc.)
- Give kids a flashlight to read with for fun
- Make a “store” and buy things
- Count coins and money with kids
- Make slime
- Give kids a box and markers and have them make a space ship
- Help kids practice sweeping by sweeping debris inside a square made of blue painters tape
- Roll or gently toss a ball inside
- Make air dry clay and paint it
- Put your child in the bathtub (with no water) and offer washable paint and let them paint the bathtub, then have them wash off the bathtub with a cloth and water, then have them take a bath (they will need it!). Always supervise kids near water
- Play teacher with your child and let them “teach” you something
- Look through family photos together
- Play classic games like tic tac toe, checkers, and go fish
- Teach kids how to play solitaire with real cards
- Blow up balloons and let them play
- Have kids draw with markers on paper or a coffee filter, then squirt it with water for fun artwork
- Make and decorate masks or outfits out of paper bags
- Have kids act out a book
- Use baking soda, vinegar, and droppers to have a fun science experiment
- Dye grains of rice with food coloring, then place the dry rice into empty water bottles for homemade shakers
- Make a maze with crepe paper and painters tape
- Fold laundry and put laundry away with kids
- Make an indoor slide with a crib mattress
- Make puppets and put on a performance
- Toss socks in a hamper for points
- In a hall, “bowl” with a ball and plastic cups
- Make an obstacle course inside
- Play charades
- Teach kids to clean (scrub a toilet, wipe down a sink, mop, sweep, wipe baseboards, wipe knobs, dust, etc.)
- Let kids wash their toys in the sink—as long as you are ok with what they want to “wash”
- Make build a scene or home for toys using cardboard boxes or shoe boxes (let them decorate them too)
Screen-Free Outdoor Activities:
- Toss, kick, or roll a ball
- Ride a bike
- Go for a walk
- Pick up trash (with gloves on)
- Play with chalk. I like to write letters with chalk and have kids jump on the letter that I call out.
- Plant a garden
- Make a compost
- Go on a hike
- Create an outdoor scavenger hunt
- Make a fairy/dragon garden
- Make a bird feeder (simple pine cone, peanut butter, birdseed, and string)
- Read books on an outdoor blanket
- Draw artwork outside with a pencil and paper
- Have a picnic or an outdoor tea party
- Take a car ride
- Play with bubbles
- Take Tupperware outside, fill them with water and let the kids play
- Get a bucket of water and a paintbrush and let the kids “paint”
- Fill a spray bottle with water and let the kids spray plants
- Build something outside
- Gather treasures from nature like leaves, rocks, berries, etc.
- Wash and vacuum your vehicle together
- Take a walk in the rain and jump in puddles
- Practice yoga outside with kids
- Make Moon Sand and play with it outside (8 cups of flour and 1 cup of baby oil). This is an outdoor activity!
- Give haircuts outside
- Practice Easter egg hunts
- Make an obstacle course
- Play sports like four square, baseball, basketball, etc.
- Take ice outside and let kids smash the ice
- Dress up and have a parade outside waving to the neighbors
Do you have favorite, screen-free indoor and outdoor activities? Share them in the comments!
