10 Screen Time Alternatives Kids Can Do on Their Own

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The screen time alternatives for kids we’re going to explore don’t require you to be actively involved, and that’s intentional. So many articles on reducing screen time suggest activities like “play boardgames together”, which we love doing at home, but you can’t play “Sorry” and chop carrots for dinner. My real challenge with limiting kids’ screen time is that sometimes I need a moment to accomplish something. Have you noticed school schedules rarely line up with work schedules? Same. I’m not just talking about the daily routine, but also those random no-school days, early releases, snow days, and extended holiday breaks (since when do kids get a whole week off for Thanksgiving?). As a remote worker, my job goes on regardless of the weather or if report cards are due. I need realistic, independent screen time alternatives that actually work, and I’m guessing you do too. These can be tailored to any age, so whether you have a toddler or teenager, this is for you!

Why Screen Time Alternatives Matter

Too much screen time is bad for all of us, and even worse for kids who have rapidly developing brains and bodies. The American College of Pediatricians published an article stating that excessive screen use in young ages is “associated with lower academic performance, sleep disturbances, obesity, attention deficit, increased aggression, lower self-esteem, depression, and increased rates of high-risk behaviors”. The CDC backs this up in this report report, showing that excessive screen use in young children is associated with things like lower academic performance, sleep disturbances, obesity, attention difficulties, aggression, low self-esteem, depression, and increased high-risk behaviors.

We love our kids and don’t want these outcomes for them, but we also love things like having time to get dinner on the table and not getting fired from our jobs because we spent a little too much time playing Monopoly with our family. A healthy mix of limited screen time (or for you unicorns out there, no screen time) and non-screen play is essential.

10 Screen Time Alternatives for Kids

Dive Into Book Alternatives

Books spark imagination, and reading them also develops better attention spans. At the same time, sometimes it’s hard to pick up a book unless you’re in the reading mood. That’s why having some lighter, more approachable options makes a big difference. For us at home, that typically means comic books, graphic novels and magazines. Each of these is a bit easier to pick up, with images, bite sized dialogue, and often in the case of magazines, activities. It helps to have a large bin of these ready to go.

Another cool option is eBooks or audiobooks. I like the Libby app, which offers instant and free access to both. It’s another alternative to traditional book reading that kids may think is fun, especially if you save it for “special moments” (like your team meeting or making lasagna….). It also gives them instant access to new options without needing to visit the library or bookstore. Bluetooth headphones are helpful too, especially if you want your phone or tablet out of sight once the audiobook is playing.

That said, if your child already has a favorite book (or a stack of them), nothing beats seeing them curled up, completely absorbed. How great does it feel to see your kid curled up with a book??

Get Creative with Art

Art is one of those magical activities where time seems to disappear. Kids get fully absorbed, and suddenly an hour has flown by. It does help to be prepared ahead of time though. Markers dry out, crayons break, paper runs out…the list goes on. These days, I try to check in on our art supplies regularly so we’re not scrambling.

“Crafty”, nature based or tactile art are also super fun. Not a lot of us seem to have piles of physical magazine lying around, but I recommend picking a few up! My daughter lovessss cutting and gluing, so stock piling some magazines with lots of (family friendly) images and laying out thicker paper like construction paper or cardstock can be a cool collage activity. If it’s decent outside, kids can collect items from nature and make a collage with them instead, on paper or in laid out on the ground.

It also can be helpful to have some guided art activities ready, like a “learn how to draw” book or “paint by numbers” kit. Children are ridiculously creative but I don’t think we should always expect them to see a blank piece of paper and be excited about filling it just because we told them to! That’s why I like the guided books or art kits. Some of them do require an adult’s assistance though, so if that’s the case, save it for another time!

Physical Activity

We all know how important physical activity is for kid’s physical and mental health. It also helps all of us when kids don’t have pent up energy that they find unideal ways to get out! But what if kids are stuck at home, the weather isn’t great, and you can’t engage with them for awhile?

In our case, we turned our daughter’s room into a space with built in physical activity. She has a narrow staircase leading to her attic turned playroom, which she uses to access the exercise rings hanging from her ceiling. She swings on those every single day, when she’s happy, frustrated, bored – all of it. They were very affordable and it’s been the best way to burn off energy that we’ve found so far. When she was younger, we also got her a Montessori-style climbing ladder that mounts to the wall. I can’t even guess how many hours she spent on that ladder, and still does. And when kids come over, their eyes get wide and the joy is immediate! We also have hula hoops, a small trampoline, and a jump rope. That does get tricky to do inside without setup, so we try to reserve that chaos for true screen free emergencies, or else wait for decent weather.

Listen to a Yoto Player or Kids’ Podcasts

Like this Wild Interest article lays out, listening requires participation, unlike the passiveness often found when consuming content through a screen. The article highlights that when kids listen to an audio storing or podcast, they are “creating mental images, asking questions, and forming connections”, which fosters their imagination, focus and cognitive growth.

I’m reserving a lot of our “best purchases ever” for this blogpost, and our Yoto mini definitely falls into that bucket! There is a full size version as well that includes some extra features like a nightlight and alarm clock. The Yoto is a screen-free audio player that has stories, music (including a built in radio station), and daily podcast. The card selection is huge and you can even record your own! This is used daily in our house and has also been a life saver on roadtrips.

Podcasts are another great tool. We love the Circle Round podcast that adapts folktales from around the world. I’ll turn one on and let my daughter connect her bluetooth headphones so she can listen without holding the phone. I’ll still keep the phone accessible to her in case she needs to pause it but otherwise we just keep it out of the way. Podcasts are super customizable to any age or interest, so there’s no growing out of them!

Get Outside and Explore Nature

There’s a really cool point in the Child Mind Institute article about why kids need to spend time in nature. It’s that in urban environments, we use something called “directed attention”, which requires us to ignore distractions but causes fatigue. In natural environments, we use a more effortless type of attention known as “soft fascination”. This “creates feelings of pleasure, not fatigue”. So beyond the Vitamin D, the exercise, and the connection to other living things, being in nature just feels good. That being said, even if you live in a very urban environment, there’s ways to connect to nature that tap into the benefits.

What’s an easy one? Dirt. Digging in the dirt, gardening in the dirt, making dirt, weeding or finding bugs. How about another one – laying down and looking up. I grew up in Queens, NY but spent so much time looking up at the clouds, seeing all sorts of mystical dragons and mermaids. Depending on your space, you may have a play structure or swing set. If not, even a small area with a pile of twigs, leaves, maybe some grass, and pretty rocks can make an amazing fairy garden. Older kids can explore parks, walk, or run with friends.

Hang out with siblings or friends

Once they get old enough to spend time with other kids safely, it’s important that kids be able to do that, without the direct oversight of adults. Kids can thrive in creative play that is a bit harder for us adults to get into. They build social-emotional and self-regulation skills by managing relationships without us stepping in.

My kids are six years apart, so I don’t experience a ton of sibling fighting (yet?). But I know plenty of families who say they feel like referees at home. But if you are truly going to be off limits, then you can’t step in to fix a fight, and maybe that’s a good thing. It gives kids a chance to practice working it out themselves.

My older child loves hanging out with friends, and we often have kids over. I’m actually able to work a straight couple of hours without even really engaging with them, because they are so pumped to hang out. I just keep the snacks available and they pretty much entertain themselves. What’s interesting is when I get involved, suddently they don’t want me to leave. If I’m not working or don’t have something to do, I love hanging my daughter and her friends. But when I’m off limits they kind of just forget I’m there and act accordingly. They entertain themslves, sometimes have little arguments that they get over, and refill their own snacks. It’s great.

Let Them Make a Mess

Sometimes the longest stretches of screen-free kid time I’ve gotten without any interruption has been when a huge mess is being made! Fort building can really be an epic mess, with blankets being torn off beds, chairs being hauled out of place, and entire rooms being rearranged. But you know what? Fort building is also really great for kids minds, as this Tinkergarten article outlines. It’s also great for me if I get time to accomplish something, guilt free.

Other messy creative moments, depending on the age, may be building with LEGOs, setting up restaurants, and baking or cooking. I loved to bake even as a teenager, but my mom didn’t like the huge mess. The rule became if I baked, I cleaned, and fair enough! Kids can clean up their messes, but if they entertained themselves long enough for you to finish your work, offering a little help at the end isn’t a bad trade.

Swap Playmates with Friends

We’ve been doing this for a couple of years now and it’s so helpful. There’s a couple of other families we really trust, which is important for this to work. But the idea is that sometimes you watch their kids, sometimes they watch yours, and you try to swap somewhat regularly so that everyone can get a break. The kids typically love it because they get to spend time together and exercise some independence away from their family!

Going back to school breaks not aligning with work schedules, this could be a helpful way to pre-plan for no school days. It might mean you still have to take a day (or maybe part of it) off for when you are watching somebody else’s kid, but that’s better than needing to manage two full days of your kid at home with nothing to do! This might take awhile to get off the ground but if you can plan this with other parents and keep it going, it’s a cool way to build community and look forward to a break.

Let Kids Help You

Depending on their age, kids can actually join in on the things you’re doing. If they’re asking for screen time while you’re trying to cook dinner, let them help instead.

Our dining room table always seems to be covered in something new (art work, snacks, etc), so help clearing and setting the table is great. Learning to use knives safely to chop is super useful. The sheer joy my daughter gets from toasting bread and spreading the butter is really satisfying for me, so if we’re having bread with dinner, that’s her job.

This can extend to anything you have going on, like folding laundry or watering plants. Getting kids involved in house work will build their self esteem and teach them real skills, and if you can incorporate this into moments when you also need to get stuff done, that is definitely ideal!

Encourage Boredom

To sum up all of the above, when your kids are bored, great! There are so many wonderful, healthy things that they can choose to do. Or maybe they will just stay bored and daydream. I embedded a video below that was published by the St.Louis Children’s Hospital, where Dr.Sarah Garwood explains that boredom ignites a part of our brain called the default mode, which is where we do our most creative thinking and problem solving.

This is a hard shift for many of us, as both kids and parents. We may want to “fix it” coming up with solutions for kids not to be bored any more. And kids may be very uncomfortable with the feeling of boredom. But, as the video tells us, kids can practice being bored, getting longer chunks of time without external stimuli or parental involvement. We don’t always need to save them from their boredom, and in fact they will benefit from us letting them be.

Conclusion

Screen time doesn’t have to be the only option.

It’s okay if screens are part of your family’s routine, but mixing in these screen time alternatives for kids can spark creativity, independence, and joy — while giving parents some much-needed breathing room.

Try one or two of these ideas today and see how your kids respond. I’d love to hear what works for you!