10 Ideas for Screen Free Fun
Balancing screen time these days can be challenging. We at Henry Bear's Park understand the importance of screen free activities for childhood development. Here are our top 10 hands-on activities for kids of all ages!
1. Family Picnic
Who doesn’t love a picnic? This is the perfect opportunity to spend time and engage without any screens. Collaborate with your loved ones to create a dish of your choice to share at your picnic. It could be anything from a fruit salad to sandwiches, you name it! If it’s a rainy day, take your picnic indoors at a coffee table with a fun game or puzzle afterwards.
2. Start a Collection
There is so much to be discovered with many unique items to be found along the way. You may want to start a collection of your findings. As an example, if you’re camping you can collect different stones around the campsite and on walks. Create an art project out of your collection and paint your stones! If you’re at the beach consider collecting shells and sand.
3. Scavenger Hunt
Scavenger hunts are a great way to educate your little ones while having fun. If you’re traveling to a destination such as a historical museum, aquarium, or the beach, create a list of items for your young ones to search for. If you’re turning it into a competition, the one who finds the most wins!
4. Acts of Kindness
Promote compassion, service, and positivity with acts of kindness. No matter how big or small, we can all make a difference in someone’s life and show that we care. This can be done in many different ways, whether it’s making someone laugh, donating, baking goodies, or planting something.
5. Learn a New Language
Learning a new language is highly beneficial and enhances additional brain skills. Our new Lingo Cards are a fun way to play a game and learn a language all at once. Did we mention they’re great for traveling?
6. Connect with a Pen Pal
Having a pen pal is a great way to connect with a friend or someone far away from a different place. It gives us a chance to both tell our story and learn about others. This is especially beneficial for kids that have not been able to see friends for some time now. Help them find topics to discuss! From daily life to trips or future adventures.
7. Map of Your Neighborhood
Design a map of your neighborhood. This is super helpful for gauging direction and simply knowing what surrounds us. Include street names, parks, stores, other points of interest, and the main location, your home! It challenges our memory to know where everything is without a GPS.
8. Art Show
Have you accumulated a lot of artwork over the past year and don’t know what to do with it all? This is the perfect opportunity to create an art show to exhibit your creative work to your family and friends. You can even turn this into a walk-through experience by displaying different pieces in multiple rooms. Make labels for each one with a name, description and the art supplies you used. There are no rules here! If some loved ones can’t physically make it, show them on Zoom.
9. Create Your Own Board Game
Use your unique imagination to create your own board game to play. Start by choosing the style and theme of the game. As an example, dinosaurs, space, animals, fairy tale etc. Think of what you’d want your rules to be and how many players can play. Can you play this in teams? Draw out your board and create your pieces. This can be from small figures you find around your home. Add in cards as an option. Use some dice from an existing game. Most of all, have fun!
10. Our Summer Camp Boxes
Try out our new Camp-in-a-Box this summer! We have everything you need for a summer camp at home. Each box includes five days of self-directed activities that will keep your little ones happy and productive!