100 Fun and Easy Screen Free Summer Activities For Kids (Toddlers to Teens)

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Inside:100 Screen Free Summer Activities for Kids. Whether you’ve got toddlers or teens or a little bit of everything in between, there are screen-free activities for kids to keep them busy all summer.

“Mom, I’m bored!”

“Mom, can I play on the ipad?”

“Mom, can I watch TV?”

“Mom, can I play Fortnite? ”

“Mom, I really need snapchat so I can stay in touch with my friends this summer!”

And welcome to the second day of summer break. Okay, maybe if you’re lucky you’ll make it to the third day without constant pleas from your children, toddler to teen, for screen-time.

Hey, it’s okay, technology isn’t all bad!

There is no reason to feel guilty for giving your kids a reasonable amount of screen-time this summer. But what is reasonable? And how, as the summer goes on and you run out of creative ways to keep your crew busy, do you keep reasonable from turning into – “How many TV shows have you watched today?” and “Wait, weren’t you playing Fortnite when I left this morning?”

First things first, you want to start as you mean to end. If you don’t set up rules and boundaries from the beginning, when summer still feels fresh and new and your resolve hasn’t been worn down to a little nub, you’ll have a hard time getting things back on track.

What if things are already off the rails, because well, you left your resolve somewhere back in January? We know you’re SO OVER IT when it comes to your kids and tech. You’re tired of the tech tantrums, the screen-time battles and all the guilt. You can get things back on track! It’s never too late to rewind and start over and we’ll show you how in our new book Screen-Time Sanity: the Crazy Easy Guide To Doing Technology With Your Kids.

Or you can go straight to get your kids to sign a Summer Screen Time contract, we’ve got a FREE printable one available here: No More Tech Zombies; How to Tame Too Much Summer Screen Time

A contract is great because it states clearly how much screen time they get, and you know what, “You get what you get and you don’t pitch a fit”. If it works for teachers, it can work for parents.

Also, it encourages them to do screen-free activities first in order to earn that precious screen-time.

But how exactly should kids fill that screen-free time?

It almost feels like kids today have forgotten how to play or keep themselves entertained without something that plugs in or runs on batteries.

Deflect those “I’m bored!” and “There’s nothing to do!” complaints like a Jedi Master with this list of 100, yes 100, screen free summer activities for kids. And many of these are free activities for kids or easy to do activities for kids to do at home that work on those rainy days when you might be most likely to turn to tech.

Use our handy dandy 100 scree free summer activities for kids printable that you’ll find at the end of this post and hang it where all your kids can see.

Then simply point them in that direction anytime they so much as “But, mom….”

100 Screen Free Summer Activities for Kids

Screen-Free Activities for Pre-School Kids:

Play Family Card Games

Take a bike ride

Search for bugs outside

Call a relative for a phone chat

Run through the sprinklers

Practice writing your first & last name

Fill a bucket with water and “paint” the outside of your house with a paintbrush

Have a toy car wash

Play “I Spy”

Pack a picnic lunch

Write your letters from A to Z

Have a tea party

Stick several ice cubes in a large bowl, add water, splash away

Fingerpaint

Storytime at the library or bookstore

Make leaf rubbings

Blow bubbles

Take a nature walk

Visit the park

Play leap frog

Have toy car races

Build with Duplos

Give your babydolls a bath

Cut up catalogs and magazines

Create a tower with plastic cups

Set of 4 Classic Children’s Card Games with 2 Hands-Free Playing Card Holders by Imagination Generation Carson BugView Quick-Release Bug Catching Tool and Magnifier for Children and Adults Melissa & Doug Sunny Patch Blossom Bright Sprinkler Green Toys Tea Set – BPA Free, Phthalates Free Play Toys for Gross Motor, Fine Skills Development. Kitchen Toys Crayola My First Fingerpaint Kit, Washable Paint, Gifts, Ages 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 Fun Filled Summer Super Miracle Bubble Makers Party Activity, Assorted Colors, Plastic , 4 Ounces, Pack of 6 LEGO DUPLO All-in-One-Box-of-Fun 10572 Creative Play and Educational Toy

Screen-Free Activities for Elementary School Kids:

Draw a hopscotch with chalk outside

Build with Legos

Go for a swim

Choose 5 toys to donate to charity

Play tic tac toe

Color in a coloring book

Build a fort

Draw a portrait of a family member

Look at family photos in an album

Jump Rope

Host a lemonade stand

Write a story with a grown up

Take a hike

Play a board game

Make a collage with what you collected on the hike

Illustrate a favorite TV program

Make Slime

Sketch plans for a fairy garden

Put on a puppet show

Lay in the grass and cloud watch

Fly a kite

Make popsicles

Search for birds & butterflies, create a graph of results

Search for shells or rocks

Create kindness rocks and hide them in your neighborhood

Crayola Outdoor Chalk, Glitter Sidewalk Chalk, Summer Toys, 5 Count LEGO Classic Medium Creative Brick Box 10696 Fort Magic: Fort Building & Construction Toy Kit Carnival Games Party Supplies – Lemonade Cardboard Stand White Blank Books with Hardcovers 6 My Fairy Garden – Magical Cottage Large Delta Kite/Rainbow Kite (200′ of Line) – Easy to Assemble, Launch, Fly – Premium Quality, One of the Best Kites for Kids/Kites for Adults – Great Beginner Kite Popsicle Molds Set – BPA Free – 6 Ice Pop Makers + Silicone Funnel + Cleaning Brush + Ice Cream Recipes E-book – by Lebice

Screen-Free Activities for Tweens:

Origami

Help in the garden/landscaping at your home

Choose 5 books to donate to charity

Bake something

Color your hair with hair chalk

Make playdough

Solve a Sudoku puzzle

Paint with watercolors

Do Yoga

Sing Karaoke

Write a letter and mail it

Learn to knit/crochet

Practice braiding hair

Read to a sibling or pet

Play a board game

Draw and doodle

Volunteer

Play flashlight hide and seek one evening

Go stargazing

Do a mad lib

Go geocaching

Give yourself a manicure

Create a comic book

Make a project using items from the recycling bin

Ultimate Origami for Beginners Kit: The Perfect Kit for Beginners-Everything you Need is in This Box!: Kit Includes Origami Book, 19 Projects, 62 Origami Papers & DVD Ameauty Hair Chalk Set, 24 Hair Dye Colors Non-Toxic Washable Temporary Hair Chalk for Girls Kids Party Cosplay Mini Sudoku For Kids 6×6 – Easy to Hard – Volume 1 – 145 Puzzles Artists Loft Fundamentals Watercolor Pan Set, 36 Colors Learn to Knit Kit: Includes Needles and Yarn for Practice and for Making Your First Scarf-featuring a 32-page book with instructions and a project (First Time)Make It Real – Glitter Dream Nail Spa. Nail Art Manicure Set for Kids, Complete with Nail Polish, Glitter, Gems, Stickers, Nail Dryer and More Fun in the Sun Mad Libs: Ultimate Box Set Blank Comic Book. Create Your Own Comic Book Journal Notebook: 110 Pages, Large 8.5

Scree-Free Activities for Teens:

Teen Crafts

Plan a family meal

Volunteer

Clean out your dresser drawers

Play a board game

Do a puzzle

Give yourself a pedicure

Write in your journal

READ

Practice your dance moves

Wash the car

Take a nap

Do Pilates

Rearrange your bedroom furniture

Watch a sunset

Memorize a poem

Work Out

Play solitaire with cards

Read a magazine

Teach a pet a trick

Go fishing

Take a bubble bath

Complete a few pages in an ACT/SAT prep book

Color in an adult coloring book

Use a camera, not your phone, to take pictures of what interests you
(psst. it’s a little pricey, but polaroids are a blast for tweens and teens and there are tons of fun projects for them do on Pinterest using polaroid photos)

The Healthy Teen Cookbook: Around the World In 80 Fantastic Recipes White Mountain Puzzles Things I Ate As A Kid – 1000 Piece Jigsaw Puzzle Gospire 8 in 1 Professional Pedicure kit/set Pedicure Foot Rasp Foot File and Callus Remover Sided Remove Set Best Foot Care Through My Eyes: A Journal for Teens The Pilates Body: The Ultimate At-Home Guide to Strengthening, Lengthening and Toning Your Body- Without Machines A Book of Poetry for Teenagers: Book of Poems Teens Cook Dessert The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens

Tech Done Smart

We know going totally screen free for the summer isn’t really attainable.

It rains, kids get sick, we take long road trips to see family and friends. Screens and technology are a part of our kid’s lives, but we can look for ways to make the time they spend using technology higher quality and even educational.