There is something excellent about having screen time for the kids. We’re living in digital times and that means that without screen time, your kids are going to be behind some of the other kids their own age. The thing is, not every bit of free time should be overtaken with a screen, and as a parent, this is something you will have to contend with – entertaining them without the screens every time.
When you are busy at home or you are forced to work from home during the pandemic, you need to ensure that you have sprung into action and that means that you bring out the electronic babysitter to help. You can load it up with educational games, drawing and reading stories and you can even let the kids watch cartoons. They’re excellent. The thing is, you need something else. You can read more about how to update your current tech at home but what do you do while the tech is doing its thing? Below, we’ve got some great suggestions for entertaining the kids while the screens are busy!
- Build. Whether you break out the blocks or you are bringing out the Sticklebricks, you and your kids can get busy building! There are so many skills learned when you build with your kids and they really get to be creative and get moving with their hands. You don’t have to see them with their heads down into their tablets – not when you can entertain them properly with bricks and blocks.
- Create. Have you ever heard of a secret track? Flip the rug over and use masking tape to create roads all over the back of it. Then break out the vehicles and have fun with their very own city. The best thing is that you can rip up the tape and create a new one every single time, which gives your kids the chance to think up new roads and routes for their cars.
- Laundry. Okay so hear us out on this one. Kids love to sort, to pile things up and to organize, so this is the perfect time to get them helping with sock sorting and ensuring that they help to sort into color piles, too. This is a good time to teach them a skill that they’ll need in life, and you can also make a game out of collecting up the dirty laundry to be washed, too!
- Arts and crafts. From sewing new pillows to coloring in and painting, you can really get messy with this one. The world of arts and crafts is huge! If you want to really get creative, pour paint into balloons and pin the tops to a huge canvas. Then, throw darts to pop the balloons! You really can get them off their screens and having real life, sensory, messy fun when they are without their screen time for a while!
These tips aren’t the only ones that you need, but they sure can get the fun flowing.
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Painting is a great one. Kids don’t do enough of creating. It seems like the kids spend mre time online at school now.
That’s so true!
That is solid advice for parents, I know kids need to be connected to the digital world, but with adults too we need to disconnect for a bit too.
It is so easy to get distracted by technology, checking your emails at 11:15pm even when I do something as a stress relief, like drawing or painting, I often have my picture on my laptop screen and am blasting some tunes with my tablet.
My 1 true escape from technology is gardening. Even when I go for a walk in the woods, I am constantly reaching for my camera, or my cellphone to take pictures.
In the winter it is even more important to find time to disconnect, I think a part of it too is making sure to engage in active activities as opposed to passive entertainment, like watching tv or Netflix. People need to keep engaged in stuff and doing stuff that is tangable as opposed to just watching sitcoms on Netflix.
Well said!
Thank you so much for sharing my post!
Love it! We’ve been really focusing on cutting down on screen time for the kiddos over the last few months and it’s been awesome watching creativity flourish. Now I need to work more on cutting down my screen time 😬
Lol, same here 😆👍
Thank you for sharing this.=]
My pleasure! Thank you for stopping by! 🙂