101 Screen-Free Indoor & Outdoor Activities for Kids at Home

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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:

  1. Make and play with Play-Doh
  2. Make a sensory bin with beans, rice, or water. Throw in some containers and let them scoop, pour, and play!
  3. Bake together, cook, or make snacks together (peanut butter ball recipe (feel free to use whole oats and ground flax))
  4. Organize a closet
  5. Play dress-up and put on a fashion show (use parents’ clothes too!)
  6. Build a craft/city with recyclables
  7. Paint artwork
  8. Read a recipe and cook a meal together
  9. Sew a pillow with your child
  10. 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.
  11. Write a card to a family member or friends and teach them how to address the envelope
  12. Water or repot indoor plants
  13. Go through your child’s baby book with them
  14. Sort toys
  15. Play board games
  16. Make sticker art
  17. Teach kids card tricks
  18. Read stories aloud
  19. Cut shapes out of cardboard, sort them, and paint them
  20. Read alone
  21. Make a fort
  22. Make artwork with glue and pom poms
  23. Create a birdhouse with popsicle sticks
  24. Do puzzles (make it more difficult by combining puzzle pieces from two puzzles so they then have to sort)
  25. Practice tying shoes
  26. Decorate for Easter and practice Easter eggs hunts
  27. Sort through clothes
  28. 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.
  29. Paint your child’s foot or hand and make artwork for yourself or the grandparents
  30. Have an indoor parade
  31. Hang contact paper on the window and have kids place cut pieces of tissue paper (which makes it look like stained glass)
  32. Put on music and have a dance party
  33. Play instruments
  34. Play hide and seek
  35. Work out with your kids
  36. Paint kids’ fingernails
  37. Stretch with your kids
  38. Make paper airplanes
  39. Tell kids stories about your childhood, how you and your partner met, stories about their grandparents, uncles, aunts, etc.
  40. Give kids items to sort by color or numbers (pom poms, beans, blocks, etc.)
  41. Give kids a flashlight to read with for fun
  42. Make a “store” and buy things
  43. Count coins and money with kids
  44. Make slime
  45. Give kids a box and markers and have them make a space ship
  46. Help kids practice sweeping by sweeping debris inside a square made of blue painters tape
  47. Roll or gently toss a ball inside
  48. Make air dry clay and paint it
  49. 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
  50. Play teacher with your child and let them “teach” you something
  51. Look through family photos together
  52. Play classic games like tic tac toe, checkers, and go fish
  53. Teach kids how to play solitaire with real cards
  54. Blow up balloons and let them play
  55. Have kids draw with markers on paper or a coffee filter, then squirt it with water for fun artwork
  56. Make and decorate masks or outfits out of paper bags
  57. Have kids act out a book
  58. Use baking soda, vinegar, and droppers to have a fun science experiment
  59. Dye grains of rice with food coloring, then place the dry rice into empty water bottles for homemade shakers
  60. Make a maze with crepe paper and painters tape
  61. Fold laundry and put laundry away with kids
  62. Make an indoor slide with a crib mattress
  63. Make puppets and put on a performance
  64. Toss socks in a hamper for points
  65. In a hall, “bowl” with a ball and plastic cups
  66. Make an obstacle course inside
  67. Play charades
  68. Teach kids to clean (scrub a toilet, wipe down a sink, mop, sweep, wipe baseboards, wipe knobs, dust, etc.)
  69. Let kids wash their toys in the sink—as long as you are ok with what they want to “wash”
  70. Make build a scene or home for toys using cardboard boxes or shoe boxes (let them decorate them too)

Screen-Free Outdoor Activities:

  1. Toss, kick, or roll a ball
  2. Ride a bike
  3. Go for a walk
  4. Pick up trash (with gloves on)
  5. Play with chalk. I like to write letters with chalk and have kids jump on the letter that I call out.
  6. Plant a garden
  7. Make a compost
  8. Go on a hike
  9. Create an outdoor scavenger hunt
  10. Make a fairy/dragon garden
  11. Make a bird feeder (simple pine cone, peanut butter, birdseed, and string)
  12. Read books on an outdoor blanket
  13. Draw artwork outside with a pencil and paper
  14. Have a picnic or an outdoor tea party
  15. Take a car ride
  16. Play with bubbles
  17. Take Tupperware outside, fill them with water and let the kids play
  18. Get a bucket of water and a paintbrush and let the kids “paint”
  19. Fill a spray bottle with water and let the kids spray plants
  20. Build something outside
  21. Gather treasures from nature like leaves, rocks, berries, etc.
  22. Wash and vacuum your vehicle together
  23. Take a walk in the rain and jump in puddles
  24. Practice yoga outside with kids
  25. Make Moon Sand and play with it outside (8 cups of flour and 1 cup of baby oil). This is an outdoor activity!
  26. Give haircuts outside
  27. Practice Easter egg hunts
  28. Make an obstacle course
  29. Play sports like four square, baseball, basketball, etc.
  30. Take ice outside and let kids smash the ice
  31. 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!