If you’ve ever suggested putting the tablet away only to be met with “But what can I dooooo?”, you’re definitely not alone.
Screens can be brilliant, but sometimes we want our children to slow down, use their imaginations and find something they can enjoy without a device in their hands.
The trick? Don’t just take the screen away. Give them something fun to replace it with.
Here are 10 simple screen-free activities for young children that encourage creativity, imagination and independent play — without requiring hours of preparation from Mum or Dad.
1. Bring Out the Colouring Pencils
There’s a reason colouring has been a childhood favourite for generations. Give a child a page they actually want to colour and a handful of pencils, crayons or markers, and you’ve got an activity they can enjoy completely at their own pace.
Colouring also gives little hands an opportunity to practise pencil control, experiment with colours and concentrate on one activity for a while.
And there are no rules. If they decide the dog should be purple and the cat should have rainbow stripes, even better.
2. Go on a Backyard Treasure Hunt
You don’t need elaborate clues or hidden prizes. Give your child a simple list of things to find outside:
- Something yellow
- A smooth rock
- A funny-shaped leaf
- Something tiny
- A feather
- Something that smells nice
Suddenly the backyard, garden or local park becomes somewhere to explore rather than somewhere they’ve seen a hundred times before.
3. Build the Ultimate Indoor Cubby
Chairs, blankets, cushions and a little imagination are all you need.
Once the cubby is built, let your child decide what it becomes. It might be a castle, a secret hideaway, a pet hospital, a spaceship or simply somewhere cosy to read a book.
Add a torch and a favourite soft toy and you may not see them for quite some time!
4. Create a Story Together
Start with one ridiculous sentence:
“One morning, Cashew woke up and discovered…”
Then let your child finish it.
Ask questions as the story develops. Where did he go? Who did he meet? What went wrong? Was Miss Winter involved? What did Possum think about all of this?
You can write their story down while they illustrate it. You might be surprised by just how wonderfully strange their imagination becomes.
5. Have a Teddy Bear or Pet Picnic
Spread a blanket on the floor or outside and invite every teddy, doll and stuffed animal in the house.
Children can organise the guests, prepare pretend food and decide where everyone sits.
Real pets can attend too — although if they’re anything like Cashew, keeping the snacks away from them may become part of the activity.
6. Make Something from the Recycling Box
Before throwing away clean cardboard boxes, tubes and containers, put a few aside.
Add paper, tape, child-safe scissors and pencils and ask:
“What could we turn this into?”
A cardboard box could become a house, car, robot, castle or bed for a favourite toy.
The finished creation doesn’t need to look perfect. The fun is in deciding what it could become.
7. Go on a Nature Walk
A walk becomes much more interesting when children have a mission.
Look for birds, flowers, insects, interesting sticks or different coloured leaves. Ask them what they can hear, smell and see.
Cashew would probably vote for finding the biggest stick possible — regardless of whether it could actually fit through the front door.
8. Set Up a Mini Art Station
You don’t need an entire craft room. A small container filled with paper, colouring pencils, crayons, stickers and a few washable markers is enough.
Keeping everything together also means children can choose to create something without you having to set up an activity every time.
9. Play “What Happens Next?”
Look at a picture in a favourite book and stop before turning the page.
Ask your child:
- What do you think happens next?
- What would you do?
- How do you think the character feels?
- What would make the story really funny?
There’s no correct answer. The whole point is encouraging them to imagine possibilities.
10. Let Them Be Bored
This might be the hardest one — for parents as much as children.
We don’t always need to fill every quiet moment.
Give children access to books, toys, colouring supplies and a safe place to play, then give them a little time to decide what happens next.
Sometimes “I’m bored” is simply the few minutes before imagination takes over.
A Little Less Scrolling. A Little More Creating.
Screen-free time doesn’t have to mean elaborate activities, expensive supplies or parents becoming full-time entertainment coordinators.
Sometimes all children need is a pencil, a story, something to explore and permission to use their imagination.
That idea is a big part of It’s Cashew’s World.
Inspired by the adventures of real-life Cashew, Miss Winter and Possum, our world is being created to give little animal lovers more opportunities to colour, create, read, play and imagine.
Meet Cashew & His Friends 🐾
Discover Cashew, cheeky Miss Winter and Possum — the Queen of the House — and explore more screen-free fun from It’s Cashew’s World.
Big Adventures. Small Paws. Kinder Tomorrows.