Screen-Free Activities

Something to offer instead

The screen argument is easier to win with a specific alternative than a general principle. These are activities that hold attention on their own merits — restaurants, waiting rooms, long car journeys, rainy Sundays.

56 articles

A child's hands hold up a coloring page of a city bus, colored red with crayon, at a bus stop on an early autumn morning, while a real red bus with its headlights on approaches out of focus behind it.

School bus coloring pages for the kid who waits at the window

One school morning from the window to the bus stop and back, with a page for each place and a small job for your child at every stop.

8 min read

A crayon-coloured balloon-bunch coloring page pegged on a string line on a pale wall, with three coloured paper balloons lifted out of the sheet and floating above it, and two real red and yellow balloons tied to a wooden chair.

A coloring table at a kids' birthday party that runs itself

A how-to for the first half hour of a party at home: one table, three zones, pages printed to the theme, and a peg line that ends as the goodbye.

5 min read

A printable bingo card of nine boxes in black line art: an oak leaf, an acorn, a chestnut in its spiky shell, a pine cone, a snail, a feather, a sprig of berries, a mushroom and a raindrop over a puddle.

Autumn walk bingo: a square gets colored only when you find the real thing

A bingo card for an October walk, with squares ordered from the leaf you find in a minute to the feather that needs luck.

4 min read

Seen from above, a child's hands color a maple leaf page in orange and red pencil on a light wooden table, beside the same leaf page finished and oiled so the paper turns translucent, next to a saucer of oil and cotton balls.

Suncatcher coloring pages that turn a bare October window into stained glass

One grey afternoon, a few printed pages and a saucer of oil, and a bare October window that ends the day glowing like stained glass.

4 min read

Four animal coloring pages, a fox, a leaping humpback whale, an elephant and a stretching cat, partly colored in crayon and laid out on a light wooden table with loose crayons and an oak leaf.

Animal coloring pages for World Animal Day, one habitat at a time

A tour for 4 October: one habitat per stop, one move your child acts out, then the page. Plus where World Animal Day came from.

4 min read

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Tree coloring pages for the one tree your child passes every day

A year-long project for one tree: the same page colored in October, winter, spring and summer, and four sheets that tell the story side by side.

4 min read

A part-coloured coloring page of a yellow crescent moon and four stars lies on a star-patterned duvet on a child's bed at night, with three crayons beside it, a plush rabbit on the pillow and a lit bedside lamp on the nightstand behind.

Coloring before bed works when the page is small enough to finish

How to make coloring the quiet step between pyjamas and the story, with the page choice and the stopping rule that decide whether it works.

4 min read

A half-coloured printable page of a diamond kite with a looping bow tail lies on a pale wooden kitchen table, beside a handful of loose crayons and a ball of white string.

Kite coloring pages, and the page that explains why it goes up

Colour them at the table in the morning, fly the real one after lunch. One page draws the two arrows that explain the whole trick.

4 min read

Cozy autumn nature table on a low wooden shelf, with acorns, conkers, oak leaves, a pinecone, feather, smooth stone, colored pencils, and hand-colored nature pages featuring leaves and woodland animal

The autumn nature table, and the pages that go on it

A shelf for what your kid brings back from the walk, and the coloring pages that turn it into a scene. Five steps, one afternoon.

5 min read

A clean black and white line art coloring page drawing of a chameleon perched on a curling branch, its body and long spiral tail bursting into vivid shifting bands of color, green flowing into turquoi

Chameleon coloring pages you can't color wrong

The one animal where a wild color choice is accurate. See what each chameleon color really means, then print a few and try it.

4 min read

A clean black-and-white line art coloring page of a friendly jack-o-lantern next to a sitting black cat on a porch, only the candle glow inside the pumpkin colored in warm orange, everything else unco

Halloween coloring pages, and the real story behind the spooky stuff

Color a jack-o-lantern, ghost, or black cat, then find out where each Halloween tradition actually came from, all the way back to an old Irish autumn.

4 min read

A cozy blanket-and-cushion fort by a large rain-streaked window, warm string lights, a child's coloring pages and crayons and colored pencils spread on a soft rug inside, a mug of cocoa, golden aftern

What to do with kids on a rainy day, before the tablet comes out

The tablet is the easy answer on a wet afternoon. Here is a calmer one: low-prep, screen-free activities matched to your kid's age and mood.

6 min read