20 Screen-Free Activities for Kids at Home (Ages 3 to 8)

Screens are easy, but kids are calmer, more creative and better at entertaining themselves when they get regular time without them. The trick is having a few ready-to-go ideas for the moment someone says "I'm bored". Here are 20 that need little or no preparation.

Quiet activities (great for winding down)

1. Coloring pages. The classic for a reason: it's calming, good for fine motor skills and needs nothing but crayons. Print a fresh page whenever you need one.
2. Sticker scenes. Draw a simple background (a farm, the sea, space) and let them fill it with stickers.
3. Audiobooks and picture books. Let them follow along in the book.
4. Puzzles. Jigsaws for little ones, mazes and dot-to-dots for older kids.
5. Play dough. Homemade dough takes 10 minutes with flour, salt, water and oil.

Creative activities

6. Build a blanket fort, then read or have a snack inside it.
7. Make a paper chain to count down to a birthday or holiday.
8. Junk modeling. Boxes, tubes and tape become robots, cars and castles.
9. Paint with water on a fence or path outdoors, and watch it disappear.
10. Make a "museum" of favorite toys, with labels and tickets for the grown-ups.

Active activities (for energy to burn)

11. Freeze dance. Music on, dance; music off, freeze.
12. Indoor obstacle course with cushions, chairs and a "lava" floor.
13. Treasure hunt. Hide a toy and give hot-and-cold clues.
14. Animal walks. Move like a crab, a frog, a bear or a snake.
15. Balloon keep-up. Don't let it touch the floor!

Helping activities (they love feeling grown-up)

16. Bake together. Measuring and stirring are great hidden math.
17. Sorting jobs. Socks into pairs, coins by size, toys by color.
18. Water the plants or start seeds in an egg carton.
19. Make a card for a grandparent, neighbor or friend.
20. Set the table and make place cards for dinner.

Tips that make screen-free time work

• Keep a "boredom box" with paper, crayons, printed coloring pages, tape and a few small toys, ready to pull out.
• Rotate toys. Put half away for a few weeks, and they'll feel new when they come back.
• Expect some boredom. A few minutes of "nothing to do" is often when kids start their best games.

Printable coloring books kids love

The Wiggle Wonders Color & Discover bundle has three coloring books (Dinosaur Land, Farm Friends and Ocean Island Adventure) with 57 original pages and bold, easy lines for ages 3 to 8. Print a page whenever someone needs a quiet activity, at home, in a restaurant or on a road trip. It's $12.99 as an instant download.

In December, the Wiggle Wonders Christmas Countdown Kit turns screen-free time into a 24-day countdown, with one activity card a day.