This week is Screen-Free Week. It . . . → Read More: 100 fun kids activities for Screen-Free Week]]> Just as a healthy diet can certainly include cake, so a balanced childhood can include screen time. Family movie nights, skyping with Grandma and typing stories on the laptop are all great fun. It’s just there are so many other fun thing to do if you step away from a screen.

This week is Screen-Free Week. It also happens to coincide with two birthdays in our household and an extra day off school for the girls. So, I’m not here. We’re embracing Screen-Free week, going offline and enjoying some fun family time. We’re probably baking birthday cake, visiting an art gallery or up to our knees in water beads as you read this. If you’d like to join in and spend a little more time with the kids and without a screen this week, whether for an hour, a day or the whole week, here are 100 fun kids activities you could try.

Click each idea to see the full details.

And you can print off the list at the bottom so you really can log off and go play.

Step away from the screen and play

1.With shadow puppets 2. In the jungle 3. With chickens 4. Under the sea 5. In space  6. With water beads 7. In a bath of jelly 8. On a building site 9. Camping 10. Yoga 11. Dressing up 12. Pirates 13. With potatoes 14. Dinosaurs 15. With homemade play dough 16. With toothpicks 17. Washing up 18. With salt dough 19. Mad hatters 20. With your feet

Step away from the screen and cook

21. Jam 22. Bunny rabbits 23. Lovehearts 24. Marshmallow lollipops 25. Child-made soup 26. Chop chop salad  27. A snowman 28. Homemade cornettos 29. Welsh cakes 30. Maths cocktails 31. Eggs 32. The alphabet 33. Snowflakes 34. Cookies 35. A rainbow 36. A gingerbread man 37.  A gingerbread house 38. Mini meringues 39. A car 40. Ice cream play dough

Step away from the screen and make

41. Caterpillars 42. Butterflies 43. A robot 44. A town 45. A playground 46. A marble run 47. An incy, wincy book 48. A superhero peg doll 49. Your own doll 50. A meadow 51. A horse riding stables 52. Chocolate play dough 53. A weather station 54. Beautiful candle holders 55. Rockets 56. A boat 57. A dinosaur land 58. A den 59. Story stones 60. A comic

Step away from the screen and be arty

61. Try blow art 62. Set up a painting station 63. Decorate flower pots 64. Explore symmetry 65. Reverse print 66. Make a roly poly painting 67. Try contact paper art 68. Use oil pastels 69. Print with flowers 70. Go big! 71. Paint with marbles 72. Create a self portrait 73. Make a marvellous hat 74. Thread an art bag 75. Try old materials new ways 76. Make a store cupboard collage 77. Spin! 78. Try waterpainting 79. Paint outside 80. With cotton buds

Step away from the screen and play outdoors

81. Make tree gargoyles 82. Make mud pies 83. Plant a tree 84. Create cement art 85. With worms 86. With bugs 87. Go on a treasure hunt 88. Play in a rock pool 89. Create a fairy garden 90. Make a miniature garden 91. Grow some seeds 92. Start a garden journal 93. Plant sunflowers 94. In a story tent 95. Build a sandcastle 96. Make a bird cafe 97. Wear woodland jewellery  98. Hand print a sunflower 99. Race snails 100. Hunt mini beasts

Print the list, log off, go play!

Printable screen-free week kids activities

However you chose to spend your week – have fun! I’ll be back next week.

Home made puppets are some of the most played with toys in our house, lending themselves time and time again to all sorts of adventures. The children . . . → Read More: Shadow puppets]]>
Remember the indoor meadow we grew as one of our Earth Day activities? This week it has become the indoor / outdoor stage for a theatre production using shadow puppets.

Home made puppets are some of the most played with toys in our house, lending themselves time and time again to all sorts of adventures. The children play with puppets so often I think because it lets them be the master of a small universe and really stretch their imaginations as they tell their tales. Puppets are also a wonderful way for children to work out real-life relationships and develop their language – and so much fun to make! Here’s how the girls made their shadow puppets this week, with links to some of the other puppet ideas in our archives.

How to make shadow puppets

They started by drawing out their characters on black card. Card works better than paper a it gives the puppets more substance and they’ll last longer for more play. We happened to have black card out for drawing on that day, which I think sparked the girls idea to make shadow puppets, as the black made their images look like shadows even before any light was shone on them – but any colour would work. To cast clear shadows it’s best to use bold, clear shapes for your characters. You might like to make a set to tell a particular story, or make a set of archetypes you can use for lots of tales: a wolf, a castle, a princess, a dragon….

Once the shadow puppets are cut out you can add in a few extra details using a craft knife. Think about the effect the light shining on your puppets will create and add eyes, mouths or windows.

Add a stick to the back of each puppet – a wooden skewer, lollipop stick, drinking straw or twig from a tree can all work well.

Then your puppets are ready to play. B borrowed an angled lamp to shine on her puppets to cast shadows on the wall. L was happy to have the black  puppets as they were and used the indoor meadow as her stage. Poking the sticks in to the soil held them all in places for her to tell her tale of a princess locked in a tower by a mean wolf, and set free with the help of a friendly little bird.

More puppet ideas

If you liked these shadow puppets you might also like
:: scary monster puppets
:: peg doll puppets
:: fairy tale fridge magnets
:: balloon puppets

This month the Kids Art Explorers have been enjoying a No Paint Brushes Allowed project. Creativity is encouraged when you set aside your everyday materials and try something different.

The Kids Art Explorers celebrate the process of art: trying new things, having a go, being daring, making mistakes. We’re interested in how things . . . → Read More: 52 kids painting ideas: a year’s worth of creativity]]>

This month the Kids Art Explorers have been enjoying a No Paint Brushes Allowed project. Creativity is encouraged when you set aside your everyday materials and try something different.

The Kids Art Explorers celebrate the process of art: trying new things, having a go, being daring, making mistakes. We’re interested in how things turn out but much more focused on the fun we have along the way. Here’s a whole year’s worth of ideas for the fun you could have if you tried painting with something other than a paint brush.

Click each word to discover a fabulous kids painting idea. Pin this page so you can come back and get another idea when you need it. Print this checklist for kids painting ideas. Then go try one of the ideas with your kids!

Why paint with a paint brush when you could paint with a…?

1. Potato masher  2. drinking straw 3. finger 4. stacking cup 

5. sponge 6. spaghetti 7. popcorn 8. cookie cutter

9. hand 10. pine cone 11. bubble wrap 12. celery 13. bubble wand

14. fishing rod 15. water bead 16. syringe 17. Easter egg

18. body 19. ketchup bottle 20. tooth brush 21. paint popsicle

22. Acorn 23. pipe cleaner 24. thumb 25. leaf 26. spatula

27. foot 28. nail brush 29. feather 30. slide 31. okra

32. rubber band 33. magnet 34. Q-tip 35. flower 36. party blower

37. tennis ball 38. elastic  39. potato 40. pan 41. packing peanut

42. scrubbing brush 43. carrot 44. marble 45. corn cob

46. bubble 47. styrofoam 48. egg carton 49. apple

50. pendulum 51. toy car 52. udder

Join the Kids Art Explorers for more kids painting ideas

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