12 Screen-Free Activities Your Kids Will LOVE While Traveling
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Screen-free activities for your kiddos while traveling will be a game changer for your family! These screen-free activities will keep your children busy, engaged, and entertained as you hit the road.
Why We Don’t Use Screens
Are you tired of the screen time melt downs? Does it make your travel days long and difficult?
In our home, screen time is limited. We turn the TV on once a week on Fridays for a family movie night.
My kids don’t have iPads or any other personal device that they use, however, I did have an OLD iPad from when I was in high school that I used to bring on the airplane whenever we would fly.
The iPad’s ability was limited. It had about 5 episodes of Little Bear loaded on it and that was it. I figured it would keep my daughter occupied since she NEVER got to use a personal device. I was wrong.
Each trip, the screen caused melt downs and angst for my daughter that made the entire trip hard. I finally decided to ditch the iPad and curate activities that would keep my kiddos entertained, active, and engaged.
Screen-Free Activities
1) LCD Boards
LCD Boards are great for doodling or games (Tic Tac Toe anyone?). They are affordable, small, easy to pack, and only require one pen. These are a must-have in our travel backpacks.
2) Kinetic Sand
Okay, I know this sounds crazy, but I LOVE the little containers of kinetic sand from the Target party section. Its just enough sand to keep my kids busy, but not enough to make a huge mess. Don’t knock it until you try it!
3) Yoto Mini
We LOVE our Yoto Mini! We got our 4 year old the Yoto Mini and headphones for Christmas, and she loves to listen to books while we travel! Her imagination and vocabulary has exploded as she listens to stories and music. I highly recommend a Yoto for kids!
4) Books
You can’t beat good, old-fashioned books! We travel on a plane most of the time so I try to find small, paperback books that don’t make the kids’ backpacks too heavy. My toddler loves Seek-And-Find books with big pictures like this one.
5) Beads and Pipe Cleaners
Pipe cleaners and beads are cheap, light-weight, and easy to pack. Kiddos can string beads onto pipe cleaners to make patterns or bracelets. This activity is also great for fine motor skills.
6) Coloring Books
Coloring books are a great way to keep little hands busy in the car or on a plane. Maybe grab a new coloring book from the Dollar Store before a trip to keep it exciting and engaging for your child.
7) Dry Erase Markers
Print off activities (word searches, mazes, crosswords, etc.) for older kids or coloring sheets for younger kids, stick them in clear plastic binder sheets, put the sheets in a binder, and bring a pack of dry erase markers. Kids can work and re-work on these pages while traveling.
8) Fidgets
Fidgets are great to keep little hands busy, especially for toddlers. Pop-its, spinners, rubber chewing toys, or fidget tubes are a favorite with my children.
9) Snack Boxes
If you have kids, I am sure you have a TON of snacks, but snack boxes with little compartments of goodies keep kids busy and engaged as they get to “choose” what snack to eat next!
10) Matchbox Cars
Little cars are always a fan favorite especially for my toddler. He likes to run them on his lap and create a game in his imagination with his little cars.
11) Mini Magnetic Tiles
Did you know that you can buy little travel tins of magnetic tiles?! They are so cute and an amazing open ended travel toy that keep kids busy for hours.
12) Magnetic Dress Up
Similar to the mini magnetic tiles, my daughter loves little tins of magnetic dress up. The outfit options are endless, and she loves to mix and match.
Traveling screen-free can be an adjustment at first and a little nerve-wracking, to be honest! But it was the best switch we made as a family and created much smoother travel days without the screen time melt downs.
Grab a fun backpack, fill it with all kinds of engaging, screen-free activities, and watch your children thrive on the road!
