Why you gotta do this to me, Mom?!

*Before reading this post #nojudgingallowed* 🙈😅

When Lil X started acting out everytime we took away his gadget and even woke up in the middle of the night half asleep crying for an Ipad, I knew I had to make some serious changes to his screen time and an extra effort to find alternative activities to keep him occupied.

Yup, we are ‘those parents’.. ‘Those parents’ who would whip out an iPad to keep him entertained during those ‘long’ car rides…

Especially the whole of last month when we had shifted to the west of Singapore but still had to drive Axl to his preschool all the way in the East… (We had a one month transition for the transfer to take effect)… his screen time and my phone data usage up-ed significantly and we all felt the effects of this unhealthy habit!

We are ‘those parents’ who without skipping a heartbeat would give him the screen once he’s done eating so that we can then proceed to gobble down our meal in peace!

And then there are those times where we didn’t make plans and simply spend time around at home or have 101 chores occupying us and before we know it, run out of activities to entertain him with, yup, out comes the Ipad too. 😅

So before this addiction worsened, I decided to have a go to list of non gadget activities that I can whip out when he gives the ‘I’m bored…’ face or whines non stop ‘I want Ipad’ … x1000 times.

Please do share with me your ideas too!! Would love to hear the secret weapons you pull out to occupy them with…

50 Non-Screen Activities for Toddlers:

1. Read a book

2. Paint

3. Water play table at home

4. Scoot

5. Make a card for an upcoming family member’s birthday

6. Play a children card game

7. Build with Legos

8. Swim

9. Jump on the Trampoline or Bouncy Castle

10. Play with a Ball

11. Have an imaginary tea party with dolls or picnic with his favourite softtoys

12. Narrate a Bible story

13. Involve him to clean out his old toys and donate them

14. Do a puzzle

15. Sand play

16. Visit an indoor playground

17. Go for a walk at the park

18. Play a musical instrument

19. Activity Book (Eg. Dot-to-dot )

20. Bake something together

21. Collect seashells at the beach

22. Show off your stamp/coin collection

23. Memorize a Bible verse

24. Role play (Doctor/Patient, Teacher/Student, etc)

25. Visit a science museum

26. Colour a colouring book

27. Decorate an old shirt

28. Make a scrapbook of his favourite things

29. Arrange a playdate with your Mummy friends

30. Plant some seed and water them

31. Go to the Zoo!

32. Buy a pet fish and set up the tank together

33. Have a bubble bath or bubble playtime

34. Play the I Spy game

35. Play with trains & build a train track

36. Water balloon bombs

37. Head to your neighborhood playground

38. Play dress up

39. Hide and seek an object

40. Teach a new skill (ride a bike, or rollerblade, etc)

41. Playdoh

42. Have a staycation or sleepover with cousins

43. Sword fight

44. Make a Jewellery

45. Puppet play

46. Visit the water park (Wild Wild Wet!)

47. Play with hula hoops

48. Sticker Time of his favourite animals or characters

49. Collect and press/paint leaves

50. Play a Board Game

 All ready to scoot!  Colouring time  Water play!  Row a boat @vivocity

Update:

Here are more awesome activities contributed by my reader Maureen! 🙂

– E-story books,

– Wall / board Doodling

– Selfmade maze

– Box stack up