I LOVE to celebrate random, fun holidays especially when they involve screen free kids activities and opportunities to just play with my kids. I find that on ordinary days I get too distracted with cleaning the house or other activities. How many of you knew that the first Friday in March each year is National Day of Unplugging? A designated screen-free day to play with your kids!
If you live anywhere with similar climate to where I live, the first Friday in March is often cold, so here are some fun indoor kids activities that are sure to bring some smiles!
Screen-Free Activities For Playing With Your Kids

My kids love it when I make forts when them or chase them around in their Quads of Fun Junction Set from Pacific Play Tents. This vibrantly colored set offers enough room for your child and all their friends. Set includes a junction that has partial mesh for ventilation and viewing, and 4 tunnels that easily connect to the junction. Find Pacific Play Tents on Amazon, or www.PacificPlayTents.com
At home with the kids? Instantly access any of these printable activity bundles to keep them learning!
My kids also love it when I get down on the floor with them and play cars, house, or dolls. We recently got some PlayTape that allows us to build all kinds of roads on our hardwood floor. I remember when this stuff first came out, thinking how brilliant of an idea it was! You can get it at Walmart or Amazon.
We also love playing with water beads at our house. There are SO many things you can do with these! See our post here: Water Beads Fun
Play Doh mats are another favorite at our house. Get the free printables here: Free Play Doh Mats
If you have a kid napping, but still want to have some quality play time with your other children, busy bags make for an amazing screen-free activity with the kids! Get all the free printable activities for your kids here: Busy Bag Activities
Insect Kits are another fun idea for playing with your kids! Growing butterflies are our FAVORITE! We do it every spring. Read more about our experience here: Kids Butterfly Garden
My kids also love it when we play in the kitchen with a fun new recipe. Here is a picture of some glitter slime we made last year (It took like 2 minutes to make!):
If you have a baby at home, don't forget the importance of also getting on the floor and having lots of play time with baby! A fun toy pack for baby that deals with lots of developmental play, is Playgro’s Play and Explore Gift Pack It features 5 infant developmental toys in 1 fantastic gift pack! The Play and Explore This pack is the ideal gift set to support babies along their developmental journey, offering vibrant colors, varied textures for tactile development and delightful sounds for auditory stimulation. Find it at Buy Buy Baby or on Amazon.
Some other favorite screen-free activities for kids include: Playing hide-n-seek, having family dance parties, baking something fun, learning a new skill, trying a science experiment, arts and crafts, painting nails, making up games, and reading!
I have many more activities to add to this list later this week, but I wanted to end with the most simple and important of all: Read to your kids! So much learning and bonding occurs during story time! Here's a list of children's Books That Teach Important Life Lessons.
I hope you all enjoyed this list of screen-free activities for kids, and more importantly, that you take the time to unplug and play!
What do you think?