35 Alternatives to Screen Time for Homeschool Learning

Summary: Homeschooling, especially online homeschooling, may require more screen time than traditional schools. But it also provides your child with more chances for hands-on learning. Your child’s education does not only come from a screen. Homeschooling gives your family the opportunity to make the most out of offline experiences for your child’s education. If anything, homeschooling can help your family develop a healthier relationship with screen time.

I. Introduction

II. Hands-On Learning in Homeschooling

III. 35 Alternatives to Screen Time

IV. Ending Notes

V. FAQs

Introduction

Parents who have just started homeschooling, or are considering it for their children, may be concerned about the amount of screen time that it might entail. It is true that homeschooling, especially online homeschooling, might require more screen time for your child but this doesn’t have to be a bad thing. You shouldn’t feel guilty about taking advantage of screens, although sometimes we may have some trouble limiting our screen time hours even as adults.

Screens and the internet may have their benefits, like increased accessibility to education to accommodate students’ unique needs. But excessive screen time has been linked to causing problems in children’s development physically and mentally. There are so many ways for kids to access screens these days – TVs, computers, phones, and tablets. Getting off these screens is just the first step to cultivating a healthy relationship with them. More importantly, not all of homeschool learning happens in front of a screen. You must replace the time once used for screens with activities that foster holistic development outside of a screen. We’ve already written about how you can manage the relationship of your family with screen time while homeschooling. If you’re interested in that, you can click the link here to read more. This article will be about specific alternatives to screen time that you and your family can explore. More than being great fun, these activities are educational and support your child’s healthy development.

So, whether you’ve just started homeschooling your child, are considering to homeschool you’re child, or maybe you’re a seasoned homeschooling vet just looking for more ideas, we hope that this list might spark some great ideas and fun family bonding!

Hands-On Learning in Homeschooling

Homeschool education gives you the freedom to personalize your child’s learning program. You and your child become proactive influencers in your child’s education. Homeschooling allows your child to learn through various experiences instead of just from the pages of a textbook or in front of a screen. Not only is this a more enjoyable experience for your child, but it may help them retain what they learn much better.

Every child is unique, which means that their education should be unique too! It’s great to have different choices for hands-on learning activities for your student. You can center these activities around things that they enjoy or are interested in. Making sure that you replace their screen time with things that they choose and enjoy means that they won’t be missing their screen hours. Not only can you help them learn about things they love, but you can help them discover new passions as well.

35 Alternatives to Screen Time

When screens overrun our lives, it is easy to forget just how much you can do offline. These suggestions will not only reduce your family’s total screen time but also help your children exercise their creativity and resourcefulness.

Our suggestions are divided into 6 major categories with more specific activities you can do as a family or redirect your child to do solo during their screen free hours. The extent of supervision needed may vary depending on the age of your child.

Get Creative

Art is a great way to express yourself and have fun doing it! It is also a great way to assist in the development of your child’s fine motor skills. There are more ways to get creative than just paint and canvas. Have some liberating fun with these creative activities.

1. Learn a Musical Instrument

Have your child live out their rockstar dreams and let them pick up a musical instrument to learn. Some lessons are readily available online. It’s up to you if you want to learn as a family. Maybe you could start a family band!

2. Family Drama Production

Another creative activity that can be done as a family or just for the kids to enjoy. There are a lot of ways to go about this. You could have an immersive storytelling experience where your family reenacts your favorite fairytale story or book, or they can exercise their creative writing and come up with an original story to produce. They can have fun with the play itself too. It can be a puppet show made from upcycled old socks, a shadow puppet show, or they can be the actors themselves and get creative with their costumes and set design – a little cardboard can go a long way!

3. Role Play

This is a great way to have your child learn about real world skills. Compared to drama production, these role plays would be recreating real life experiences. For example, they can pretend to set up a grocery store to practice their math skills through pricing, selling, and giving change. They could also pretend to be a newspaper company to learn about the industry and practice their writing and spelling too. Let them take free reign with the designs and let their art and organization skills fly. A pro tip would be to make sure that they keep their grocery or newspaper in one designated place/room in the home so that it is easier to hold them accountable for cleaning up after.

4. Arts and Crafts

Give your child a range of mediums to choose from – paint, sculpting (with playdough or airdry clay), colored pastels, or even a coloring book (or they could try making their own coloring books too). These hands-on creative outlets can give them a chance to experiment and feel a sense of accomplishment with every piece that they finish.

5. Origami

Work on their patience and fine motor skills with the careful craft of origami and see what cool pieces you can all make together.

6. Tie Dye

A great way to upcycle some old clothes and give them more pizzaz!

7. Make a Postcard for Family/Friends

Make a personalized postcard for your friends and family. Have your children draw a little picture and write a letter. The art of written letters continues to be lost in this increasingly digital world, so making a physical letter for your loved ones to have will be a sweet and special treat.

8. Friendship Bracelets

Some of the best gifts are those made with the heart. There are so many ways to create friendship bracelets, either using cloth or elastic string, or maybe you want to provide your child with some charms that symbolize special moments in their friendships. Have them match with their besties.

9. Time Capsule

Get a container or box and fill it with things that you and your child currently love. It may include photographs of you with your loved ones, and/or you might even want to have them write a letter to their future selves. They can talk about what their lives are currently like and their aspirations for their future selves. Burry it in your backyard or keep it somewhere safe for a few years. This might call for some patience, but when the time comes to open it again, your heart may warm seeing how things were like during that time in your life.

10. Family Scrapbook

Scrapbooking is a great way to capture memories. Work together with your child to create a photo album or a travel journal of special events or day to day moments caught on camera. If you want to offer your child a more personal experience, then you can encourage them to junk journal. This is a great way for them to document their lives and keep little bits and pieces that have significance to them no matter how small they might be, like a movie ticket or a receipt.

11. Creative Construction

Building structures with toys such as Lego is a great way to nurture creativity and assist in the development of your child’s motor and problem-solving skills. Creative construction can appeal to all ages, from building pillow/blanket forts with your little ones to jigsaw puzzles or model building for your older kids.

Work Together

Even everyday tasks and simple moments can be made special. These activities can help establish a routine for your children and ingrain the importance of responsibility.

12.Cheerful Chores

Who said chores had to be boring? Do your chores as a family and blast some upbeat music to turn your chores time into a dance party.

13. Cook Together

Teach your child how to cook one of your favorite dishes or you can follow along a new recipe together. This is also a great chance to discuss the importance of eating well while upgrading their culinary skills. You can even challenge your older kids to take over the kitchen and prepare a meal MasterChef style by asking them to create a meal out of a mystery box of ingredients that they will only know about on the spot.

14. Home Improvement Projects

Whether it’s a huge spring-cleaning plan, furniture building or repairs – involve your children where you can. Other examples might include building a bird feeder/bath or even altering thrifted clothes. Home improvement projects help teach your children practical life skills while being thrifty as well.

Educational Entertainment

Screens and the internet aren’t the only ways to be entertained when you just want to lounge around. These activities are not only entertaining but educational as well.

15. Read

Reading is the quintessential offscreen form of entertainment. Let your child pick what they want to read. Sometimes one book is the gateway to a lifelong reader. Let them pick up what interests them and they might have a book in hand for the rest of their lives. Have cozy reading spots in the home that they can go to alone or your whole family can occupy together. You can even read outside as a family when the weather is nice. Then you can discuss what you read over some snacks. Reading expands your child’s vocabulary, imagination, and understanding of the world. For younger children, picture books are key. For those learning to read, you can even take turns reading parts of a book out loud to one another. Encourage your child to keep a book rather than their phone by their bed. Depending on what they are reading, a book is a great way to wind down for the night or gear up to get the day started.

16. Listen

Not everyone is very fond of reading but luckily there are different ways to absorb books such as audiobooks! Gather around the living room and listen to audiobooks, podcasts, or even the radio as a family. Now, you might need a screen for a few seconds to pull up what you’ll be listening to but that should just be quick. The audio experience can enhance your child’s listening and language skills. This can be a great alternative to screen time in cars too.

17. Learn a New Skill Together

Speaking of language skills, a great offscreen group activity for your family could be learning a new language together. Learning a new skill as a family will help strengthen your bond, and it can also help you all learn the skill better since you are learning it together. Learning a musical instrument was mentioned earlier, another example could be learning magic tricks. You can even have a family show for your loved ones once you’ve perfected your skills.

18. Board and Card Games

A great way to exercise your child’s brain in an exciting and fun way is through games. Games like chess allow players to strategize, exercise their patience, memory, and creativity. You can plan board/card game nights with your family or encourage your child to have them with their friends.

The Great Outdoors

Let your child step outside for a breath of fresh air. Giving your child a physical outlet is a great way to take care of their bodies inside and out. Good physical fitness has been linked to better mental health, improved concentration, and even reduced stress levels. The best part about this is that you don’t need to plan too elaborately to get your children’s bodies moving.

19.Neighborhood Adventures

Walk, bike, or skate around your neighborhood. If you have a family dog, then you can take it for a walk.

20. Map Making

While your children are out on their neighborhood adventure, a fun side activity you can ask them to do is create a map of their routes. This is a great way for them to exercise their spatial awareness and abstract reasoning. Let them create a map to different locations (ex. your house to their friend’s house), let them see if there are any other possible routes to the same destination.

21. Gardening

Test out if your child has a green thumb! Plants, like pets, can teach your child more about responsibility and routine.

22. Nature Walk

Another great activity that gets your child outside and immersed with nature would be a nature walk. You and your child can go around the neighborhood and document the plants and animals that you see along the way. Get up close and personal to see any critters hiding around. Have your child draw these in a notebook and describe what they see.

23. Cloud Watching

Grab a blanket and some pillows or lay on the grass. Watch the clouds go by with your child and try to see what shapes you can make from them. They can draw them in a notebook and identify what kind of clouds they are or even make a story about them.

24. Rock Painting

This can be considered an artsy home improvement project that also takes the family outdoors, making it a triple win situation! Gather some smooth stones and let your creativity fly. After painting, you can line your driveway/garden with these unique and personalized stones.

25. Street Chalk Art

Another outdoors art project, take some sidewalk chalk and decorate the road in front of your home. This is a great way to get some fresh air while letting your creativity fly. A fun part about this is that the chalk can easily be washed away with water leaving room for a new masterpiece every day.

26. Capture the Flag

Invite your child’s friends and relatives over to have a friendly game of capture the flag in your backyard.

27. Scavenger Hunt

Cook up some riddles and bury some hidden treasure around your home (if your kids are older, maybe even around the neighborhood if you can get permission). Watch as your children exercise their minds to crack the clues and move their bodies to find what you’ve hidden.

28. Backyard Camping

All the fun of camping with the perks of being close to home. Cook up some smores and watch the stars under the night sky.

29. Outdoor Picnic

When the weather permits, a good meal outdoors can do wonders. Feel the breeze on your skin and munch on your delicious meal.

Friendly Competition

There are so many ways that you can gamify mundane tasks to make them more exciting. You can do these as a family or have your children play among their friends. This is also a great exercise of planning, logistics, and logic for your children as they come up with the rules, point systems, and various categories. Competitions teach children perseverance to go for gold and the grace to accept loss when it comes.

30. Sports

If you want your child to participate in a form of competition but not invent a whole new game, then organized sports may be the way to go. Sports are a great extracurricular activity to strengthen their bodies, work on motivation, and teamwork. Sports can either be individual (ex. tennis or martial arts) or team (ex. basketball or hockey), indoor (ex. futsal) or outdoor (ex. soccer).

31. Gamify the Mundane

You can actually gamify most of the things that were mentioned above. Like a reading competition (either by books, hours, or pages read), a cooking competition, or a family fitness competition.

Call on Community

Social experiences are crucial for your child’s overall development. They give children hands on experiences that help them build relationships, develop empathy, and learn to collaborate with others. There are plenty of things to do away from a screen and outside of your home.

32. Visit a Museum

Absorb some culture with your child. Ask them about which exhibit was their favorite and why.

33. Volunteer

Volunteering can offer your child a positive experience through giving back to the community, finding causes they are passionate about, and developing their social and emotional skills.

34. Organize Playdates

Similar to hosting game nights, encourage your child to spend quality time with their friends. Celebrate their wins together to promote socialization and camaraderie. Find a homeschool community and get to know families who are on the same boat as you are.

35. Extra Curriculars

Clubs and supplementary classes are a great way not just to use up screen free time productively but to cultivate discipline and teamwork in your child as well.

Ending Notes

Screens and the internet have a lot to offer when they are used prudently. The key is always balance. Remember, it is not just about limiting screen time but cultivating a well-rounded life for them outside of their screens. Give them a fulfilling life offline to nurture them holistically.

These are just 35 suggestions of hands-on learning that you can utilize to lessen or replace your child’s screen time hours. If you’re looking for more hands-on learning activities, check out the link here. See which peaks your child’s interest the most, or you can even try writing these suggestions down and putting them in a bowl to pick out randomly.

Find what works best for you and your family as you try to balance fun and educational activities for your child. The beauty of homeschooling is that it gives you the space for flexibility and personalization in your child’s education. Your child’s education should be just as unique as they are.

You might even be surprised to see that as time goes by you won’t even need the list anymore. At one point, your children will find their own ways to fill their screen free time. Remember, boredom promotes creativity, and the real world has so much to offer them.

FAQs

Is screen time bad for children?
- Excessive screen time has been linked to negatively affecting a child’s emotional, mental, and physical development. Some examples include blue light from the screens resulting in disrupted sleeping patterns or a lack of patience/focus due to the instant gratification that the internet may provide. While one should definitely be wary of these things, it is hard to ignore the good that screens have brought as well. For example, increased accessibility to education or an endless reservoir of knowledge. Rather than condemning screens completely, it might be worth noting what they are being used for in the first place. It is possible to have productive screen time, like using an educational app/website to learn a new skill. But for screens, as with most things in life, moderation is key.
How much screen time should my child have?
- An easy way to answer this question is to go by age. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), early childhood is an important time for your child to develop their physical and mental health. Constant screen time at a young age may disrupt your child’s ability to engage with the world around them and learn new things through their 5 senses, as well as the development of their language. WHO suggests:
  - 2 years old and below – no screen time besides video calls with loved ones
  - 2-5 years old – screen time should be limited to just one hour per day of supervised screen time (ex. co-viewing content with parents or older siblings); encourage physical activity to foster healthy development
  - 5-17 years old – 2 hours maximum of screen time for entertainment purposes (excluding online school)
What are the benefits of outdoor activities for homeschooled students?
- Immersing your child in nature is a great way to refresh your homeschooling routine. Stepping into nature also gives your student a break from both screen time and the fast-paced nature of the world. It allows them to center themselves and reconnect with the world. Taking care of your child’s physical health also benefits their levels of stress and promotes positive mental wellbeing.
Is volunteerism important for my homeschooled child?
- volunteer work may lead to many positive experiences for your child based on real world experiences:
  - develop social empathy – being exposed to different living situations and advocacies may alert them to the importance of giving back and how a little bit of kindness can go a long way
  - recognize responsibility in community – volunteerism may cause your teen to be more socially aware about what is going on around them and how they can affect these things in big and/or small ways
  - discover personal passions – there are many advocacies that your child might resonate with once they start volunteering, for example they might take their love for the environment towards promoting the importance of sustainability
  - practice social skills – more than interacting with people from different walks of life, your teen will also need to be a good team member, and possibly even a good leader to handle the organization of different programs
How can I protect my child’s privacy online?
- ensure that your child does not share the following on any online platform:
  - their name, address
  - school name
  - sensitive details of their personal lives (ex. family member names, jobs of relatives, daily schedule, etc)
  - personal photos
  - You may also review the privacy policies of the applications and websites that they use and keep a lookout for any updates they might make on these. If you want to read more about protecting your child’s safety online, specifically with the rise of AI, you might want to check out our article about this right here.
  - Teach your child about the importance of using screens and the internet responsibly by helping them establish boundaries with technology. Read more about this in the link here.