Screen-Free Activities for Kids: Unplugged Fun During School Holidays 2026

In an age where screens compete for children's attention at every turn, school holidays present both a challenge and an opportunity. The challenge is familiar to every parent: left unchecked, holiday time can dissolve into endless hours of tablets, gaming, and streaming. The opportunity lies in using this extended time together to rediscover the joy of unplugged play, creative activities, and genuine connection that screens often displace.

This is not about demonising technology or eliminating screens entirely. Rather, it is about balance, ensuring that school holidays include meaningful stretches of time where children engage with the physical world, develop creativity, build social skills, and experience the particular satisfaction that comes from making, doing, and exploring without digital intermediaries. The activities in this guide range from simple games requiring no preparation to ambitious projects that can occupy children for days.

Rediscovering Classic Games and Play

Before the digital era, children entertained themselves with games requiring nothing more than imagination, basic materials, and willing playmates. These classic activities have not lost their appeal; they have simply been overshadowed by more immediately stimulating digital alternatives. School holidays offer the perfect opportunity to reintroduce children to the timeless pleasure of analogue play.

Board games and card games develop strategic thinking, social skills, and good sportsmanship in ways that digital games often cannot replicate. The physical presence of opponents, the tangible movement of pieces, and the face-to-face negotiation and interaction create experiences fundamentally different from online gaming. Family game nights can become holiday traditions, with children often requesting specific favourites year after year.

For younger children, simple classics like Snakes and Ladders, Memory, and UNO provide accessible entry points. Older children often enjoy more strategic options: Catan, Ticket to Ride, and Carcassonne offer deeper gameplay that engages even teenagers. Cooperative games where players work together against the game itself, such as Pandemic or Forbidden Island, reduce competitive tensions while promoting teamwork.

Beyond manufactured games, teach children the playground games of previous generations. Marbles, jacks, elastics, hand-clapping games, and hopscotch require minimal equipment while providing hours of entertainment. These games also travel well, making them ideal for holidays away from home.

Imaginative play, whether through dress-ups, puppet shows, or elaborate pretend scenarios, exercises creativity in ways that passive entertainment cannot match. Provide children with costume boxes, craft materials, and the freedom to create their own narratives. Even older children, given permission and encouragement, often rediscover the joy of pure imaginative play they may have abandoned as "childish."

Creative Projects and Making

The satisfaction of creating something tangible, something that exists in the physical world as a result of your own effort and imagination, provides a counterpoint to the ephemeral nature of digital experiences. School holidays offer time for creative projects too ambitious for normal school-term schedules.

Art projects ranging from simple drawing and painting to more involved techniques like printmaking, collage, or sculpture provide creative outlets for children of all ages. Set up a dedicated art space where mess is permitted and materials are accessible. Art supply stores and online retailers offer kits for specific techniques, making it easy to introduce children to new media without specialist knowledge.

Construction and building projects appeal to children who enjoy tangible, three-dimensional creation. Beyond traditional LEGO, consider wooden building kits, marble runs, or even basic woodworking projects for older children with appropriate supervision. Simple furniture like bookshelves, tool boxes, or birdhouses can be assembled from pre-cut kits or constructed from scratch with basic tools.

Textile crafts including sewing, knitting, crochet, and weaving have experienced renewed interest among young people. These skills produce useful objects while developing fine motor control and patience. Starter kits make these crafts accessible to beginners, and online tutorials (watched in advance to prepare, rather than during the activity) provide guidance without real-time screen use.

Cooking and baking combine creativity with practical skill development and delicious results. Challenge children to plan and prepare meals, work through cookbooks, or attempt ambitious projects like homemade pasta, decorated cakes, or bread from scratch. The measuring, timing, and following of instructions develop mathematical and literacy skills naturally.

Outdoor Adventures and Nature Connection

Australian environments offer extraordinary opportunities for outdoor exploration and nature-based activities. Getting children outside and engaged with the natural world provides physical exercise, environmental awareness, and experiences that screens simply cannot replicate.

Nature scavenger hunts transform walks into adventures. Create lists of items to find: specific leaf shapes, particular colours, animal tracks, or interesting textures. For ongoing engagement, establish nature journals where children document their observations through drawings, pressed specimens, and written notes. These journals become valued records of holiday experiences.

Gardening projects connect children with natural cycles and food production. Even small spaces accommodate pot plants, herbs, or container vegetables. Children experience the satisfaction of nurturing living things and eventually harvesting their own produce. Quick-growing plants like radishes, lettuce, and sunflowers provide results within typical holiday timeframes.

Citizen science programs engage children in genuine scientific research while exploring local environments. Programs like the Aussie Backyard Bird Count, FrogID, and various butterfly monitoring initiatives allow families to contribute data to real research projects. The sense of contributing to something larger than themselves while learning about local wildlife provides meaningful purpose to outdoor time.

Water play, beyond basic swimming, encompasses activities from creek exploration to rock pool investigation to simple water experiments. Building dams in streams, floating leaf boats, observing aquatic life, and understanding water behaviour all provide engaging outdoor experiences. Check the school holidays 2026 calendar to plan outdoor activities around the best weather periods for your state.

Reading, Storytelling, and Language Play

Books and stories offer portals to infinite worlds without any screen involvement. School holidays provide extended reading time that harried term schedules often preclude, allowing children to lose themselves in longer works and series.

Establish dedicated reading time each day where the whole family reads simultaneously. This normalises reading as an enjoyable activity rather than a chore, and provides quiet time that benefits everyone. Visit libraries to access extensive collections without purchase costs, and let children choose their own materials to encourage ownership of reading choices.

Family read-aloud sessions, even with older children, create shared experiences and introduce books that might be beyond individual reading levels. Taking turns reading chapters combines the pleasure of being read to with the skill development of reading aloud. Audiobooks, while technically audio technology, can accompany other activities like drawing, craft, or long car journeys without the visual fixation of screens.

Storytelling and writing projects channel children's natural narrative instincts. Encourage children to write their own stories, create comic books, or produce family newspapers documenting holiday events. For those resistant to writing, dictation to parents or voice recording can capture stories that can later be transcribed. Story dice, prompt cards, and collaborative storytelling games stimulate imagination while developing narrative skills.

Word games from simple I-Spy to more complex word association, twenty questions, and verbal logic puzzles provide entertainment during transitions, car journeys, or waiting times. These games require no equipment while developing vocabulary, quick thinking, and verbal fluency.

Physical Activities and Movement

Physical activity benefits children's health, mood, and sleep quality, all of which tend to suffer when holiday time becomes sedentary. Creating opportunities for movement ensures children burn energy while developing physical capabilities.

Organised sports and games in backyards or local parks provide exercise with social components. Even simplified versions of cricket, football, netball, or tennis develop skills while getting everyone moving. Set up obstacle courses using household items, hold family Olympics with silly events, or revive traditional games like tag, hide-and-seek, and capture the flag.

Dance and movement activities appeal to children who find competitive sports unappealing. Put on music and have dance parties, learn choreography from memory rather than screens, or explore movement through yoga or stretching routines. Many children enjoy creating their own dance routines or gymnastics sequences to perform for family.

Adventure activities like bike riding, skateboarding, roller skating, and scootering provide independent physical activity that children often embrace enthusiastically. Use holiday time to teach new skills, extend riding distances, or explore new trails and routes. These activities also provide transport for local explorations without car dependence.

Conclusion

Screen-free activities during school holidays require more parental involvement than handing over a device, but the rewards justify the effort. Children who experience extended periods of unplugged play develop creativity, resilience, physical skills, and social capabilities that serve them well beyond any immediate entertainment value.

The goal is not to create screen-free puritans but to ensure that children's holiday experiences include rich variety beyond digital entertainment. When screens are one option among many rather than the default, children often discover they enjoy physical activities, creative projects, and imaginative play more than they expected. These discoveries can reshape daily habits long after school holidays end.