Festival holidays and winter breaks are wonderful, but by the third day many parents hear the same words: “I’m bored, can I have the phone?” If you are looking for activities for kids without screens, you don’t need expensive toys or a big plan. A sheet of paper, a few kitchen items and the games we played as children are usually enough.
Print-ready worksheets for this topic
Colouring Pages and Mazes for Kids PDF – Incredible India Colouring & Mazes Fun Pack, Ages 3–7 (37 Pages) – A4 PDF, instant download. ₹79 ₹149
Below you will find 40 low-cost, screen-free activities for ages 3 to 8, sorted by age and time needed, plus Indian games, a section of indoor activity ideas in Hindi, and a ready-to-copy “bored jar” list. Use it at home during the holidays, or as a quick ideas bank for a classroom activity period.
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Quick answer: Easy screen-free activities for kids at home include:
- Paper: paper boats, paper planes, origami, a home-made board game, drawing and colouring.
- Kitchen: rolling chapatis, sorting dals, making a fruit chaat, water play with steel bowls.
- Indian games: stapu, chain-chain, antakshari, raja mantri chor sipahi, chidiya ud.
- Quiet time: mazes, dot-to-dots, puzzles, story time and building a blanket fort.
Why screen-free time matters, without the guilt
Screens are part of modern life, and an occasional cartoon is not a disaster. But long stretches of screen time can crowd out the things young children need most: moving their bodies, using their hands, talking with people and getting a little bored. Boredom is useful. It is often the moment just before a child invents a game.
The aim is not to ban screens but to have so many easy activities for kids to avoid screen time ready that the phone stops being the first choice. A simple rule many families find helpful is to keep screens away during meals, the hour before bed and the first hour of a holiday morning.
40 activities for kids without screens: the full table
| No. | Activity | Best ages | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Paper boats in a bucket of water | 4 to 8 | 20 min |
| 2 | Paper plane contest: whose flies furthest? | 5 to 8 | 20 min |
| 3 | Tear-and-stick paper collage | 3 to 6 | 20 min |
| 4 | Draw a home-made snakes and ladders board | 6 to 8 | 45 min |
| 5 | Paper chain to count down the holidays | 4 to 8 | 20 min |
| 6 | Newspaper hat or crown | 4 to 8 | 15 min |
| 7 | Paper fan (folding back and forth) | 4 to 8 | 10 min |
| 8 | Draw a comic strip with four boxes | 6 to 8 | 30 min |
| 9 | Make a mini book: fold, staple, write and draw | 5 to 8 | 30 min |
| 10 | Colouring pages and mazes | 3 to 7 | 15 to 30 min |
| 11 | Roll small chapatis with a little dough | 3 to 8 | 20 min |
| 12 | Sort mixed dals or beans into bowls | 4 to 8 | 15 min |
| 13 | Make fruit chaat (with child-safe tasks) | 4 to 8 | 20 min |
| 14 | Water play with steel bowls, cups and spoons | 3 to 5 | 20 min |
| 15 | Dough shapes: snakes, balls, letters | 3 to 6 | 20 min |
| 16 | Sink or float with kitchen objects | 4 to 8 | 15 min |
| 17 | Grow methi or mustard seeds in a small pot | 4 to 8 | 10 min, then daily |
| 18 | Set the table and count plates and spoons | 3 to 6 | 10 min |
| 19 | Stapu (hopscotch) with chalk | 4 to 8 | 20 min |
| 20 | Chain-chain on the terrace or in the park | 5 to 8 | 20 min |
| 21 | Antakshari with family | 5 to 8 | 20 min |
| 22 | Raja mantri chor sipahi with paper chits | 6 to 8 | 20 min |
| 23 | Chidiya ud | 3 to 8 | 10 min |
| 24 | Carrom or ludo | 5 to 8 | 30 min |
| 25 | Musical chairs with old songs | 4 to 8 | 15 min |
| 26 | Blanket fort with bedsheets and chairs | 3 to 8 | 30 min |
| 27 | Treasure hunt with picture or word clues | 4 to 8 | 30 min |
| 28 | Freeze dance | 3 to 8 | 10 min |
| 29 | Balloon keep-up: don’t let it touch the floor | 3 to 8 | 10 min |
| 30 | Pillow obstacle course | 3 to 7 | 20 min |
| 31 | Shadow puppets with a torch | 4 to 8 | 20 min |
| 32 | Building with blocks, boxes or steel tiffins | 3 to 7 | 30 min |
| 33 | Story time with Dadi or Nani | 3 to 8 | 20 min |
| 34 | Act out a story with soft toys | 3 to 6 | 20 min |
| 35 | I spy with colours or letters | 3 to 7 | 10 min |
| 36 | Dot-to-dot and trace-the-path pages | 3 to 7 | 10 to 20 min |
| 37 | Jigsaw puzzle on the floor | 4 to 8 | 30 min |
| 38 | Write and post a letter to a cousin | 6 to 8 | 30 min |
| 39 | Nature walk: collect five different leaves | 3 to 8 | 30 min |
| 40 | Help with a simple chore: fold socks, water plants | 3 to 8 | 15 min |
Activities for kids at home with paper
Paper is the cheapest toy in the house. Old newspapers, used notebooks and the back of printed sheets all work. A few favourites in more detail:
Paper boats and paper planes
Fold a few boats and float them in a bucket, a tub or a puddle after rain. Older children can test which boat holds the most coins before sinking. For planes, mark a starting line with tape and measure each flight in footsteps. It is maths practice without anyone noticing.
Home-made board game
Draw a grid of 30 squares on a chart paper, number them and add a few ladders and snakes. Use a button for each player and a dice from an old game, or write numbers 1 to 6 on paper chits. Children aged 6 to 8 can design their own rules, such as “land on a star, say a rhyme”.
Mini book
Fold two sheets in half and staple them in the middle to make an eight-page book. Younger children draw one picture on each page, and you write their words. Older children write a short story titled “My Holiday” or “The Day the Cat Came Home”.
For more hands-on ideas that strengthen little fingers for writing, see our guide to fine motor activities for preschoolers.
Kitchen activities for kids at home to keep them busy
The kitchen is full of learning, and children love being trusted with “real” work. Always supervise near the stove and keep knives and hot items away from young children.
- Chapati rolling: give your child a small ball of dough and a belan. The shapes will not be round, and that is fine.
- Dal sorting: mix rajma, chana and moong in a plate and ask your child to sort them. Great for fine motor skills, but keep small beans away from children under 3 because of the choking risk.
- Fruit chaat: children can peel bananas, tear grapes off the stem and sprinkle chaat masala while you do the cutting.
- Sink or float: fill a steel patila with water and test a spoon, a lemon, a potato, a leaf and a bottle cap. Ask your child to guess before each one.
Indian games children still love
The games we played in gullies and courtyards need almost nothing and work across ages.
- Stapu: draw a hopscotch grid with chalk, throw a flat stone and hop through the boxes without stepping on lines.
- Chain-chain: one child is the catcher. Each child caught joins hands with the catcher, and the chain grows until everyone is caught. Best on a terrace or in a park.
- Antakshari: each person sings a song starting with the last letter or sound of the previous song. Small children can join with nursery rhymes.
- Raja mantri chor sipahi: write Raja, Mantri, Chor and Sipahi on four paper chits. Each player picks one. In many homes the Mantri must guess who the Chor is, though some families let the Sipahi guess instead. It needs four players, and children aged 6 and up enjoy keeping score.
- Chidiya ud: everyone puts a finger on the floor. The leader calls “chidiya ud”, “tota ud” or “kabootar ud”, and everyone lifts their finger. If the leader calls something that cannot fly, like “haathi ud”, anyone who lifts their finger is out.
Festival breaks are a natural time for these games. For festival-themed ideas, see our Diwali activities for kids, and for the winter holidays, our Christmas activities for preschoolers.
Prefer ready-to-print pages?
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Indoor activities for kids in Hindi
Many grandparents and parents prefer to describe games in Hindi. Here are simple indoor activities with their Hindi names, which you can share with family or the house help who spends time with your child.
| Hindi name | Transliteration | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| अंताक्षरी | antakshari | Sing songs in turn, each starting with the last sound of the one before |
| पहेलियाँ | paheliyan (riddles) | Ask simple riddles, such as an animal that has a trunk |
| कहानी सुनाओ | kahaani sunaao (tell a story) | Each person adds one line to a story |
| चिड़िया उड़ | chidiya ud | Lift your finger only for things that can fly |
| राजा मंत्री चोर सिपाही | raja mantri chor sipahi | A four-player chit game of guessing the thief |
| लूडो | ludo | The classic dice board game |
| चित्र बनाओ | chitra banaao (draw a picture) | Draw your family, your house or a festival scene |
| छुपन-छुपाई | chhupan-chhupaai (hide and seek) | Hide and seek inside the house |
Telling a story in Hindi with each person adding a line, or asking paheliyan at dinner, is a lovely way to build Hindi vocabulary at the same time.
The bored jar: a ready-to-copy list
Write each idea below on a small paper chit, fold it and put it in a jar or an old steel dabba. When your child says “I’m bored”, they pick one chit and do it. The rule is simple: no swapping more than once.
- Make a paper boat and float it.
- Draw your favourite food.
- Build a fort with two bedsheets.
- Find five things that are red.
- Do one maze or dot-to-dot page.
- Make up a song about our house.
- Hop through a stapu grid.
- Help water the plants.
- Read a book to a soft toy.
- Count all the spoons in the kitchen.
- Make a paper crown.
- Draw a map of your room.
- Play I spy with someone.
- Act like an animal and let someone guess.
- Write or draw a card for Dadi or Nani.
- Do ten jumps, ten claps and ten spins.
Things to do at home for kids when bored: tips that work
- Keep a “yes box”: a box with paper, crayons, glue, tape, old magazines and string that children can use any time without asking.
- Rotate toys: put half the toys away for two weeks. When they come back, they feel new.
- Join in for the first five minutes: children often need a grown-up to start an activity. Once they are absorbed, you can step back.
- Plan one outing a day: a walk to the vegetable market or a park is an activity in itself.
- Accept the mess: spread an old bedsheet under craft time and clean up together at the end.
Screen-free printables for quiet time
When you need a calm activity, during a train journey, a long wait or the after-lunch slump, printables are a great choice. Our Incredible India Colouring & Mazes Fun Pack (₹79, 37 A4 pages, ages 3 to 7) has 14 Indian-theme colouring pages with bold outlines (peacock, tiger, auto-rickshaw, kite festival, India Gate and more), 3 colour-by-number pages, 10 mazes from easy to challenging, 3 trace-the-path pre-writing pages and 2 dot-to-dot pictures, with answer keys and a certificate. It prints well in black and white, and you can print pages again for your own children or one classroom.
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Browse more activity packs and seasonal festival packs for the holidays.
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Frequently asked questions
What can kids do at home without screens?
Children can make paper boats and planes, help in the kitchen, play Indian games like stapu, antakshari and raja mantri chor sipahi, build a blanket fort, do colouring pages and mazes, or have story time with grandparents.
How do I keep my child busy at home during the holidays?
Plan one or two simple activities a day, keep a box of paper and craft items within reach, rotate toys and keep a bored jar of ideas. One short outing, such as a walk to the market or park, also helps.
How much screen time is okay for young children?
Many child-health experts suggest keeping screen time short for children under 5, with an adult watching along when possible, and avoiding screens during meals and before bed. Check with your paediatrician for advice suited to your child.
What are some indoor activities for kids in Hindi?
Popular indoor activities known by Hindi names include antakshari, paheliyan (riddles), chidiya ud, raja mantri chor sipahi, ludo, chhupan-chhupaai (hide and seek) and kahaani sunaao, where each person adds a line to a story.
What paper activities can kids do at home?
Kids can make paper boats, planes, fans, crowns and chains, tear-and-stick collages, mini books and a home-made board game. All they need is old paper, crayons, glue and a little help to start.
