39 Tech-free Ways to Curb Kids’ Summertime Boredom

Summer days stretch ahead. Initial exuberance over “no school” often gives way to the ageless “Mom, I’m bored” complaint. Sure, structured activities like swim lessons, softball games and such keep kids busy. But it’s important also to encourage individual imaginative play, family activities and time outdoors in God’s beautiful creation.

Opportunities to experience nature abound. But think beyond the usual biking, camping and hiking to even simpler ways to escape technology and move outdoors. Scout for bugs and butterflies in your backyard, a park or nature center. Spread a blanket on the grass and spy animal shapes in clouds. View a star-studded sky. Along with our kids and grandkids, we can see that, The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the works of his hands (Psalm 19:1). 

Considering God’s artistry, I recall my mother-in-law’s creative view of the sunset. “The angels are baking cookies,” she noted in the oranges, reds and golds firing across the rural Minnesota sky. My husband passed that observation along to our children. It became their perspective of the sunset, too, a part of family history and a cherished memory of a mother and grandmother.

Carefree summer activities build family memories. Fly a kite. Play croquet. Shop a local farmers’ market together. Visit the zoo. Attend an outdoor concert. Meander through public gardens. Plant a garden for the kids or grandkids to help tend. When my three kids were growing up, we picked berries every June at a local farm, joining in a family-friendly berry picking competition. Those hours harvesting berries in the quiet of the countryside and the follow-up berry weigh-in connected us to each other and to the earth. We laughed and talked while laboring toward an end goal of 20 pounds of strawberries. Someday I’ll take my now two-year-old granddaughter to the berry patch.

For now she’s scribbling art onto sidewalks with fat chunks of chalk and blowing bubbles into the wind. Just like her mama before her. Perhaps she’ll jump rope, too, and skip in a game of hopscotch or carve roads, dump sand and build mountains in a backyard sandbox. Just like her mama. Free playlike that is important for kids.

So is reading. Integrate family devotions into your daily routine. Build a child’s library. From picture books to paperbacks, from Bible stories to fiction, Christian-based choices are many. Faith-themed coloring and activity books also add to summer fun with word searches, hidden pictures, dot-to-dot and more. All are available from Warner Press. On a rainy day, toss a blanket over a folding card table to create an instant tent for your in-house bookworm/doodler/puzzle solver. Just remember to confiscate the flashlight at bedtime if your child is tempted to sneak the flashlight to bed for extended reading. Like my son as a tween.

Many additional activities exist to keep kids busy and happy during the summer months. Not every minute needs to be planned, though. Just let kids be kids. Let them figure out on their own how to entertain themselves in an unscheduled, tech-free day. Let imaginations fly, fingers create, ideas flow. Soon enough they will be adults with work schedules, commitments and limited vacation days.

Writer Audrey Kletscher Helbling spent her childhood summers on her southern Minnesota family farm. She biked, played in the grove, participated in pick-up softball games, read countless books, pulled weeds and picked rocks from fields, among other activities. She grew up in a tech-free age, which meant she spent lots of time outdoors in imaginative play.