No doubt, it is a real, real challenge these days for many of us to get ourselves off our gadgets. With all the great apps available out there, it’s so easy to spend 4, 5 hours or more just sitting down looking at that screen…There will never be enough time to completely explore the ever-expanding app resources! When we sum up the number of hours we consume daily on our gadgets, it can get a little bit frightening, especially in terms of our health. It is good to have some balance between online and offline enjoyment, don’t you think?
Below is a growing list of offline activities for ourselves and our families to bring back some balance in our lives. Many of these activities are already familiar to many of us, so this list is more of a gentle reminder of how fun offline can be too! Set aside little moments each day, even just 5-10 minutes to just relax and disconnect from the online world… Do feel free to share your family’s off-the-gadget activities in the comments section!
1. SEQUIN ART
Use colouring books, or better yet, just make it yourself. Simply draw your own patterns, designs, etc and pour in different colours of sequins. Hours of fun that also sparks up creativity and provides motor skill practice.
Here we used Black Paper Colouring Book but ordinary colouring books should work equally well! We bought our sequins from our local haberdasher.
2. BLOWING BUBBLES
Who says blowing bubbles is only for children? At the moment though, we only buy ready-made bubble mixture. We hope to be able to make our own bubble recipe soon!
3. TOY HOUSE
Given anything, children will naturally use their creative skills to play! From cardboard boxes, pillows and blankets to actual Sylvanian houses, we have hours and hours of great fun just playing house and pretending to be anyone or anything!
4. FOAMIES
There are many DIY EVA Foam kits available nowadays, many of which don’t require any cutting at all. To create your own unique pieces, use EVA foam sheets. They come in various colours and are available in most stationery stores. For the more advanced, EVA foam can be used to create costumes and props.
5. ERUDITION
If you’re looking to get your child to practice reading sight-words offline, this is such a good game to play! Much like Monopoly, you move pieces around on the board as you successfully read easy, moderately difficult and difficult words. Fun, fun, fun!
6. MARBLES / MARBLE RACING
There are many ways to play with marbles! Use them in counting games, or simply roll one towards another marble and if it touches, you get to keep that marble! Or take it a level higher by playing the marble racing game we did in this video!
Stay tuned as we add more activities to this list! Remember to share your favourite offline activities too!
