activities

Keeping Busy During the Day Without Video Games

We may earn money or products from the companies mentioned in this post. Please see policies for more information.

We’ve been homeschooling the last 2 years and with me working from home it can be an interesting balance sometimes. A lot of days go by smoothly but there are also some days when I need to get a lot done and need the boys to keep themselves busy until I can give them direction on the next task/project/chore/assignment.

Keeping busy during the day without video games

We agreed early on that they wouldn’t play electronic/video games until they were completely done with school and chores for the day. This helps me easily see that they are on task and just keeps them in a better frame of mind. Having to pull the 11 year old off of Minecraft can be like pulling teeth sometimes.

Having a handful of quick games (educational games are even better during the “school day”) or activities they can do without asking has been instrumental in helping those busy days go smoothly. I thought I’d share a couple of things the boys keep going back to recently.

ThinkFun is always a good “go to” for quick, fun, mind working games. They recently sent us a couple new games to try and they’ve been pulled out VERY often lately. I love their Math Dice Chase especially for my 11 year old who needs constant refreshing on his mental math.  Hurry to roll the dice, call out your answer, and pass the dice before you get caught with a second pair in front of you! My husband and I can join in this one too to give him a little more time to solve.Keeping busy during the day without video gamesThinkFun also sent us Stratos Spheres which is a great “purse game” or restaurant game if you will. It’s awesome to keep with you because it’s quiet, easy to learn and play and you can play it anywhere! Pass it back and forth connecting one of your pieces at a time trying to get 4 in a row (in any dimension). Stratos Spheres gets a lot of play time around here!Keeping busy during the day without video gamesOne electronic that the boys are allowed to play with during the “school day” is their Sphero. It’s such an awesome learning tool and a really great way to learn coding in a hands on visual fashion. This is the SPRK edition we shared more info about SPRK here.Keeping busy during the day without video games

Of course they can always read. I can’t wait to share more about this new book The League and the Lantern later this week. We try to visit the library often and find new books and series to catch up on. They like to check out non fiction books of the destinations we’re traveling to as well.Keeping busy during the day without video gamesPuzzles! Puzzles come out in phases around here. They just got a new puzzle from grandma so we’re back in puzzle phase which means once this one is done they will likely pull out another. I keep this up on a card table that can be moved around if needed. Thinking I might need to invest in one of those roll up mats though!Keeping busy during the day without video gamesThey’ve been doing paper projects less and less but sometimes if I print out paper crafts, mazes or extreme dot to dots they’ll grab one to do. And we can’t forget LEGO 😉  What are your kids’ “go to’s” for non video game fun?

(Visited 23 times, 1 visits today)

Allison Waken is a wife, mom of boys and Phoenix, AZ native. She has been creating inspiring content for All for the Boys since 2011. Allison loves travel, movies and spending as much time as possible with her family while she can!

Write A Comment