Twenty tried-and-tested screen-free activities, grounded in child development research, to help your toddler play more deeply, more joyfully, and more independently at home.
The most honest answer to the question of what to do instead of screens is also the simplest one: give a toddler something real to touch, stack, pour, sort, or pretend with, and then step back. Research by Kathy Hirsh-Pasek and Roberta Golinkoff has consistently shown that hands-on, child-directed play is one of the most powerful engines of early learning, building language, executive function, and creativity in ways that passive screen exposure cannot replicate. You do not need an expensive setup, a Pinterest-perfect playroom, or a structured timetable. You need a handful of open-ended materials, a small amount of space, and the confidence that your child's boredom is not a crisis but a beginning.
The twenty activities below range from five-minute sensory trays to whole-family traditional games, covering every mood, energy level, and age within the toddler years. Each one is screen-free by design, not by deprivation, and all of them are rooted in what developmental science tells us children actually need in the first five years of life.
The World Health Organization recommends no screen time at all for children under two, and no more than one hour of sedentary screen time per day for children aged three to four. The reasoning is not moral but developmental. The early years are a period of extraordinary neurological growth, and the brain builds itself through physical interaction with the world: touching textures, hearing language directed at them personally, watching faces, and practising the fine motor loops that will later underpin reading and writing.
What the research says
Dimitri Christakis found that background television reduces the quantity and quality of parent-child verbal interaction, and it is that interaction, what Hart and Risley called the "language bath" of early childhood, that most reliably predicts later vocabulary, reading comprehension, and school readiness. The screen is not the enemy; displacement is.
Adele Diamond's work on executive function adds another dimension. Self-regulation, working memory, and cognitive flexibility, the skills that help children manage emotions, follow instructions, and solve problems, develop most strongly through play that requires a child to hold a rule in mind, take turns, and adapt when something does not go as planned. A tower of wooden blocks teaches all three. A tablet set to autoplay teaches none of them.
Before listing activities, it is worth noting that environment does the heavy lifting. Maria Montessori's principle of the prepared environment is as useful at home as it is in any nursery setting: place toys at child height, rotate them regularly so familiarity does not breed boredom, and keep the selection small enough that a child can actually choose rather than feel overwhelmed. A single wooden puzzle left on a low shelf is far more inviting than an overflowing toy box.
Remove the screen from the room where possible, or at least turn it off and face it to the wall. Research by Jenny Radesky found that the mere presence of a switched-off smartphone on a table reduces the quality of caregiver-child interaction. Objects carry attention. Design your space accordingly.
For high-quality wooden building and puzzle options, the Jaques London wooden toys collection draws on more than two centuries of craft knowledge to offer materials built to last well beyond the toddler years.
A note on boredom
Peter Gray's research on self-directed play argues that boredom is not a failure state but a creative threshold. When a child announces they are bored, they are, in developmental terms, on the edge of generating their own idea. Resist the impulse to fill the gap immediately. Wait two minutes. You may be surprised what emerges.
The best screen-free toys share a few qualities: they respond to the child rather than performing for them, they can be used in more than one way, and they improve with the child rather than being outgrown in a month. Wood, fabric, and natural materials tend to meet these criteria more reliably than battery-powered plastic alternatives. Alison Gopnik's metaphor of the lantern versus spotlight mind captures this well: toddlers attend broadly and associatively, which means a simple object with multiple affordances will hold their attention longer than a single-function electronic toy with flashing lights.
Jaques of London, established in 1795 and widely regarded as the world's oldest games company, has spent more than two centuries making exactly this kind of enduring, open-ended play material. The heritage is not a marketing point but a proof of principle: toys that have survived that long have survived because children keep finding new ways to use them.
Transition rather than remove. Five minutes before screen time ends, give a verbal warning, then offer a specific alternative rather than a general one. "Time to turn the tablet off; shall we do the pasta tray or the blocks?" gives a toddler agency within a boundary. Jenny Radesky's research suggests that abrupt removal of a screen is far more likely to produce distress than a scaffolded handover to a genuinely compelling alternative. The new activity needs to be ready and waiting, not searched for in a panic after the screen goes off.
The World Health Organization recommends that children aged two to four have no more than one hour of sedentary screen time per day, and that the majority of their waking hours be given to physically active and interactive play. The UK Chief Medical Officers echo this guidance. In practical terms, most toddlers who are well-rested, well-fed, and given access to appropriate materials will play contentedly without screens for the large majority of the day, provided adults do not treat screen time as the default reward or comfort tool.
The evidence points in that direction, though the material itself matters less than the play it invites. A study by Anna Sosa found that electronic toys produced significantly less parental verbal interaction and fewer child vocalisations than wooden toys or books during play sessions. Separately, Carly Dauch and colleagues found that toddlers played more creatively and with greater focus when given fewer, simpler toys rather than many complex ones. Wooden toys tend to be quieter, more open-ended, and longer-lasting: three qualities that support deeper play.
Acknowledge it without fixing it immediately. "I know, it feels strange when the tablet goes off. What could we use?" is more useful than either turning the screen back on or delivering a fully formed activity. Peter Gray's work on self-directed learning emphasises that the capacity for self-generated play is a muscle, and it takes time to strengthen after a period of passive entertainment. Expect the first week of reduced screen time to be the hardest, and trust that it does get easier as children rediscover their own imaginative resources.
Britain's oldest toy maker. Every toy open-ended, wooden, and built for exactly the kind of play the research recommends.