From Crafts to Camping: How to Plan a Screen-Free Family Weekend (That Your Kids Will Actually Love)

As your kids get older, you’ll find that their favorite activities usually involve screens. Whether it's playing video games, scrolling through social media, or talking on the phone with friends, they’re usually looking at one type of display or another. While it’s fine in moderation, excessive screen time can be dangerous for your health.

Plus, when your kids are constantly staring at their screens, you miss out on the chance to connect and bond as a family. What you need is a screen-free family weekend. It’s a chance to ditch all electronics and reconnect with the world. 

While the idea of being without a screen for days may seem insane at first, it can actually be incredibly refreshing. In this guide, we’ll tell you how to set up your screen-free weekend and provide some fun activities to do along the way.

Why Go Screen Free?

The first step to a successful screen-free family weekend is to convince your kids that it’s a good idea. If you just tell them that they’re not allowed to bring their screens, but you don’t explain why, there’s a chance they may find a way to disobey. Tell your kids how fast the years go by and that you don’t want to miss out on these special moments. A weekend sans screens will give you all a chance to talk and create new memories. Plus, if your kids aren’t allowed to use screens for entertainment, you must promise that you won’t either.

Setting Up Your Screen-Free Family Weekend

When you first bring up the idea of a weekend without screens, it may seem like an impossible task. However, if you do it right, you'll be surprised at how easy it is to get everyone on board. First, set clear, simple rules. Lay out what counts as a screen. That’s typically TVs, phones, tablets, and video games. 

Next, set the time frame. That could mean starting the weekend as soon as your kids return home from school on Friday and continuing it until Sunday night. Do what fits into your schedule without making it overwhelming. 

Don’t forget to provide some exceptions. Keep phones in the house in case there’s an emergency. You might also allow devices so your family can listen to music during the weekend or look at family photos during bonding moments. 

Frame It As A Challenge

A different tactic that can get your kids involved might be to frame this screen-free weekend as a challenge or experiment. Tell them it’s not a punishment but a chance to see how much of life they can enjoy without their phones in their hands. The challenge could be learning how many conversation starters everyone in your family can think of, or how many fun songs they can sing. Get your kids invested, and it can do wonders.

Involve Kids in the Planning

If you’re taking the screens out of your kid’s hands, you should at least find ways that they can enjoy the weekend. The best way to ensure their happiness is to allow them to plan some of the activities. If you have several kids, let each pick something fun to do. If they’re unsure, provide some fun options and have them pick what they prefer. Ensure that the weekend goes well, and your kids may decide they want to go screen-free more often.

Fun Screen-Free Weekend Activities 

If all you do is tell your kids you want them to be screen-free for a weekend, their next question will undoubtedly be, “What do we do instead?” The good news is that there are countless activities you can do as a family without being in front of a TV, computer, or smartphone. When in doubt, ask your own parents what they did before this technology existed. When you decide on the activities you want to enjoy, go out and get the necessary supplies ahead of time so you can spend the full weekend having fun with your family.

Here are some fun ideas to consider:

Outdoor Adventures

Your first inclination may be to want to get outside, and that’s a wonderful idea! There are many fun things you can do for an hour or the entire weekend. If you want to leave the house, you can go for a family bike ride, take a hike through the forest, or tour your town and notice things you’ve never noticed before. You can make your outdoor adventures more eventful by setting up a backyard obstacle course, going for a picnic in the park, or making a masterpiece with sidewalk chalk. The summer months also provide a great opportunity to grow a garden.

Arts and Crafts

Whether you’re inside or outside, there are plenty of creative ideas that can keep your family entertained that don’t require technology. If you have an artistic family, go out and paint rocks or build and paint a birdhouse. Have a competition where everyone builds something out of LEGOs or cardboard and see who comes up with the best creation. You can also be creative by hosting a family singing competition or dance off.

Family Games

When in doubt, dust off the old board games that are just as fun today as they ever were. Puzzle games will challenge your mind and create polite competition. Games like Charades and Pictionary get the family moving, and you could find yourself playing for hours. Consider a family trivia night and see who comes out victorious. You could also get creative and build your own DIY bowling game or play balloon volleyball in the backyard.

Cooking and Baking

Your screen-free family weekend can also include learning fun skills that can help your children later in life, like learning how to cook and bake. On Saturday night, work together to make homemade pizza or bake cookies. If your kids are already skilled at cooking, you could also have a “chopped-style” challenge with ingredients and see who makes the best dish. This could also be a fun time to create an original family recipe book with all of your favorites.

Low-Key Fun

There are also many low-key activities you can enjoy that will allow your family to bond on a deeper level. Activities along these lines can include reading books aloud as a family or working together on a project, like a blanket fort. On colder nights, start a fire and tell stories or share memories of the good times you’ve had together. 

Create a Theme for the Weekend

A fun idea to make the screen-free family weekend even more special is to create a theme. Here are some ideas that your family may enjoy:

• Backyard Campout Weekend – Put tents in the backyard and camp under the stars. The weekend can include roasting marshmallows, telling ghost stories, and more.
• Family Olympics – Set up an obstacle course in the backyard or in the house and compete until you get a champion.
• Adventure Weekend – Get out of the house and go to a local amusement park, museum, or local farmers’ market and see what you can discover. 

Expect Resistance

Even if your kids think that a screen-free family weekend will be a fun idea at first, they are likely to become restless at some point, especially if they spend most of their time on screens. Prepare for this possibility in advance. When they complain, acknowledge their feelings but don’t give in. Instead, when they start to get restless, come up with another activity to keep their mind off screens. Offer options. Ask if they’d rather cook or play outside? Would they rather craft or play a game? 

The first screen-free family weekend may not be the easiest weekend of your life. However, if you try to have these weekends more often, your kids are likely to enjoy them more and more.

End the Weekend on a Positive Note

When it’s all over, sit your family down and try to end the weekend on a happy, positive note. Have a nice chat. Ask your kids to discuss their favorite part of the weekend, what they think should be changed the next time, and when they want to do it again. As parents, you need to be just as happy about the experience as the kids because you lead by example. At no point during the weekend should you cheat and try to peek at a screen. If your kids catch you, they're unlikely to forget, and they may not be on board for another weekend like this in the future. 

The best way to find success with this idea is to make it a repeatable tradition. Aim for a weekend once every couple of months. You could also aim for a screen-free day every few weeks. Over time, this could become a tradition your kids pass on to their children, and it will all be for the best.

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