In the recent times, many parents have started complaining about their toddlers playing with electronic gadgets like iPads, tablet PCs, mobiles, etc for longer durations. Essentially, it seems as though the kids are addicted to those gadgets. Instead, encourage your toddlers to play the good ol’ fashioned way. You can easily arrange for some simple games and fun activities at home.

A recent newspaper article was written about the toddlers and kids being addicted to iPads and iPhones and psychological therapies were required to treat these “e-ddictions”. It was reported that a four year old girl was so addicted to iPad that she would use it for more than 4 hours per day. And she would become “obsessed and uncontrollable” once the iPad is taken away from her. On a serious note, it was also mentioned by the doctors that the symptoms of withdrawal were similar in nature to those found in alcoholics and drug addicts.

So, we have prepared a list of gadget-free games and fun activities for your kids.

Gadget-free Toddler games and fun activities at Home

Bubble game: Bubble game is perhaps one of the most interesting, easy and funny game for toddlers and children. All you need is the bubble solution and the ring to blow bubbles. Your kid can have a lot of fun playing with bubbles. Better, if two or more kids are around. They just love to blow them and pop them.

Balloon play: Playing with balloons can also be so much fun for kids. Give your kid one or two balloons to play with. You could try both helium and regular balloons. Both are equally fun for kids.

Coloring: Coloring can also be so much fun. You can give your kids some colors or crayons to draw colors. But, one big question that parents ask is about the walls, furniture, clothes and other important papers being colored in the process. Hey, you can move things around and make sure that your kids won’t touch anything important or worthwhile. This game is a ignorable option.

Lego block games: Lego block games is another idea of fun for your kids. With Lego construction blocks, they can play for hours together. One of the main advantages is that their ability to learn and to create can increase with these games. But, if your kids are young, be sure that you buy a game with bigger Lego blocks. With little kids around you must be careful about small and tiny blocks that can be swallowed.

Silly Putty or playing dough: Silly Putty or playing dough is another great game that your kids can have fun with. You can make your own playing dough with wheat flour at home. Take a small bowl of flour and make dough out of it, just the way you make for breads. Add small amounts of food color. You could also add few drops of oil so that it doesn’t stick to hands. Make the dough little softer than usual as your kids might not be strong enough to mold the dough. By making playing dough at home, you can be sure that even if your kids accidentally eat the dough, you don’t need to worry. This might not be the case, if you buy playing dough made with chemicals.

Matching colors: Toddlers will love to play with a wide range of different colors. So, if you have small cardboard boxes, color them in groups of 2-3 and ask your kid to segregate the boxes based on colors. You can keep your kid engaged for some time with this game.

Matching shapes: Similar to the above point, you could also try the game shape matching. First make out simple shapes like round, square, rectangle, triangle, star, heart, pentagon, hexagon, etc. Cut out these shapes from a cardboard in pairs and give it to your kid to set them according to their shapes. This would be a great exercise to figure out shapes of simple things.

Spirograph: If your kid is old enough to hold a pencil steadily in hand, then you can think about giving a spirograph. Your kid could make number of intriguing designs using a spirograph. The more they play with a spirograph, the more they’ll love it. For starters, you can buy an inexpensive and smaller one, with which your kid can draw simple drawings. They’ll be just amazed by the shapes that they can draw by just the “careful scribble”.

Kaleidoscope: Kaleidoscope is another fun tool that you can give to your kids. We’re sure that as children, you’re childhood you’re childhood would’ve been great.

Block printing: You could also try block printing. Though it sounds complex, but it can be done with simple things at home. All you need are few vegetables like okra, gherkin, mushroom, broccoli, bell pepper, etc or any other vegetable can do the trick. All you have to do is to cut them breadth-wise or length-wise, apply colors. Give them to your kid and let him stamp it on papers. Make sure to move all your important documents, dresses, curtains, etc from your kid’s reach, if possible.

These are some of the games and fun activities for your kids that don’t need any gadgets or electronic devices.