These 10 easy no screen activities are perfect to keep the kids busy when you need to work from home. They take no prep work and will keep kids quiet and entertained for at least an hour so you can get some work done.

Since becoming a work from home mom this past year, I have had to get creative at finding ways to keep Zoey and William entertained during the day.

My work as a Health Coach and Personal Trainer is thankfully done during nap times and after bed time, but there are times when I have training plan deadlines, podcast interviews, or sponsor conference calls that just cannot wait.

In those times, I have a cache of easy no screen activities up my sleeve to keep the kids mostly quiet so I can talk on the phone, have some brain space to write, or focus long enough to edit.

This post contains affiliate links.

As you delve into this working from home life while keeping your kids entertained, try a few of these activities. Each one has given me a minimum of an hour of time to work. Sure, you may have to stop your work to redirect the kids, but overall, they stay quite busy and off screens.

You can download a whole list of 43 No Screen Toddler Activities here.

Egg Shakers

This activity totally came out of no where. I had a few Easter eggs in the play room after working on a few Easter related posts in addition to some spare change since the kids love to use it in their play kitchen. While listening to some kids music, I put a few coins in an Easter egg and started shaking it.

Both Zoey and William were thrilled! Suddenly, they each had two eggs in their hands and an hour later we were all exhausted from our intense egg shaking.

What I loved about these particular egg shakers instead of the pre-filled ones you can buy is that we were able to pop them open, change the amount of coins, and discuss the differences in weight and sound. Mostly, we just shook them to music.

This is not a quiet activity, so do not plan any intensive work during it, but it is a good one for writing emails, drafting lesson plans, or doing a house chore or two.

Here are a few more Energy Burning Easter Games you can play with your kids as well.

Painting Different Surfaces with Different Items

This is a good activity to do either with your child, or while you keep a half eye on them so you can proofread papers and edit your work. Pull out different types of surfaces to paint on and different items to paint with.

Items they can paint on could be paper plates, regular paper, cardboard, tinfoil, or wood.

Items they can paint with could be cotton balls, Q-tips, regular paint brushes, a leaf, a sponge, or a fork.

The bottom line is to get creative and have fun with it!

Post Office

When Zoey came home from preschool telling us all about the post office they had set up for imaginative play in her classroom, I knew it would be an easy one to recreate at home.

Some spare envelopes, construction paper, stickers, markers, and smaller empty boxes provided us an hour of entertainment at the kitchen table.

We cut cards, wrote to our friends, discussed how letters worked, filled envelopes, filled “mailboxes”, and just had some creative fun. The next morning, Zoey was practically bouncing out of her PJs to open the mail in the mailboxes.

An activity that gets us two days of fun? Definitely a keeper. Plus, this is a great one to do while you create worksheets or brainstorm with a coworker.

Birthday Party For Animals

Creating the decorations, singing happy birthday, baking a pretend (or real) cake, wrapping and then opening presents can take up some serious time.

Some of these activities your child will need help with, but others they can easily do on their own while you finish up a lesson plan or send out that email.

Grocery Store

Since William is at the stage where he loves to put objects into and out of bags, boxes, or bowls, playing grocery store is an easy win for both kids.

Using a few empty food boxes that I closed up with packing tape, we set up a little store on chairs or stacked diaper boxes. The kids are able to go shopping and fill a paper bag with what they want, then come to the check out. We use the coffee table for a checkout line and make our own beep sounds when items move across the table.

The kids adore this game. We vary it up with who gets to check out, incorporating a wallet with play money, writing a shopping list, and restocking shelves.

Once they are set to this game, they are good on their own for a while. It gives you time to edit papers, start dinner, or create some presentation slides.

Cardboard Boxes

I really hope you also have memories of playing in big cardboard boxes as a kid. We had a whole city going once at my grandparents house when they replaced all of their kitchen appliances at the same time. It was epic!

If you have a large box, perfect. If not, smaller boxes can work too. Coloring, cutting, building forts inside, making it a car or bus. The options are truly endless!

Set out the box for those longer phone calls or projects you need to accomplish. You just might be taking breaks to grab pillows and blankets or to hunt down a marker cap.

Restaurant

I love activities that incorporate more than one learning opportunity and this restaurant game fits that bill. Clearly, my teacher is showing.

Cut paper to make and decorate menus to practice writing and bring in a crafting element.

Set up a restaurant table to practice manners and ordering to practice restaurant skills.

Then there is the whole cooking in the kitchen aspect and taking an order. It is creative, beings in a real works experience, and is easy to take turns with.

While this activity does take more parent playmate participation, it is also a slow activity, meaning you can catch up on a few emails or draft some presentation materials while you play.

Puff Balls in a Salad Spinner

I know this activity is oddly specific, but it has kept our one and a half year old entertained for hours. Literally puff balls, or coins, or plastic Easter eggs, or beans. It really does not matter what the item is as long as there is a salad spinner involved.

This is the activity to have going while you take a conference call or parent phone call.

Felt Board

I had been wanting to make Zoey a felt board since our library got one a few months back and she had a blast playing with it.

Thankfully, Rob made the board become a reality and Zoey and I cut out items to use on it from some felt scraps I had on hand. She then spent the next hour telling stories with the items and rearranging them.

We made things like:

• horse
• pig
• house
• road
• car
• each person in our house
• slide
• monkey bars
• tree
• grass
• mud
• sun
• clouds

An easy activity to set your child up with so you can talk on the phone, edit work, or prepare lesson plans.

Sensory Bin

Sure there are a ton of creative sensory bin ideas on Pinterest, but I usually do not have half of those cute items on hand. I went out of my way to buy fake flowers a few weeks ago for a garden planting sensory bin and it only lasted about 30 minutes for one day.

Whomp whomp.

Instead, I have found that Zoey and William have a longer attention span when ice cube trays, scoopers, spoons, and various cups and bowls are involved and it quickly becomes one of our favorite and easiest no screen activities.

Our favorite indoor sensory bin items:

• Rice
• Dry Beans
• Dry Pasta
• Cheerios
• Decorative Shreds (that stuff you put in the bottom of Easter baskets)

Our favorite outdoor sensory bin items:

• Oats and water
• Moon sand
• Flour and water – This is sticky!
• Water and buckets

I threw the oats and water activity together last week as the kids were cranky, Rob was trying to get dinner made, and Hazel needed some extra attention (hungry with a stuffy nose).

Each kid got about two cups of oats, a cup of water, and some play kitchen pots and spoons. I put a towel under their feet to help with a bit of the mess.

They were silent for 45 minutes. For the week after we did this, Zoey was asking when we could do it again.

Clean up only took about 10 minutes and in summer we can easily take this activity outside.

No matter what task you are trying to accomplish with the kids around, these 10 easy no screen activities are just about guaranteed to keep your little ones entertained for at least an hour. Have fun with them and get that work done!

Make sure you snag your list of 43 No Screen Toddler Activities here for when you need some inspiration of things to do with your little one!