A screen-free summer for your kids? Probably unrealistic. But these five ingenious ideas might be your best bet

Growing up, if my brother and I spent too much time in front of the TV, our mother would warn us that we’d get “square eyes.”

Decades later, what my mom instinctively knew was bad for us is now backed up with mountains of research. Excess screentime won’t change your kids’ eye shape, but it will negatively affect them in dramatic ways. A January 2023 JAMA Pediatrics study found that kids who had an average of two hours of screen time a day experienced cognitive issues (related to attention and executive functions) by age nine.

With the final days of the school year barrelling towards us, I can feel the anxiety over screens spike in my fellow parents. It feels like the only conversation we have right now is: What are your kids doing this summer?

Even if you were organized enough to book the ideal patchwork of day camps to keep your kids occupied, there are still all those no-homework afternoons and evenings to contend with. And if your kid is aging out of camps but isn’t old enough for a summer job, then you’re looking at full, unscheduled days. You know what they want to do if they’re left to their own devices, right? They want to be left to their own devices.

Some valiant parents may decide to take the extreme approach of a screen-free summer. And to them I say, good luck with that war. I’ll be taking a more balanced — and less fraught — approach that I’ve observed other parents have success with. Rather than an all-or-nothing tactic that’s — respectfully — doomed to fail, it’s based on choosing a few, agreed-upon activities that cannot be performed in front of a screen and decide to call it a win.

Here are five ideas that I’ll be trying out.

Kids in Ontario need 40 volunteer hours to graduate from high school. Why not encourage your kid to get all or most of those done this summer? Luckily, many styles of volunteering meet the requirements. Yes, your kid can help out a charity or non-profit, but they can also do more informal work like cleaning up a local park or running errands for an elderly neighbour. If you’re going that route, get sign-off from your school in advance. If your kid tells you they don’t know where to volunteer, send them to Helping Hands, an excellent site that matches young people with volunteer opportunities. A Grade 8 bonus: kids can start and complete their hours the summer before starting high school.

Last summer, a mom in my neighbourhood came up with a brilliant solution for getting her kid off screens and to stop complaining of his imminent death by boredom. With a few phone calls, she organized a daily basketball game with a local college kid who was willing to play with a half dozen middle schoolers. The parents all chipped in to pay the young man and the kids got moving outside. That hour often turned into two or even three when you added in a post-game hang at the park and a trip to the convenience store for popsicles.

The Canadian Red Cross offers reasonably priced babysitting classes that kids can complete in a day, both in-person and online. In the classes, your kid will learn how to occupy younger children with activities, how to deal with difficult behaviour, and of course, basic safety protocols. When they’re letting local parents know that they’re available for babysitting this summer, they’ll have a certification to show off.

Many parents I spoke to have had success with challenging kids to complete big projects over the summer break. It could be a garden, a mural, or a photo essay, or something more physical, like training for a 10K run — just be sure it’s something that requires daily attention. If you’ve got more than one kid, you might include an element of competition.

Yep, I’m suggesting you pay your kids to get offline. It’s slightly different than the challenges listed above as there is a clear exchange being negotiated. The most common bribe involves books — read this many books this summer and you’ll make this much money. But it could be anything: fill a portfolio with drawings, play an instrument for an hour every day, knit scarves for everyone in the family. Of course, the compensation need not be cold, hard cash (although lots of kids are money motivated). Rewards could range from a trip to a water park, to a stack of movie tickets to share with friends, or unlimited ice cream.

Or, do what some parents have done: exchange time spent reading or volunteering for screen time, one for one.