The Screen-Free Activity Pack: 40 Ways to Fill the Hour After the Screen Goes Off

A note from Joe Jaques · 8th generation

Thank you for joining me.

I'm Joe — the eighth generation of my family to make toys and games, in an unbroken line since 1795. And the fact that you're on this page tells me something about you: you believe childhood should be built from real things. Wooden pieces. Grass stains. A family round a table. You're exactly the kind of parent this pack was made for.

Here's what we believe, and why you'll fit right in: you don't beat a screen by banning it. You beat it with something better in the next ten minutes — a game already on the table, a mission already named, your undivided attention as the prize. No guilt, no laminated charts. Real play wins on merit.

Below are 40 of the best ideas we know, free, sorted by the moment you actually need them — and the full Screen-Free 100 is waiting for your inbox. Welcome to the mission. — Joe

100 free activities, in your pocket

Get the full Screen-Free 100 sent to your inbox — every idea on this page plus 60 more, one beautiful printable PDF. Fun 24 hours a day, wherever you are: the waiting room, the rainy Tuesday, the 5pm meltdown, the long car ride. Open your email, pick an idea, play. Plus 10% off your first order.

One email with the pack. No spam — the same family name has been on the door since 1795 and we intend to keep it respectable.

What's inside the full pack

• All 100 activities — the 40 below plus 60 more you won't find on this page: birthday parties, sick days, grandparents' visits, the long school holidays, learning to play alone, the kitchen hour, dark winter evenings, one-minute wonders, bath time, and the big multi-day builds.
• Every idea tagged by age, time and kit — most need nothing but what's already in the house.
• "What it builds" on every activity — the skill your child is actually growing while they laugh.
• The Screen-Free Week planner — one page, made for the fridge.
• Beautifully designed and printable — keep it on your phone, print it for the kitchen drawer, forward it to the grandparents.

The 'teach me' swapage 5+10 minnothing

They teach you one thing from their day — anything. Then you teach them one rule of a real game: how the knight moves, how to king a draught. Tomorrow, the next rule.

What it builds: A child who arrives home to attention, not a queue for the tablet. By half-term they play full games.

One-game tournamentage 6+15 minchess, draughts or any board

One single game. The winner holds the title — and the bragging rights — until tomorrow's rematch. Keep a running tally on the fridge.

What it builds: The daily rematch becomes the routine. Nobody negotiates screens when there's a title to defend.

The tidy-raceage 3+10 minthe mess that's already there

Set a timer: five minutes to beat yesterday's tidy-up time. The prize is you, at the table, undivided, for the next game.

What it builds: The room gets tidied AND the reward is connection, not a screen. Two problems, one game.

Snack-and-strategyage 7+20 mina board game mid-play

Leave a game set up mid-position on the kitchen table all week. Anyone passing can make one move. Analyse over toast.

What it builds: Thinking becomes furniture. The board waits all week; the screen stops being the default.

Beat the clock buildage 4+15 minwooden blocks or anything stackable

Same tower challenge every day this week; count the seconds it stands. Beat your own record, not each other.

What it builds: Patience, steady hands, and the priceless lesson of building again after it falls.

Build-it-up, knock-it-downage 3+30 minwooden blocks or a tumble tower

Stack as high as nerve allows, then take turns pulling one piece. The wobble is the whole game. Gasping is compulsory.

What it builds: A child learning risk, turn-taking, and the joy of a crash that nobody's phone recorded.

The card-game ladderage 4+30 mina deck of cards

Start at Snap. Climb to Happy Families. Graduate to Rummy. One rung per rainy day. (Happy Families was illustrated for us by Sir John Tenniel — the original Alice in Wonderland illustrator.)

What it builds: By spring they hold a hand of cards like a grown-up and read faces like a poker player.

Sock basketball, with commentaryage 3+20 minlaundry basket + rolled socks

Basket at one end of the hallway. They do the match commentary in their best television voice. Half-time interviews mandatory.

What it builds: Gross motor skills, storytelling, and a highlight reel that lives in family legend, not a feed.

The den that stays upage 4+1 hr+sofa cushions, blankets, pegs

Build it properly — engineering meeting first: where are the walls, what holds the roof? Then games happen IN it all afternoon.

What it builds: Planning, negotiation, spatial thinking. And a headquarters for every game that follows.

Indoor treasure huntage 3+30 minpaper + 6 hiding places

Six clues, each leading to the next, last one leads to the game you'll play together. Older kids write the clues for younger ones.

What it builds: Reading with a purpose, deduction, and the discovery that the best prize is the game at the end.

Croquet, but make it sillyage 5+45 mina croquet set

Proper croquet, one twist: every round, the winner of the last hoop invents one new rule. Play through the giggles. (We put croquet on the world's lawns at the Great Exhibition in 1851 — it survived because it's this much fun.)

What it builds: Mixed-age play where grandparents and five-year-olds compete on level terms. Nothing else does this.

The 30-second scavengerage 3+15 minthe garden

Find: something rough. Something that smells green. Something older than you. Something that will be gone by winter. Thirty seconds per find.

What it builds: A child who NOTICES — textures, seasons, small differences. That skill transfers to everything.

Longest-shadow skittlesage 4+30 minskittles or boules

Play in the last hour of light when shadows stretch across the whole lawn. Score double for any skittle knocked down by a ball rolled through a shadow.

What it builds: Golden-hour family time that out-competes any glowing rectangle in the house.

The garden Olympicsage 4+1 hrwhatever's in the shed

Five events: quoits throw, welly toss, egg-and-spoon sprint, hoop roll, silly walk. Medals drawn on paper. Closing ceremony non-negotiable.

What it builds: An afternoon that costs nothing and gets retold at Christmas for the next ten years.

Bird-watch bingoage 3+20 minpaper grid, pencil, a window or a bench

Draw a 3×3 grid: robin, something brown, something that hops, a bird SOUND, and so on. First line wins. Silence helps — that's the trick of it.

What it builds: The rarest childhood skill there is: sitting still, watching, waiting. The window becomes the feed.

'I packed my bag' memory chainage 4+15 minnothing

Each person adds one item to the imaginary bag and recites the whole list so far. Miss one, you're out. Grandparents are shockingly good at this.

What it builds: Working memory in disguise. By the end of the summer they'll hold 20 items and demand more.

Number-plate storiesage 6+20 minthe car in front

Take the three letters of the plate ahead: they're the initials of a character. Who are they? What do they want? Next plate is the plot twist.

What it builds: Instant storytelling engine. Some families' best characters were born on the M25.

Travel games that gripage 4+30 minmagnetic travel set

Draughts, chess or solitaire with pieces that don't surrender at a pothole. The winner picks the next service station treat.

What it builds: The journey becomes the destination. Nobody asks 'how long left' mid-game.

Twenty questions, house rulesage 5+15 minnothing

Classic rules, one twist: the thing must be something you can see from the car, or something from a game you own. Yes/no answers only.

What it builds: Deduction, categories, patience — and it works in ANY queue on earth.

The quiet counting gameage 3+10 minthe window

Pick a thing: red cars, dogs, chimneys. First to ten wins. For toddlers this is the whole world.

What it builds: A calm child in a waiting room, no screen involved. Other parents will ask how.

Never be caught without an idea again

The next meltdown, queue or rainy afternoon will not book an appointment. The Screen-Free 100 lives in your inbox — whenever you need it, wherever you are, 24 hours a day. Search "Jaques", open the PDF, pick by the moment. Sixty of the hundred are only in the pack.

One email with the pack. No spam — the same family name has been on the door since 1795 and we intend to keep it respectable.

Proper game nightage 4+1 hr+the family game shelf

Pick the night. Name it — 'Thursday Games' works. Defend it like a dentist appointment. Rotate who chooses the game; the chooser also explains the rules.

What it builds: The single highest-return family ritual we know of. It's why our games have sold for 230 years.

Beat-the-grown-up handicap chessage 6+30 mina chess set

You start without your queen. As they improve, take back a bishop. The night they beat you at full strength is a milestone they will remember forever. (Every chess set in the world follows the Staunton design — registered by this family in 1849.)

What it builds: A ladder of real, earned victories. Watch what it does to how they carry themselves.

Story round the tableage 4+20 minthree objects from the room

Put three objects in the middle. Everyone gets two minutes to tell a story that uses all three. Youngest goes first; wildest wins.

What it builds: Imagination with an audience. The shy ones bloom at this — give them three weeks.

The generation gameage 5+30 minLudo or Snakes & Ladders

The games grandparents already know — because we made them for THEIR grandparents. Three generations, one board, no instructions needed.

What it builds: The only activity in this pack where a 5-year-old and an 85-year-old are exact equals.

Tournament seasonage 6+ongoingany two-player game

A family ladder on the fridge: challenge the person above you, defend against the one below. Monthly champion picks Sunday pudding.

What it builds: Weeks of self-organising play from one sheet of paper. The telly loses by forfeit.

Draughts by lamplight, no scoresage 5+15 mina draughts set, one lamp

Low light, quiet voices, nobody counts who wins. It's not a competition, it's a landing pattern.

What it builds: A child whose day ends with your face, not a glow. Bedtime stops being a battle.

'Three things' out loudage 3+5 minnothing

Best thing, worst thing, weirdest thing about today. Parents answer too — honestly. That last part is the magic.

What it builds: A child who can name feelings, and a parent who actually knows how the day went.

The one-card trickage 5+10 mina deck of cards

Teach them one simple card trick this week. Let them perform it at the weekend to anyone who'll sit still.

What it builds: Confidence, fine motor skill, and the delicious power of a secret well kept.

Tomorrow's game, tonightage 4+5 minthe game shelf

They choose tomorrow's after-school game and set it up on the table before bed, ready and waiting.

What it builds: A child who goes to sleep with a plan — and comes home tomorrow to a table that beats a screen.

The gratitude pawnage 4+5 minone chess pawn on the nightstand

One wooden pawn lives by the bed. Last thing: hold it, say one good thing about today, put it back on guard duty.

What it builds: A tiny anchor ritual. Strange how much a small wooden soldier can hold.

The breakfast boardage 4+30 minany board game + toast

Game on the table BEFORE the screens wake up. First mover advantage is real: whoever sets the board sets the morning.

What it builds: Saturday starts with laughing at the table instead of separate rooms and separate screens.

The long buildage 4+2 hr+every block in the house

The build too big for a weekday: a castle, a whole town, a marble run across the room. It stays up all weekend. Photograph it Sunday night, then demolition ceremony.

What it builds: Deep, unhurried, self-directed play — the kind the experts keep saying modern childhood is missing.

The family matchage 5+1 hrcroquet, skittles, boules or quoits

A real fixture: teams, a trophy (any old eggcup), a post-match interview. Same fixture every weekend, running score across the season.

What it builds: A sporting rivalry your kids will still be talking about at their own kids' weddings.

Market-stall mathsage 5+45 mintoy money or a jar of coins

They run a shop: price the stock (toys, biscuits, whatever), you're the awkward customer who needs change. Haggling encouraged.

What it builds: Mental arithmetic that doesn't feel like maths, and a lemonade-stand founder in the making.

The Sunday walk with a missionage 3+1 hra scavenger list

Never 'a walk' — always a mission: five textures, three sounds, one thing older than Grandma, one thing that will be gone next week.

What it builds: Children who ASK to go out. The mission is the trick; the fresh air is the payload.

The boredom jarage 4+2 mina jar + 20 paper slips

Twenty ideas from this pack, folded in a jar. 'I'm bored' = pull one slip. The rule: you must try it for ten minutes before pulling another.

What it builds: Boredom becomes a lucky dip instead of a negotiation. The jar does the parenting.

Ten-minute masteryage 6+10 minany game they half-know

Ten minutes practising one small skill: shuffling properly, a chess opening, the perfect quoits throw. Track the streak on the fridge.

What it builds: The compounding lesson — small daily practice beats talent. It transfers to everything they ever learn.

The unbeatable challengeage 5+20 minsolitaire or a puzzle

One genuinely hard solo challenge. No help, no hints, no rescue. The struggle is the point — stay nearby and resist fixing it.

What it builds: Frustration tolerance: the skill that predicts more than any test score. Built one puzzle at a time.

Teach the toyage 3+15 minany toy + an audience of teddies

They become the teacher: explain today's game to a row of stuffed animals, rules and all. Teddies ask difficult questions (you voice the teddies).

What it builds: If you can teach it, you know it. Also: the funniest fifteen minutes of your week.

Write to the toymakerage 5+20 minpaper, pencil, a stamp

They write to us — what they play, what we should make next. A real letter, a real stamp. We read every one, and we write back.

What it builds: A child who believes their ideas matter enough to post. (We mean it. We've been reading children's letters since 1795.)

How families actually use it

1. Save the PDF to your phone the moment it lands — it becomes the thing you reach for instead of handing over yours.

2. Print the week planner and pin it to the fridge. One small swap a day. That's the whole method.

3. Pick by the moment, not the mood. Rainy Tuesday? Section 2. Waiting room? Section 4. "I'm bored"? Section 18. The pack does the thinking so you don't have to.

Right — let's get the 100 into your inbox

You've seen the free 40. The full Screen-Free 100 adds sixty more, beautifully designed, printable, yours forever — fun on tap, 24 hours a day, in your pocket. And 10% off your first order as a welcome to the mission.

One email with the pack. No spam — the same family name has been on the door since 1795 and we intend to keep it respectable.

Why is this free?

Because the mission comes first. We're Britain's oldest games company — founded in 1795, eight generations, father to son. This family put croquet on the world's lawns at the Great Exhibition in 1851, registered the Staunton chess set every player on earth now uses, and printed Happy Families with Sir John Tenniel, the original Alice illustrator. We've watched real play outlast the radio, the television and the internet.

Why we're sure this works: we've had 230 years to watch it. Real play is where children practise the things screens can't teach — waiting a turn, losing a game and setting the board up again, holding one idea long enough to finish it, reading a face across a table. Families who do this don't do it perfectly. They do it ten minutes at a time.

You're on the team now. A thank-you for joining the mission:

SCREENFREE10

10% off your first order — valid for 7 days, so don't sit on it. Real toys, built to be handed down.

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Here's to another 230 years of children needing real play. — Joe, Jaques of London, est. 1795