Screen-Free Summer: 14 Games, Books & Kits That Keep Kids Learning (A Dad's Picks)
Summer is long, screens are easy, and 'I'm bored' starts around week two. As a pastor and a dad, here's what actually keeps kids curious, growing, and off the iPad—organized into four simple buckets.
Summer is long, screens are easy, and ‘I’m bored’ starts around week two. As a pastor and a dad, this is my go-to list for keeping kids curious, growing, and off the iPad without turning the house into a classroom. It is sorted into four simple buckets, because the best tools for summer aren’t complicated — they’re the ones that actually get used.
Print it, pick what fits your kids’ ages, and breathe. Summer doesn’t have to be one long screen negotiation.
See the full list on Benable →1. Big Preschool Workbook
For the youngest learners, a page-by-page workbook is pure structure without the classroom feeling. Big Preschool gives kids something to do with their hands that builds skills — letters, shapes, counting — without you turning summer into school. One workbook, one kid, zero screen time needed.
2. Summer Brain Quest: Between Grades 2 & 3
Brain Quest is the opposite of boring. It’s a question-and-answer book that feels like a game, not a lesson. Kids want to answer the next question; parents watch the gaps close between grades without their child noticing. This version bridges the middle-elementary years exactly when summer slide risk is highest.
3. Summer Bridge Activities, Grades 2-3
Workbooks can feel like punishment, but Summer Bridge doesn’t. It’s designed for this exact age and this exact problem: refreshing skills over the break without the weight of ‘school’. A few pages a week keeps the gears turning. Your kid will be ahead in August without knowing they learned.
4. School Zone Reading 4-Pack Flash Cards
Flash cards get a bad rap, but in the car or at breakfast, they’re magic for reading confidence. This four-pack covers the foundational words that unlock fluency. Five minutes of flash cards beats ten minutes of screen time for building real reading skills that stick.
5. LEGO Classic Large Creative Brick Box
Open-ended building toy, no instructions, unlimited possibility. Kids spend hours — actual, genuine hours — quietly building, experimenting, breaking things down and starting again. LEGO is the rare toy that grows with them; a four-year-old and a ten-year-old can both use the same box and be equally engaged.
6. Crayola 115pc Imagination Art Set
One hundred fifteen markers, colored pencils, and crayons is overkill in the best way. Crayola gives kids the choice to be creative without limitations. A huge palette means they can envision something and actually create it, not settle for what twelve colors allow. Art is where imagination lives.
7. Ticket to Ride Board Game
Family board games are rarer than they should be, but Ticket to Ride works across ages and skill levels. It teaches strategy, takes about an hour, and creates actual family time — not everyone staring at their own screen, but sitting around a table, laughing, and thinking together. This is the game that ends with ‘Can we play again?’
8. The Day the Crayons Quit
A picture book where crayons write complaint letters to their owner. It’s hilarious, it’s clever, and kids read it over and over. The Day the Crayons Quit is the kind of book that makes reading a choice rather than a chore — kids laugh so hard they don’t realize they’re reading.
9. Magic Tree House: Dinosaurs Before Dark
The gateway to chapter books. Magic Tree House meets kids exactly where they transition from picture books to reading on their own. Dinosaurs hook them; the chapters keep them reading. By book two, they’re asking when they can read the next one. There’s a reason this series has been the bridge to independent reading for thirty years.
10. Charlotte's Web
A classic that earns its place. Charlotte’s Web is the middle-grade novel that teaches kids that stories matter, that friendship and loyalty are worth writing about, and that books can make you cry and think at the same time. Read it aloud together or let them read it alone — either way, it sticks with them.
11. The Jesus Storybook Bible
As a pastor and a dad, this is the one I’d place in their hands. The Jesus Storybook Bible tells Bible stories in a voice that sounds like a dad telling stories — warm, real, connected to why they matter. It’s not a reference tool; it’s an invitation to know God’s story and find themselves in it. Ten minutes before bed, it centers kids on what’s true.
12. National Geographic Science Magic Kit
STEM doesn’t have to be serious to be real. This kit makes science feel like play — experiments that work, results that surprise, questions that lead to more questions. Kids learn by doing, not by listening, and this kit is designed for exactly that kind of hands-on discovery.
13. Nature Bound Bug Catcher Kit
Get kids outside. The bug catcher is the tool that turns a backyard into a classroom of its own — observing, collecting, releasing, asking questions about what’s alive and how it moves. Boredom disappears when a kid is hunting for grasshoppers or watching an ant colony up close.
14. National Geographic Microscope Explorer
A real microscope that actually works — not a toy that disappoints. National Geographic builds this for hands-on learners who want to see what’s really there. Dirt, leaves, feathers, skin cells — a microscope makes the invisible visible and suddenly every kid wants to spend summer as a scientist.
Also on the full list
The complete Benable list carries all 14 items above, organized by purpose: workbooks and brain games that stop the summer slide, building and art supplies for screen-free play, books across ages from picture books to middle grade, and tools for backyard science and outdoor exploration. Every route goes through Benable’s affiliate partners — Target for LEGO, art sets, workbooks, flash cards, and science kits; Bookshop.org for all books, which supports independent bookstores. One list, four sections, screen-free summer solved.
Questions people ask me
How do I prevent summer slide when my kids are home all day?
A few workbooks and one brain-game book (like Brain Quest) take fifteen minutes a day and hold the line on reading and math skills without feeling like school. Pair it with one new chapter book they’re excited about, and you’ve got structure without the weight. The goal isn’t perfection; it’s consistency.
What keeps kids engaged without screens?
Open-ended toys like LEGO and art sets, strategy games the whole family can play, and outdoor exploration tools (bug catcher, microscope) — anything that lets kids create, build, discover, or play together. When kids have the tools to invent their own entertainment, boredom becomes less of a problem.
What's the best book to start a reluctant reader on chapter books?
Magic Tree House. It’s the bridge book — short enough to feel achievable, exciting enough to pull them through, and part of a series that keeps them reading. The Day the Crayons Quit works too if they’re still picture-book age but ready for something funny and clever.
How do I make reading a choice kids actually want to make?
Give them books they — not you — find funny, exciting, or weird. Ask them what they’re curious about and find a book on that topic. Read aloud together so they hear what good reading sounds like. And don’t push too hard; the goal is curiosity, not compliance. A kid who chooses to read for twenty minutes on their own has already won summer.