Can someone remind me how kids kept themselves occupied before screens?

[Anonymous]

“Stay outside until the street lights come on. If you come in the house, you will get a chore.”

[Anonymous]

My kids read, do crafts with toilet paper rolls, tissues felt and glue, or create obstacle courses around the house.

[Anonymous]

All that outside time the neighbors will be judging right now... (and they were working or doing chores, etc.)

[Anonymous]

Making forts with sheets and towels in our bedrooms
Cards
Board games
Easy bake oven
Life brite
Calling the local radio station and requesting a song ... and waiting for it

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Like Little House on the Prairie. Or anything up until the 1950s. Assuming you weren’t big enough to go out on your own and had to stay at home with mom.

They worked around the house. Cooking, cleaning, mending, building, etc. There was actually very little time spent just outright playing.

[Anonymous]

1960's: Matchbox cars, hot wheels, hot wheels on tracks,
doll house and dolls---all of this occupied hours.

Reading books.

1/2 hour of tv a day only. Mother did not allow anymore.

Chores.

Riding bikes. Free range on bikes.

Outside forts. We would read books inside the forts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They were beaten. Also, even from a very young age, many many kids worked, either on the family farm or in factories. As young as age 3 and 4, doing very simple tasks.

This. Children are to be seen, but not heard.

[Anonymous]

Games:, Clue, Monopoly, Scrabble, Battleship, cards

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
My kids read, do crafts with toilet paper rolls, tissues felt and glue, or create obstacle courses around the house.

Yup. Mine are reading, drawing and building forts.

[Anonymous]

Hot wheels super charger Sprint Sets.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A lot of time outside. If you needed water, you drank from a hose. No snacks between meals. Neighborhood kids hung out together with no real supervision.

This. There were absolutely no snacks between meals. If kid did not like what was served they did not eat anything until next meal.
No special catering of foods to "picky eaters." Kid got hungry enough he/she would eat what was served.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Like Little House on the Prairie. Or anything up until the 1950s. Assuming you weren’t big enough to go out on your own and had to stay at home with mom.

They worked around the house. Cooking, cleaning, mending, building, etc. There was actually very little time spent just outright playing.

+1. My parents grew up without screens. They did a ton of work around the house, starting at a very young age. I'm sure you've seen this Montessori chart of kids chores before: http://ageofmontessori.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/chart-2.png

Imagine if your kids were actually doing all of that. That would burn up at least some of the day.

[Anonymous]

Writing letters to grandma.

Outside games: red rover, tag, hide and seek,

[Anonymous]

Yardwork: weeding, raking, picking up apples

[Anonymous]

My kids normally aren't allowed screens except for FaceTiming inlaws.

They do gardening, brush the dog and walk her, do art projects and science experiments, create choreography to dances (they don't know from Tik Tok yet), they create elaborate plays, they play Dramatic Doctor (my 7 yr old gave birth in an elevator, then both girls (the other played the role of random stranger in elevator) passed out pink flowers to the audience (their nanny and us) to celebrate the baby (the dog). They do this stuff all the time. They Kon Mari'd their sock drawer. They organized their bookshelves (once in color order, once in category order). They like to cook a lot. They have rug-hooking kits - the older one is teaching herself to knit.