Designing for Offline Play

Create an environment that sparks kids' interest.

You must design for the lifestyle you want. In the context of digital minimalist parenting, this means giving a good deal of thought to how you lay out your home and what you put inside and out of it, as this will shape how your family is inclined to spend their time.

After writing recently about a typical day in the life of my (mostly) screen-free children, I got thinking about all the choices I’ve made in my own home to ensure that my kids aren’t drawn to screens and have a variety of other options for entertaining themselves.

I’ve realized that you can’t just power down devices and tell everyone to stay off them. If all the visual triggers and reminders are still there, that’s unfair, and you’re asking for inevitable pushback and conflict. Instead, you must create spaces that are conducive to offline, active, creative play, as well as family engagement.

It’s not unlike diet. If you stock a pantry with junk food, you can hardly get upset when your kids want to snack on it all day. But by buying healthy ingredients and preparing regular meals from scratch, you can set yourself up for greater success. It’s the same in a home, where you can “stock” it with healthier alternatives to digital entertainment.

This does not have to mean expensive upgrades, renovations, or purchases. You can source second-hand items and move furniture around and switch the purpose of rooms to support the habits you wish to build.

What I’ve Done

There are some things I’ve done in my home that make a big difference. The list is always evolving and changing, as my kids grow and their interests change.

No TV: There is no TV in our home, no entertainment console as a focal point. Instead, we have a fireplace, big windows, and seating set up to encourage conversation. There are also no tablets, and the kids don’t have smartphones.

Stools at the kitchen island: When kids have a place to sit and talk while I’m working in the kitchen, they’ll do it. They do homework at the island, or I pass them a cutting board and knife to chop ingredients, and we have great conversations in the lead-up to dinnertime.

A large table: It’s a gathering point that beckons family members to join in meals together. It’s where we always sit to eat, never at the island, even though there’s seating. A large dining or kitchen table is also a great workspace for expansive craft projects or science experiments. (See: The Art of Family Dinner)

Bookshelves: Several years ago, we added floor-to-ceiling built-in bookshelves in our living room. They’re packed with a mishmash of titles and genres—everything from classic novels to contemporary fiction to children’s literature to thrillers—so the kids have a go-to place if they’re looking for fresh material. There are library books, too, as well as board games and lots of musical instruments.

Reading nooks: No one wants to sit upright in a hard chair to read a book, no matter how good it is. It’s important to think about coziness and lighting. I recently put an oversized chair in an awkwardly shaped corner next to a window—and now my kids are always in it with books (the youngest usually has Calvin and Hobbes, or Asterix). Don’t be afraid to invest in great chairs and reading lamps, including beside their beds.

Art supplies: Several shelves in our pantry are dedicated to art and craft materials—paper, pencils, markers, paints, origami paper, modelling clay, pipe cleaners, hot glue gun, and more. It’s the go-to place for any artistic endeavour.

Backyard patio: After installing a concrete-paver patio in our backyard, our home felt transformed and made larger. It has become a sort of outdoor living room extension for our family, where we can sit, visit with friends, eat, have fires, read books, play games, and more. A deck serves a similar purpose.

Trampoline: Best investment ever! I bought it second-hand from neighbours several years ago, and my kids use it constantly. It seems that they don’t just jump on it; they like to lounge on it. The net gives the illusion of privacy, and they often hang out there with friends. Same goes for our very basic woven hammock on the porch, which sees heavy seasonal use, as well as the slack line that we set up in the yard during summer months.

Sporting gear: The garage is full of bikes, skateboards, scooters, pogo sticks, hockey sticks, balls of all kinds, and gym equipment, including a rowing machine and pull-up bar. It can feel cluttered at times, but it’s a source of endless entertainment for the kids. They can always find stuff to do, and it’s a cool in-between space to hang out with their friends, especially as they get older.

I can always tell when friends have come over to play!

I heard a guest on Melanie Hempe’s podcast say that she never hesitates to invest in gear that gets her kids outside, such as a mountain bike. For example, she won’t wait for a birthday to replace a big-ticket item that will improve her child’s quality of life right away. I took that advice to heart, and when my son’s bike broke last fall, I bought him a new one immediately—and he has ridden it almost every day since.

Toys: The concept of a playroom has always troubled me somewhat, the idea of relegating children’s play and toys to a single room, often out of sight and out of the way. I think we should prioritize kids’ play by moving it front and center and accept the inevitable mess and chaos that goes along with it.

Whether it’s slot car tracks or Lego or puzzles or partially played chess games, I resist the urge to tidy and try to let things be, at least until my weekly Saturday morning housecleaning routine rolls around.

Relatedly, I’ve always avoided electronic toys when buying/collecting for my kids. I prefer toys that are “90% child and only 10% toy”—in other words, things that give kids the opportunity to use their imagination.

Get a pet: We have had a string of hamsters, which are extremely low maintenance animals, but that the kids absolutely adore. They spend hours playing with the latest one, Snowy, building mazes out of cardboard and paper towel tubes. They are entirely responsible for cleaning her cage and feeding her.

Family computer in common area: The sole desktop computer that we own sits in a common area on the second floor of the house. It’s away from the main chaos of the kitchen-dining area, but it’s visible to anyone coming upstairs. This is where the kids do schoolwork or message friends to make plans.

If we want to watch a movie, we either carry the old iMac downstairs and set it up on the living room coffee table, or we use my MacBook Air laptop. Yes, it’s small and inconvenient, but it forces us to make a conscious choice about how we want to use our time, instead of instinctively flicking on a screen and getting sucked into it. Some families I’ve met keep TVs in an attic or basement, where they’re a bit less accessible; this seems like a reasonable compromise.

Do What Works for You

Different households will make different design choices, based on their kids’ ages, preferred activities, parental interests, actual home layout, etc. But I think it’s always a good strategy to offer an array of alternative activities to children of all ages. They will dabble, experiment, and fall into things you may not expect.

I’d love to hear any of your strategies for designing or laying out homes in play-friendly ways. Please share in the comments below.

In the News:

I was on Global BC on June 23, speaking with morning show host Jennifer Palma about the growing movement to ban smartphones for children—something I wholeheartedly support! You can watch the short interview here.

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