Do you remember being a child and always being lost in one activity or another? Sadly, with the rise of technologies, outdoor hobbies and sporting activities have been replaced by electronic gadgets and gaming consoles in your living room.

If your child is spending an unhealthy amount of time in front of a screen, its high time you replaced their gadgets with a healthier hobby. While it’s also true that a child, or indeed a grown-up, picks up a hobby for themselves, here are some options that may help you at least gently nudge your child in the right direction.

1. Puzzles Are Great at Any Age

This classic activity gives a boost to many things including your creative thought process as well as your hand-eye coordination. Besides the obvious benefit of less screen time and more family time, jigsaw puzzles exercise both the right and left sides of the brain, improve short-term memory, and enable your mind to enter a meditative state that helps relieve stress. Plus, the satisfaction you get after completing a jigsaw puzzle is very hard to beat. Perhaps this is why people of all age groups tend to engage in activities like this for some quality fun time.

Pexels | Solving jigsaw puzzles is a great boredom-busting activity

2. Astronomy

The only thing that a budding scientist or astrologist needs to do is look up at the sky to marvel at its vastness. Astronomy is something that would grab the interest of kids of any age and this is seemingly the perfect hobby to engage a young mind. The hobby is such that, along with boosting their natural curiosity, fills up a kid with a sense of wonder. A trip to the planetarium would reveal if your kid is indeed interested in astronomy, and if they are, all you need is an open room with a large window and a telescope and you don’t need to worry about your child delving into the world of  video games or social media for the foreseeable future at least.

Pexels | Your kids are bound to be fascinated by this interesting activity

3. Knitting

Much like sewing, knitting is a hobby that activates both parts of your brain. The benefits of knitting include improved dexterity, reading skills, attention span, and pattern recognition. Not only is this activity extremely relaxing, but it also promotes mindfulness and builds self-esteem.

Pexels | Kids aged around 5 can pick up this hobby that is sure to inspire a sense of accomplishment

Wrapping It Up

So there you have it—3 excellent mind-boosting hobbies that are surely better than spending an unhealthy amount of time in front of a screen. Plus, most of these activities can also be done with your toddler for some quality fun time and family bonding.