For most families, electronic screens are everywhere. Across the country, there are TVs in living rooms, with many households also having them in kitchens, dining rooms, and even bedrooms. Smartphone use is also prolific. Additionally, we have tablets, computers, game consoles, e-readers, and even wearable smartwatches that have screens. So, rather like the movie title, “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” electronic screens are nothing short of ubiquitous. But what effect does watching such screens have on people, particularly children? And is there an argument for taking a significant break from them once in a while? Today’s post explores the topic and explains Why Every Family Should Try a Digital Detox, whether for a day, a week, or significantly longer. Let’s dive in.
Are Electronic Screens Bad for Children?
Common sense alone would dictate that spending hours watching electronic screens is, at the very least, unnatural for children. When you think about it logically, time spent staring at one spot, remaining physically inactive, cannot be good for young – or even old – brains and bodies. Indeed, studies have revealed some unsurprising findings relating to excessive screen use, especially for children, whose young brains and bodies are still in their infancy. Those under five are undergoing rapid brain development, so it’s a particularly crucial time for them. Indeed, new Government guidelines recommend that children under the age of two should not be watching electronic screens alone, while those under five should watch no more than one hour per day.
New* Government guidelines recommend that children under the age of two should not be watching electronic screens alone, while those under five should watch no more than one hour per day.
* 27 March 2026. For more information, click this link to view the BBC video entitled, “How screens Impact Children” and learn more about what they really do to a child’s brain development.
Research surrounding the use of electronic screens by young children includes the following conclusions:
- Excessive screen use, particularly close to bedtime, may interfere with the production of melatonin. This can adversely affect the quality of children’s sleep as well as delay its onset.
- Language development can also become delayed when children watch electronic screens excessively. This is especially true for children under five. Indeed, one study revealed that such children’s language development was three times more likely to be delayed if they watched TV for 3 hours each day.
- In the same study, school-readiness skills were also found to be adversely impacted by screen use.
- Another study found that just 9 minutes of watching fast-paced TV was all it took to — at least temporarily — impair the executive function of children aged 4.
Just 9 minutes of viewing a fast-paced television cartoon had immediate negative effects on 4-year-olds’ executive function.¹
- Source: Lillard AS, Peterson J. “The immediate impact of different types of television on young children’s executive function.” Pediatrics. 2011 Oct;128(4):644-9. doi: 10.1542/peds.2010-1919. Epub 2011 Sep 12. PMID: 21911349; PMCID: PMC9923845. View here.
Conversely, there are many benefits associated with taking a significant break from screen time.
What Benefits Can Children Expect from a Digital Detox?
Children who take significant breaks from staring at electronic screens enjoy a wide variety of benefits, including:
A decrease in levels of stress, anxiety, and other emotional difficulties;- A lift in their overall mood;
- Increased well-being;
- Improved physical health and fitness;
- A resetting of their perception of time, with days feeling longer and fuller;
- Improved engagement around physical activities;
- An improvement to social behaviour and skills like cooperation, kindness, and other prosocial tendencies.
A decrease in levels of stress, anxiety, and other emotional difficulties;Studies back up the benefits of unplugging from screens. For example, teens undertaking a 48-hour break away from smartphones for a study experienced improved sleep, an increase in outdoor activities, better engagement with such activities, and improved family interactions.
In another study, children taking part in an unplugged 5-day camp encountered significant improvements in their ability to tune into the feelings and emotions of others. An example of this improved emotional intelligence was that they became more able to recognise the emotional expressions in others.
“Reading with an under-five can boost their language skills by 20%”
The absence of screens also gives parents the opportunity for more reading with their children. That’s important, because studies have shown that reading with an under-five can boost their language skills by 20%. Learn more about the benefits of reading with children here.
Of course, adults and whole households also enjoy related benefits when they unplug from screen use.
How Do Families Benefit from a Digital Detox?
Unplugging from electronic screens has been shown to benefit families as a whole. Days and evenings together seem more relaxed and often feel significantly longer when screens are switched off. Then, families are soon likely to increase levels of connection and presence. Away from screens, there is likely to be more spontaneity and creativity too, with more talking, reading, playing, drawing, and making. Children will often display excitement about beginning each new activity, too. The overall family mood is often also improved, leading to a healthy and congenial atmosphere, with noticeably more laughter. What’s more, everyone becomes more aware of each other, engaging in group or sibling activities more readily, and being overall more attentive to one another. Then, when it’s time for bed, everyone feels more rested, and children will generally fall asleep more easily than ever before. Incredibly, all such benefits and this newfound quality time are achieved simply by stepping away from electronic screens.
The Snowball Effect of Increased Outdoor Activities
When children and families unplug from electronic screens, it becomes natural for them to spend more time outdoors, closer to nature. That’s important because both outdoor play and a closer proximity to nature have incredibly significant benefits all of their own. To demonstrate that using just one example, studies showed that a mere 20 minutes spent closer to nature will improve a child’s happiness. In fact, nature boosts mental health so significantly that even just a view of nature through a window has been shown to boost academic grades, test results, and overall academic focus — incredible!
Further Reading
Click the bold, green links to find out more about why nature is so important to children and the benefits of outdoor play in the early years. Our 12 Outdoor Activities for Little Ones article may also be useful if your family plans to spend less time around electronic screens, and we also published a useful article about Exercise & Active Play for Under-Fives that’s relevant. Away from screens, children are also more likely to get involved in sporting games and activities and, with that in mind, you can read more about the benefits of sport in the early years here.
It’s Why We Have Forest School
So, as you can see, unplugging from screens has a snowball effect and is one of the many reasons why, here at Little Acorns Nursery in Clayton-le-Woods, we have regular Forest School sessions. They’re not only great fun for little ones, but also benefit them in a vast number of ways. Through Forest School, they learn new skills, new things about the world, its wonderful flora and fauna, and about their place within it. Empathy, responsibility, curiosity, resilience, emotional intelligence, risk assessment, social and prosocial skills, and so much more are boosted during outdoor exploration and discovery. That’s in stark contrast to the time spent looking at electronic screens. Learn more about Forest School and its benefits here.
A Nursery Place for Your Child, Near Chorley
If you’d like to explore the possibility of a nursery place for your child at 
Little Acorns Nursery in Clayton-le-Woods, near Chorley, we’d love to hear from you. We’re graded as a good childcare provider by Ofsted, have our own Forest School, and accept funded places for eligible children. Full days at Little Acorns Nursery begin at 7:30 am and finish at 6:00 pm too, meaning working families have reliable childcare cover right through the working day.
Select an option below to start exploring a nursery place for your child at Little Acorns:
Little Acorns Nursery is a high-quality childcare nursery in Clayton-le-Woods, near Chorley. As such, it may also represent a convenient choice for those living nearby, for example, in Clayton Brook, Clayton Green, Farington, Bamber Bridge, Penwortham, Thorpe Green, Leyland, Whittle-le-Woods, Pippin Street, Buckshaw Village, Lostock Hall, and Euxton.
It’s wonderful for families when spring arrives: the coldest weather is behind us, the sun is out more often, and there is so much beauty to see outdoors. As spring progresses, more and more flowers appear, providing colourful displays, and all kinds of plants and leaves are sprouting forth. Following spring’s arrival, we’ll see more animals, birds and insects too. They’re likely to include delightful bumblebees attracted by newly-blossoming flowers, adorable snails and minibeasts on the look-out for food, and swifts flying acrobatically through the air, having returned to the UK after wintering overseas. Everywhere we look, nature is teaming with life once again.
With this in mind, it’s a wonderful opportunity to encourage children to get outside once more, enjoy nature and the fresh air, and embark on a Spring Nature Hunt. The activity is both fun and educational for little ones. Spending time in nature is also very good for children’s health and well-being. And the icing on the cake? Today’s activity comes with an attractive reference poster depicting 25 natural things for children to look out for — and it’s free for families to download.
We’re delighted to share some very exciting news: 
Our nursery is surrounded by 
Forest School is a child-centred approach to learning that takes place outdoors and encourages children to explore, investigate, and learn about the natural world through hands-on experiences. Sessions are led by trained practitioners and are carefully planned to be age-appropriate for under-fives. They allow children to learn about nature, build new skills, learn to assess risks, and grow in confidence and independence.
Forest School offers rich opportunities for learning across all areas of the Early Years Foundation Stage. As children climb, balance, build, dig, collect and create, they naturally develop physical strength, coordination and problem-solving skills. They learn to communicate with one another, take turns, share ideas and work together, supporting social and emotional development in a meaningful context.
Forest School is not limited to time spent outdoors for children at Little Acorns Nursery. The Forest School approach is also reflected throughout our nursery environment, both indoors and in our garden and grounds. Natural materials, open-ended resources and opportunities for exploration are woven into everyday play, allowing children to continue their connection with nature — whether indoors or outside.
For families already with us, Forest School adds another enriching layer to the care and education your child receives. For those considering joining our nursery, it’s one of the many reasons we believe our setting offers something truly special. Being able to offer Forest School — especially as a nursery that pioneered it locally — reflects our commitment to high-quality, thoughtful early years practice.
As the bright days of summer give way to crisp autumn air, parks, gardens, and pavements begin to fill with a carpet of crunchy leaves. For children and under-fives, autumn is one of the most exciting times of the year. With the landscape so full of textures, sounds, and colours, it’s the perfect time to get outdoors, explore, and learn about the natural world. It’s also the ideal time for them to begin a simple but deeply rewarding project: composting. In today’s post, we outline how children can approach this wonderful activity and explain its significant benefits.
Composting is a wonderfully simple, hands-on activity that provides children of all ages with an opportunity to enjoy the outdoors and connect with nature. It will introduce big ideas about recycling and responsibility in a child-friendly way, teach patience, and make good use of all those autumn leaves. Best of all, it’s fun, messy in all the right ways, and will lead to fascinating discoveries — from the changing smells of the compost heap to the tiny minibeasts that wriggle in to help the process along. Composting is also an activity that can be done with just a little guidance from grown-ups.
Spending time outdoors gathering materials will not only help children understand where natural resources come from, but it will also give them valuable time in the fresh air, where they can move, play, and make discoveries. At this age, such experiences are vital for confidence and development. And because composting is a gentle, ongoing project, children can revisit it over weeks and months, and watch as nature slowly transforms what they collected into something new and incredibly useful.
It encourages children to care for the environment and understand recycling in its most natural form.
Composting shows children how cycles work in nature — how things grow, fall, break down, and then help new life grow again. This is an early introduction to science and sustainability in action.
Head outdoors with a small bucket or bag and invite your child to gather leaves, twigs, and other natural “treasures.” Encourage them to notice the crunch, colour, and shapes of the leaves. Kitchen scraps can also be sourced from indoors, for example, apple cores, banana skins, and vegetable peelings from mealtimes.
Show them how to tip the scraps into your compost heap, bin, or tub. Explain that the pile needs a mix of “green” (like fruit and vegetable peelings and grass cuttings) and “brown” (like dry leaves and cardboard) to work properly. Young children will enjoy the action of sprinkling, layering, and patting it all down. It’s a great moment to remind them that all living things eventually return to the earth — and through composting, they can see that process step by step.
Sometimes compost can dry out. You might therefore encourage your child to sprinkle a little water with a small watering can. Every few weeks, show them how to “stir” the compost gently, for example, with a small trowel or child’s spade — this lets in air and helps it break down.
Encourage your child to check the compost regularly. Ask what they can see, smell, and feel. Over time, the compost heap will shrink and darken in colour. Your child may begin to spot minibeasts like worms, beetles, woodlice, and centipedes — all busy at work breaking down the compost pile. This is a brilliant moment to draw your child’s attention to our 
After a few months, the compost turns into a dark, crumbly, earthy material. This is the finished product, which is perfect for feeding plants. Involving your child in scooping and spreading it onto flowerbeds or into plant pots helps them see the complete cycle: from scraps to soil, and then back into growing things again. This is a lovely moment of achievement — through their endeavours, they have produced something valuable that will feed plants in the year ahead. It’s the perfect way to show children the cycle of seasons and how nature gives back when we take care of it.
By introducing composting at a young age, you’ll plant more than just seeds in the soil — you’ll plant ideas in your child’s mind. They’ll learn that waste can have value, that patience is rewarded, and that nature is full of tiny helpers working behind the scenes.
Summer is a wonderful time for children to get outdoors. There, they can breathe the fresh air, benefit from being closer to the natural world, and escape from electronic screens. Nature is incredibly good for children as well as adults (more about that later). A simple way to encourage little ones outdoors is to take them on an exciting and educational nature hunt! There are many fascinating things to look out for during the summer months including butterflies, caterpillars, bees, beautiful wildflowers and much more. A summer nature hunt will open their eyes and minds to the wonders of nature’s flora and fauna, lead to educational conversations with accompanying adults, and be an enjoyable and educational activity. Within all that in mind, we’ve put together a free Summer Nature Hunt poster that will give children and families an idea of what to look out for during the warmer months of summer — and serve as useful visual reference. The poster is free to download right here in this blog post (see below). Once printed out, it can be displayed large on children’s bedroom walls or taken along during the activity — perhaps reduced to a convenient size like A5. Children can use the little tick boxes to tick off each item that’s been spotted. So, venture out little ones — see how many wonderful things you can spot in the natural world this summer!
Many of the adorable creatures featured in the poster will be easy to spot at this time of year. Bees, hoverflies, and other pollinators are common to see where flowers are blooming. Butterflies are both stunningly beautiful and at their most abundant during July and August each year, so are sure to delight children with their fabulous colours and patterns. Delightful ladybirds are also rather abundant right now (time of writing: mid-July). Wildflowers like poppies and daisies always make the world a more beautiful place, so they’re a wonderful thing for children to discover too.
Has your little one ever seen apples growing on a tree? All that blossom from earlier in the year has now given way to little green apples that will grow and ripen as we head further into the year — eventually becoming ready to fall or be eaten come autumn. It’s a great example to show under-fives where some food comes from and explain why pollinators are so important.
As we said in the introduction, spending time in and around nature is incredibly beneficial to children of all ages. Studies have proven a myriad of benefits, in fact. Just a few examples include a lowering of stress and anxiety, improved motor skills, greater knowledge of the world (and children’s place within it), improved empathy for other living things, a feeling of greater responsibility for nature’s flora and fauna, a development of often lifelong greener values and choices, and even improved academic grades! These are just a few examples — the benefits of spending time closer to nature are incredible. Learn more about 
National Children’s Gardening Week arrives in late May and is the perfect time for young children to get involved in gardening activities. In celebration of the event, we describe a wonderful gardening-related activity that’s small-scale, easy, fun, and educational — perfect for little ones! The finished result is also rather magical and, once complete, lends itself to imaginative play. Today, we outline how children can make their own miniature fairy gardens. These are a great way to introduce little ones to creative gardening at a child-friendly scale. Under parent supervision* and largely using scavenged materials from outdoors, under-fives can let their imaginations run free and get creative! What’s more, the results are simply enchanting and will bring magic and a whole lot of delight to young children!
National Children’s Gardening Week begins on the 23rd of May for 2026 and runs until the 31st. The timing is no coincidence as it’s generally a warm week and therefore perfect for gardening and growing plants and flowers. What’s more, it also spans the half-term school holiday that most schools recognise in the last week of May.
Little learners, get ready – it’s almost time to buzz into action for World Bee Day! The annual event arrives in May and it’s a brilliant opportunity for children and families to get involved in something meaningful, fun, and full of learning opportunities.
World Bee Day is celebrated every year on 20th May to raise awareness of the vital role that bees and other pollinators play in our world. From helping plants grow and supporting the food we eat every day, bees are some of nature’s hardest workers – and they need our help to survive and thrive.
“Bee together for people and the planet”
Getting involved in World Bee Day isn’t just fun — it also supports many areas of the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS), helping children learn and grow in meaningful, hands-on ways. Here are just a few ways bee-related activities can support early development:
Expressive Arts and Design: Making bee crafts, drawing flowers, role-playing as working bees, or moving like insects in a dance — all help develop creativity and imagination.
There are so many fun and simple ways for little learners to join in with World Bee Day! Here are a few activities that are perfect for children under five — each one encourages creativity, curiosity, and care for nature while also supporting the EYFS.
Using paper plates, cardboard tubes, egg cartons or recycled materials, children can create their own bees! Add wings, stripes, googly eyes and antennae for a hands-on creative session. These are wonderfully creative activities that will boost several areas of the EYFS including Expressive Arts & Design and Physical Development.
Explore the garden or outdoor space and, without disturbing them, see what pollinators your child can spot. Can they see any bees? What colours and flowers do they seem to like best? Are they collecting nectar? What type of bees are they? Bumblebees are super cute. Honey bees are super-hard workers and do so much for the world. A bee-spotting activity is a great opportunity to explore areas of the EYFS that include Understanding the World and Communication & Language.
Children will love creating wildlife art. Whether it’s drawing animals and plants, making a collage, or constructing an animal out of cardboard or origami, wildlife art is a wonderful way to get children involved. What’s more, they will get a sense of satisfaction from the activity and it can help them appreciate wildlife more.
Another incredibly worthwhile activity that children can get involved in is fundraising for a wildlife-related charity. This can be done, for example, through a sponsored activity of some kind. That could be a sponsored walk, hop, swim, or whatever children and families choose (under supervision, of course, for the youngest). A sponsored fundraising activity will not only raise funds for a wildlife charity of choice but also spread the word. Furthermore, children will get an enormous sense of achievement at the end when their actions raise vital funds for animals or conservation. Volunteering for local wildlife charities is also hugely worthwhile, of course, but it is more suited to when children are older.
World Wildlife Day brings into focus the enormous challenges that affect nature’s flora and fauna. Sadly, many of those challenges are caused by humans, whether it’s due to habitat loss, global warming, or something else. By raising awareness through World Wildlife Day activities, children and families can also challenge themselves to live more sustainably. This is a whole topic in itself! However, some easy measures can be things like:
Children can also get closer to wild flora and fauna if they live near a wildlife sanctuary (or zoo) or somewhere like a national park. Nothing can really replace seeing animals and plants in real life and so it’s worth researching to find somewhere to visit close by. In Lancashire, just five miles from Little Acorns Nursery, for example, is 
Teaching children how to grow their own plants and, better still, food is a wonderfully educational and fulfilling activity. As well as learning to appreciate wild plants growing in parks and the countryside, learning how to grow their own, at home, is also great fun. Luckily, we have a whole blog post dedicated to 
A nature scavenger hunt is also great fun and is sure to get children interested in nature, wildlife, and the outdoors. The activity involves looking out for specific natural things, for example, a pine cone, a robin, a squirrel’s drey (i.e. nest), a winged seed, or animal tracks. It will also 
Encouraging (and supervising, where appropriate) an activity where children try to see different types of animals, birds, and insects is also a wonderful way to get them interested in nature. To make it easier, we have published some free, downloadable reference sheets, which also double as posters, for families to use during this activity. These include 
If children like the idea of attracting birds and other wildlife to their own garden, there are many easy ways to make this possible. As well as putting out suitable food to attract birds, children can help make a quiet, wild area with a compost heap to attract minibeasts. There are so many ways to attract wildlife so, to get you started, check out our 
With the start of the new year now behind us, it’s time for children to get ready to take part in National Storytelling Week. This year it begins on Saturday the 1st of February and ends on Sunday the 9th. It’s a wonderful initiative that brings children and families together to use their imaginations, get creative, and entertain one another. What better time of the year to do that than during mid-winter? National Storytelling Week is perfectly timed to be a fabulous antidote to cold, blustery, winter days and is a wonderful way for children to escape through the power of the mind.
Whether listening to another’s story or creating it themselves, storytelling is a fun activity for children and adults alike. In either case, imagination is a powerful thing that will allow children to immerse themselves in new worlds, new situations, and new adventures. What’s more, it can even allow them to temporarily become someone or something else. That’s hugely powerful!
With a theme as open-ended as reimagining their world, children have free reign to come up with all kinds of storylines and scenarios. When it comes to creating stories the world is, as they say, their oyster and it’s only limited by their imaginations. They could perhaps come up with some kind of fantasy with colourful landscapes, magic, and weird, wonderful creatures. Or perhaps the story revolves around a futuristic city where travel by hoverboard is the norm. Or maybe the storyline is something more simple and subtle that’s not so different to reality. It’s entirely their choice and, for supervising adults and parents, it’ll certainly be interesting to see what they create.
First-time storytellers may better grasp the idea if an adult/parent first tells a story as an example. This will help them see what’s possible — and indeed show that anything is possible.
