After watching a zillion hours of TV during the Olympics, we are going cold turkey around here. No screen time for a whole week!!! This is something we do every once in awhile to wean the kids of the habit of turning to the screen the minute they get bored and as often as they can get away with.
At first they can't fathom what they will possibly do with all of that time. Then amazingly, things start to emerge....old toys are rediscovered, board games are played, books are read!! Wow - there actually IS a lot to do around here. :)
Yesterday, Liam was home with me and we made this car out of a shoebox, some plastic lids and a bunch of other junk I had accumulated. I've written about junk sculptures before and I always keep a bag or two of materials in the basement in case of 'emergency'.
After this week is over, we'll have a little recap with the kids about what it was like to go without screen time, what they did with their time and all that good stuff.
Do you ever have screen free weeks? If you do, what's the hardest part about it?
I use to say that I don't watch tv that much, which I suppose is true if compared to those around me who have the tv on most hours of the day and night, or who have 2 hours of programming DVR'd per day and spend Saturday watching it all.
But the first week after I got rid of my tv, it was difficult. There were times I wanted to turn on the tv to Planet Green to "see what was on" but the tv wasn't there. I had sold it at the beginning of the week.
My grandparents do keep their tv on (on westerns... 18 hours of westerns and golf!) so I do hear it when working in the office, but I've gotten to the point where I don't figure out what day it is by what's on the telly, and I completely forget that the tv is an option because the only things on (allowed) bore me. I've found so much to do and really do feel better and more productive for it.
Posted by: Ashley | March 03, 2010 at 01:17 PM