Comments (6)

By Mom Unplugged, February 9, 2010 7:21 pm

+++++

Lately I have been extremely impressed with my 7 year-old son’s Lego-building skills. Homework completion however, has reached an all time low.

Lately I have been extremely impressed with my procrastination skills. Mandatory Boring Tasks completion however, has reached an all time low.

+++++

He sat ALL AFTERNOON at his desk with homework in front of him reading books.

I sat ALL AFTERNOON at my computer with bills, bank statements and half finished snail mail letters in front of me fiddling about (not very “unplugged” of me).

+++++

Wouldn’t you think that my son could just come up with a simple poster about a book he loved
(we’re not talking 200-page PHD dissertation here).

Wouldn’t you think that after 20 years of intense homework I’d be able to buckle down and write my long overdue letter, an essay for a contest, or even update my pilot logbook (that used to be my obsession in the old days when I wanted to be an airline pilot).

+++++

I think my son is struggling with his first experience of being overwhelmed and behind.

I think I am struggling with a mid-life Mom Crisis of not being sure of my role in life besides that of laundry and cooking machine.

+++++

Excuses, excuses, excuses.

Comments (1)

By Mom Unplugged, February 7, 2010 5:09 pm

QUESTION: Which one of these photos represents 120 calories?

ANSWER: All.

Do you feel the need to lose a little weight after the excesses of the holidays? Believe it or not, according to a new study, simply watching less TV could cause you to burn an average of 120 more calories per day!

That doesn’t sound huge, but according to the New York Times, that is the number of calories burned on a one mile walk. It is also the number of calories in these servings of foods.

According to Dr. Jennifer Otten, lead author of the study:

“We need a longer-term study to see if this would be an intervention that would help with weight loss, or even weight gain prevention. But if you add it up over time, it’s equivalent to walking eight miles a week. Over a year, it might help prevent weight gain of 12 pounds.“

Why does unplugging have this effect? According to the study by Dr. Otten published in the December 14-28 of the Archives of Internal Medicine, adults who cut their TV viewing in half spent more time in light physical activities, or even couch-potato activities that burn more calories than TV-watching does (simple “unplugged” activities like reading, playing board games or scrapbooking!). Their eating patterns did not change*.

The study was based on 36 overweight and obese adults who watched at least 3 hours of television per day. 20 of those people were asked to cut their viewing in half (enforced through a TV lock-out device). Armband accelerometers measured the movements of all participants.

*NOTE: An interesting inference from the NY Times Article is that children who cut back on TV actually DO EAT LESS TOO! Would kids benefit even more than adults by cutting TV viewing in half??

Interesting links:

What Does 120 Calories Look Like? (Be sure to look at the 38 photos at the bottom of the page too)

What Does 200 Calories Look Like?

Click Off the TV, and Burn More Calories

THE STUDY: Effects of Television Viewing Reduction on Energy Intake and Expenditure in Overweight and Obese Adults - A Randomized Controlled Trial

Comments (5)

By Mom Unplugged, February 5, 2010 11:43 am

!!! Happy Birthday !!!

Three years ago today (February 5th, 2007) Unplug Your Kids was “born.”

Unplug Your Kids was originally supposed to be a shopping blog. My very first blog post ever was about the Skwish toy that all my babies have dearly loved.

Soon I also got into book reviews. Then I started talking about family life without TV. Next came crafts and other TV-free activities. Now I feel myself slipping into a new phase, although I am not exactly sure what that will be yet.

Like life itself, Unplug Your Kids has changed, hopefully for the better. I have changed also, again, hopefully for the better.

• In three years I have written 632 posts and received 4,136 comments.
• I have deleted 31,337 spam comments. (Thank you Akismet, I love you!)
• My teeny little counter at the bottom of my home page currently registers 331,690 visitors.
• My most popular day was Tuesday, October 21, 2008 with 4,166 visitors (crashed the server!).
• The most readers ever on line simultaneously were 248 on October 20, 2008 (nope, my web host was NOT happy with me in October 2008).
• My most popular post: Easy Homemade Musical Instruments with 24,246 views.
• My most commented post (that was not a giveaway or a TV Turnoff Challenge): Blog Fears with 41 lovely, supportive comments!
• For anyone who knows or cares about such things, Unplug Your Kids is a currently a Google page rank 4.

Astonishing!

Thank you SO MUCH to everyone who reads Unplug Your Kids and please join me for some virtual cake and ice cream!

Comments (0)

By Mom Unplugged, February 4, 2010 7:19 pm

Olivia the pig is in a play…does she earn the lead role of Fairy Queen? Umm, no. Much to her dismay, she is cast as Cow Number Two!

I recently agreed to review Simon and Schuster’s new Olivia book, Olivia Acts Out. When my copy arrived in the mail, we were all very excited.

Although my children and I love all the original Olivia books by Ian Falconer (we own them all!), this one is different. It is adapted by Jodie Shepherd and based on a screenplay by Pat Resnick (illustrated by Patrick Spaziante). Screenplay? It’s based on a TV show! Having no TV, I didn’t even realize that Olivia was now a show on Nickelodeon.

Although we were unaware of the television connection, I really did like the book as a book (rather than just a tie-in), and so did my children. It’s cute, it has humor, and Olivia is the same old funny, competitive, full of character piggy. There is no need to make a connection to a TV show to enjoy this book.

The format of the book is different from the original ones. Olivia Acts Out is a large board book. The cover is solid, and the pages are sturdy cardboard. This sturdiness is ideal for younger children.

The other new element that stands out are the illustrations. The book is in full color! The originals were mostly black, white, and red (red is clearly Olivia’s favorite color). Although I loved the simplicity of the original books, these illustrations are also very engaging. Olivia still likes red clothes and accessories, but multicolor makes the characters look more realistic. There is a texture to some of the drawings which should add extra interest for very young children. The cover is flocked for some fuzzy-texture enjoyment too.

Olivia Acts Out seems like a great book for younger Olivia fans. The humor is not quite as subtle as in the originals, and the colorful, textured illustrations add lots of extra interest for little ones. My kids enjoyed it.

Thank you Simon and Schuster!

Comments (2)

By Mom Unplugged, February 2, 2010 11:51 am

$1,350.03

That’s how much a class of thirteen 6 to 9 year-olds raised for

Partners in Health’s Haiti relief fund

with a simple Book & Bake Sale!

If they can do it, you can do it too!

How they did it:

Two weeks ahead of time:

• They hung a sign on the school door asking for donations of books and baked goods for our Haiti fundraiser.
• They placed an empty box in the school entryway for collecting the books.
• They also put a sealed box in the lobby for any impromptu donations.

Day before, set-up:

• The day before the sale they accepted baked goods.
• After school they sorted the books into children and adult piles.
• They organized the children’s books into separate boxes and baskets based on level (picture books, readers, chapter books).
• Everything was set up on tables in our tiny school entryway with a simple pricing system posted.

The Sale:

• The morning of the sale, they set up the baked goods outside the door on a table (it was so cold and snowy that there was no danger of spoilage!).
• The school is on a side street, so they put out a sign on the main road nearby. They also put signs in the grocery store and the library. All signs said clearly that proceeds would be for Haiti.
• The sealed box went to a prominent location on the book table, with a basket nearby with a few small bills and coins for making change.
• They hung a Haitian flag and also posted some information about Partners in Health so any interested people could read more about where their money would be going.

Post-Sale:

• I helped them sort through the leftover books and we separated the ones that were fairly recent and looked pretty new.
• We took these “good” leftovers to our local bookstore so the owner could buy any that would work for her used book section. She ended up buying almost all of them, and even gave us more than her normal cash price since we were doing this for Haiti! (Be sure to let a bookstore know that you are selling for Haiti)
• The kids packed up the other books and we put them in storage for our annual school yard sale.

Counting:

• Practical math lesson: The children counted the cash and were SO excited, especially when they found a $100 bill in the box!
• Their teacher counted the checks for privacy reasons (NOTE: For ease of accounting, we made sure people made their checks out directly to Partners in Health and not to our school).
• I took the cash to the bank and traded it in for a cashiers check made out to Partners in Health.

And voilà! Not a whole lot of effort really, but now we have a nice donation to send off to Partners in Health and the kids feel GREAT!

Why not try it with your school?

For more fundraising ideas, please read Help Your Kids Help Haiti.