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By Mom Unplugged, August 4, 2010 7:27 am

The August 2010 issue of Family Fun magazine has a great article entitled “The Great Unplugged Challenge” (“Better Than TV” on the cover) about a family who unplugs the TV and computer for 5 days. It would be an interesting and fun read for anyone considering unplugging their family.

Plus, I must admit proudly, that I was interviewed for the article and am mentioned (along with Unplug Your Kids) several times! VERY exciting!!

It’s on news stands now. Enjoy!

(PS.  A big thank you to Jennifer King Lindley for writing this article and for including me and Unplug Your Kids!)

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By Mom Unplugged, April 20, 2010 4:31 pm

It’s Screen Free Week again (April 19th – 21st) and I almost missed it!

I have been really busy with life and school events and have sorely neglected the blog.  But since I “BWO,” I won’t apologize.

It is too late to set up my usual Screen Free Week Blog Challenge, however I do encourage everyone to give Screen Free Week a try by reducing or eliminating as many screens as possible in your family’s life for one week.  Anything is possible for just one week, right?

If this sounds like an interesting project to you, here are a few links that might help you fill those screen-free days and nights:

WHAT TO DO:

TV-Free Brainstorm

Practical TV-Free Ideas

The “Mommy I’m Bored” Box

Books for an “Unplugged Week”

Try out some of our Unplugged Project ideas

SCREEN-FREE WEEK EXPERIENCES:

Impressions of a Week Without TV

My Mindful Week

Unplugging Yourself

How it Went For Me

You may love it or you may hate it, but you’ll never know unless you try!

PS.  Be sure to check out the many other TV and screen-free websites out there for more ideas, information and inspiration.  Also:  Screenfreeweek.org and Screensmartkids.org.

Comments (4)

By Mom Unplugged, September 23, 2009 9:45 am

Are you trying Turnoff Week this week? Don’t know what to do? It’s Wednesday, are you running out of ideas? Here’s a brainstorming-type list. See if you can find some inspiration here:

- Cook together – Bake fun goodies or make dinner.  Try something exotic – kids are far more likely to eat “weird” food if they make it themselves. Have a Kids Cook Night!

- Be tourists – visit a local attraction that you have never visited before.

- Try a craft or an art project. For ideas, you can always search the old Unplugged Projects (the category is: “Unplugged Project” of course!).  Be sure to check out readers’ links for ideas too.

- Flip a rock to see what’s under it.  Photograph, draw, or write about your results.

- Go outside and play.  If you live in a city and have no yard, then go to the park.

- Read a book out loud.  By the way, you don’t have to read only simple picture books to toddlers.  They love those, but a nice, appropriate chapter book read in bits can hold their attention (and yours) too.

- Put on some music and dance.

- Dejunk your house, or a room of your house.  Eliminating and organizing stuff might not always be fun, but it leaves you with a lightness of spirit when you are done.  Here’s a post with some ideas for what to do with your cast-offs:  Sort, Junk, Donate.

- Volunteer with your child for a local charity.  If you are unfamiliar with the organization it is best to call first to find out what they need and whether a child the age of yours would be welcome.

- Play some board games together, or have a formal family game night. My advice for preserving your sanity: try to pick a game that your children like, but that is not deadly boring for the adult participants. (ie. stay away from Candyland – that one sends me into an immediate coma.)

- Write a story together and illustrate it.

- Play with your pets, wash the dog, teach him dog tricks, put the cat away and get the bird out …

- Learn a new skill together: knitting, crocheting, French knitting (aka. corking, mushroom knitting, knitting knobby, knitting nancy, spool knitting), finger knitting, weaving, embroidery, needlepoint, wool felting. If you don’t have a French knitter, make one out of a tin can.  If you don’t have a weaving loom, make one out of a picture frame!

- Take a walk around your neighborhood, or be adventurous and go on a real “nature hike!” Check out these sites for more outdoors/nature-related ideas: Backyard Nature, Green Hour

- Organize a family (or neighborhood) soccer game.  Or basketball, or baseball, or tag, or “Mother May I…”

- When all else fails…bring out the Mommy I’m Bored Box.

Comments (1)

By Mom Unplugged, May 6, 2009 9:03 am

Thanks very much to Jeanna for joining us for Turnoff Week from all the way down there in New Zealand! I love the internet. How great to be able to connect with people from all over the world so easily!

Anyhow, that’s enough of my not so profound, but very sincere thoughts.

Here is what Jeanna had to say about her Turnoff Week:

Turnoff week – how it went!

Well we don’t have TV anyway so that part was easy! My kids often watch a DVD at my parents place but we were away for the week so there was no problem with that either. I had to prepare some classes on the computer during the week so I knew I wouldn’t be able to be off it totally so my goal was
“To go on to the computer only when necessary, and to avoid Facebook completely”
I think I did really well. I didn’t go onto facebook during the week at all. I only went online to collect and send emails and I did as much preparation as I could without the use of the computer. I also didn’t turn the computer on at all during the day.
It was probably easier because it was holiday time and because we were doing things during the day. I didn’t miss facebook at all – shows how much time I waste on it now! And I got a lot more done.

I am looking forward to next year’s turn off week – would be nice to get something happening over here in NZ.

Thanks so much for telling your story Jeanna!  The computer is my downfall too.  I am glad you were so successful!  I agree that Facebook can really take up a lot of time.  Sometimes we don’t realize that until we cut it out for a week like you did.

If any other non-bloggers out there have a story to tell, send it to me right away.  I’ll try to get your words on the blog before this evening when I’ll pick a random participant to win a $10 Amazon Gift Certificate.

Come back later tonight to find out who won!

Comments (3)

By Mom Unplugged, May 2, 2009 9:06 pm

Thanks so much Kate for sending me the story of your Turnoff Week!  Here are Kate’s words about how her week went:

As a non-blogger, I usually enjoy your blog as a “silent” listener. But I did want to share our experiences of Turnoff Week.

I wasn’t expecting Turnoff Week to be much of a challenge — after all, the kids only get to watch DVDs once a week, on Movie Night, and perhaps a ten minute internet session once or twice a week in addition if I have to make an urgent phone call. As a result they almost never ask for screen time and so there’s no drama about not having it.

But Turnoff Week coincided with a nasty infection picked up from preschool which saw Mom, Dad, Nana visiting from England, kid 1 and kid 2 all visiting the doctor, and six courses of antibiotics between the five of us. So with Mom and Nana feverish in bed, kids feverish but not sick enough to want to lie down, what’s to do… but turn on the TV!

So our kids spend Turnoff Week watching at least an hour or two of DVDs every day, including one memorable day with everyone snuggled up in bed together for three hours watching ‘They Might be Giants’ ‘Here Come the ABCs’ on the laptop.

So I think we get an ‘F’. But it reminded me what I like and hate about TV. Positives: useful when sick or anxious kids need a totally passive activity, or sick parents need to keep them entertained without effort; and there’s some good stuff to take from it – 4 yr old has picked up on many of the TMBG’s tunes and is improvising on them, jazz-style; 2 yr old has suddenly started to identify letters on signs around the neighborhood. Negatives: well, we all know the negatives.

Everyone was better by Sunday so now dealing with the inevitable increased requests for screen time, some of which we give in to, most of which we distract from. A couple more days and we’ll be back to normal.

Better luck next year! Thanks for such an inspiring blog – though we are silent watchers, we enjoy it very much and often make use of your ideas.

Kate

Thank you so much for giving it a go and I am glad to hear that everyone is feeling better now.  TV is truly a useful tool with sick children (especially when Mom is sick too).  I really like your positive points.  I always hope to emphasize here that TV has its benefits when used in moderation, and you mention some very important ones!

I am glad you joined in and decided to send me your report.  We all appreciate it!

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Did you give Turnoff Week a try and have no blog with which to share your experiences?  If you want, feel free to send me an email about how it went for you and your family.  I’ll publish your words here and enter you in my drawing for a $10 Amazon Gift Certificate.  Read more about it here.