Turn-off Week 2014, May 5-11

Screen Free Week 2014

 

CCFC had another excellent screen turn-off week May 5-11, 2014.

http://www.screenfree.org/

The emphasis was on families going screen free for a week (or at least going low-screen for a week).

 

My favorite write-up was by Traci McGrath. She described how her children have already gone low-TV, watching only about 1 hour per day, and how she was dreading losing that hour per day of uninterrupted time to get things done. But as it happened, things turned out much better than she anticipated:

“I try to make it a habit not to ‘entertain’ the kids all the time. I believe in giving them lots of opportunities to solve their own boredom with creativity – but during Screen Free Week, I hardly had the opportunity to push this little soap box of mine at all. They were so tapped into their own creativity, they were no longer coming to me to ask me what they could do, and they completely forgot to ask if they could “watch a show” (a question I’m used to fielding 2 or 3 times a day.) We still made a point to play together, but it was almost always the case that I was simply invited in to join a game they had invented or go on a scavenger hunt they had created.”

http://www.simplicityparenting.com/the-surprise-plot-twist-in-our-screen-free-week-why-eliminating-screens-made-life-easier/

Screen-Free Week Feedback




I should have posted this earlier, but here is some of the excellent feedback that CCFC received after the 2012 Screen-Free Week:

“It was WONDERFUL! We are vowing screen-free afternoons for as long as we can do it . . . fewer meltdowns and a happier family!!”

“It was refreshing. I got more sleep ( . . . and realized I am too much of a slave to staying on top of FB and Twitter) . . . . we dusted off “Clue” and “Trouble” instead of watching a movie during family time . . . the boys chatted with us (and each other) a bit more and spontaneously practiced the piano (perhaps a first . . . ). I think our younger son “detoxed” because he had fewer emotional outbursts. We did notice how “screens” are so woven into our everyday lives, and we needed to use the computer and iPad for work and research—but even this recognition was useful.”

“I’m planning on doing this at least every season! I finished so many neglected projects!”
“What a great screen-free week! I enjoyed distraction-free conversation with my family, more time outdoors, finding fun things to do in my community, and caught up on reading my Alaska Magazine. I will be seriously cutting my screen time from now on. I challenged my kindergarten class to do the same with their families and heard about the great things they are doing instead. Great week!”

“I can honestly say it was one of the most connecting weeks I’ve ever spent with my son (almost 4) since he was born. We did SO much fun stuff together. Overall, I just felt so much more in the moment than I normally find myself. And I know Lucas actually enjoyed it . . . when I told him yesterday we had come to the end of our week, he asked me if we could keep doing it. Going to try to take some of the changes we made and apply them long-term on a daily basis.”

From http://www.facebook.com/screenfreeweek

Screen-Free Week 2012 – Upcoming Events

Children playing, a photo by Pawel Maciejewski on Flickr.

Wow, CCFC has done a masterful job getting the word out on Screen-Free week.

Here is their list of upcoming Screen-Free events:

http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/621/p/salsa/event/common/public/index.sjs?distributed_event_KEY=660

From their email, a sample includes:

– Read Boston has asked 4,000 students in 12 partner schools to take the screen-free pledge! Children who return their tracking logs after break will receive a prize pack with items that promote fun (and learning) without screens.

– Screen-Free Kansas City and the Early Years Institute in Long Island have both partnered with local businesses to offer discounted and free fun activities every day of Screen-Free Week!

– Unplug and Play in Bozeman, Montana has organized daily events including free admission to the Museum of the Rockies, a Bike Rodeo, and Family Science Night at the Children’s Museum.

– Portland (Oregon) Parks and Recreation and Kaiser Permanente are offering activities including a tea party for young children, Family Game Night, and Messy Art!

Plus, here are some of the excellent blog posts on accepting the Screen-Free week challenge:

 

Screen-Free Week – 2012 – April 30 to May 6

Screen-Free Week – April 30 to May 6

The 2012 Screen-Free week is coming up – April 30 to May 6

Campaign For A Commercial-Free Childhood now has free organizing kits available for anyone interested in organizing Screen-Free activities (or who are just curious). Click here to go to their download page and the pdf will be emailed to you.

Later on, the CCFC will have a list of Screen-Free Week activities around the country, and you will be able to see what is going on in your community.

I read through their organizing pdf “Screen-Free Organizers’ Kit” and was very impressed with what they have put together. Which includes:

– Inspiring quotes from previous Screen-Free weeks (including an excellent quote from President Obama).

– Reproducible Fact sheets to give out when organizing (and during) your Screen-Free Week activities. Includes a FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) Fact Sheet.

Living Outside the Box – Book Review

Kids playing, a photo by Philou.cn on Flickr.




Barbara Brock surveyed over 500 Low-TV and No-TV families, and further interviewed a number of these families in person. The result is her interesting and excellent book “Living Outside the Box”. Why have these families given up TV ? What do they do with their time? Are they social outcasts? These are some of the questions Barbara Brock seeks to answer.

What I found most fascinating were the reasons given for living TV-Free. Basically these reasons could be put into four broad categories:

– Resentment and Frustration. Resentment at being raised with too much TV and/or frustration with their own families being too TV oriented.

– Technical Difficulties. TVs breaking down, or moving to an area with poor TV reception. And finding the resulting TV-Free existence to be liberating instead of boring.

– Outside Prompts. Inspirations such as TV-Turnoff Week, Waldorf Schools, and books about the negative effects of TV.

– Raised Without TV. The stereotype is that children raised without TV will become total TV addicts when given the opportunity. As it turns out, growing up without TV was also a major reason for living TV-Free as adults.




And what I liked best about this book was that in addition to facts and figures, Outside the Box is also filled with stories from the interviews and feedback. My favorite story was about Jenny, a mom who would labor over a family dinner and then have to tear her kids and husband away from their separate TVs for a family get-together dinner. Finally, out of frustration, she took the garden shears and literally cut the TV cable. Her youngest son started to cry, her two daughters quickly took off to a friend’s TV-filled house, and her husband just stared in amazement. Now, years later, and still TV free, family dinners have become unhurried and filled with conversation, the kids have found lots to do, and even her husband has discovered that “at least now I know as much about my own kids as I used to know about The Simpsons”.

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/605367.Living_Outside_the_Box




See also:

30 days live pdf

Found at ebookbrowse.com




Screen Free Logo – Vote

Logo Vote and an important announcement

The excellent organization Campaign For A Commercial-Free Childhood is now the home of Turn-off week:

Until recently, Screen-Free Week was housed at the Center for Screen-Time Awareness.  Unfortunately, the economic downturn forced CSTA to shutter its doors.  We are honored that CSTA’s Board unanimously chose CCFC to continue the crucial work of helping families discover alternatives to screen time.

http://www.commercialfreechildhood.org/actions/announcingscreenfreeweek.html

In preparation for the 2011 turn-off week, CCFC has setup a new page:

http://www.screenfreeweek.org and is sponsoring a logo competition. There are 8 logos to choose from, and here are a couple of my favorites:

Screen-Free Week

Whichever logo gets the most votes, wins the competition.

Click here to vote!

Screen-Free Week