Screen Free Week 2013

Well, we survived another annual Screen Free/Turnoff Week.  Jeremy and I actually did spend a bit of time on the computer for work and church callings.  I didn't have enough time to prepare before the week because of "The Digger."  But there were no movies watched, no Wii or other video games played, no shows watched on hulu.  O.K.  Well, the kids did have special permission to have screen time while visiting friends, but no video games at home.  We were able to do other things for recreation.

Some highlights:
Dress up with friends

Working on skills such as balancing and counting

Trying new foods (homemade sweet potato fries, yummmm)

Fun with household objects

Playing non "plugged in" games, including creating new ones and the items to play those games

Cleaning

When I asked Jr. Jr. to clean up the cheerios he spilled on the floor, he decided to do it... with his mouth.  I guess he didn't want them to go to waste.

 
Park playing and animal watching/identifying

This is a Caspian Tern.

Science experiments

Our homemade whirlpool

Well needed rest and lots and lots of reading

I always love Screen Free Week.  Once a year when the distractions from movies, video games, and computer are lessened.  Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go start the next book in the series I started during Screen Free Week.

Lookee What I Made

I'm tired.  I have good reason.  Jeremy spent three days building huge sculptures at Thanksgiving Point.  Since he had another show on Saturday that he didn't have time to build a big sculpture for, guess who got the job.  That's right.  Little ol' me.  Jeremy has a lot more experience with these big sculptures which means I'm a lot slower.  So I gave myself plenty of time and I was still burned out at the end.  The more I do it, though, the better I'll get and the less burned out I'll get.

My wonderful husband helped me by building the hands, the stick part of the shovel that the hand is holding (because it went with the hand) and the hat (and belt).  I probably could have done it myself, but I was burned out and those parts didn't take him very long and he was home at the time.

Jeremy, of course, has reason to be very very tired.  At church today, two different people brought the newspaper article that was in Saturday's Daily Herald about him and his project at Thanksgiving Point.

And now it's all done.  I can be tired.  Too tired to blog.  Just in time to start Turnoff Week (a.k.a. Screen Free Week) tomorrow.  So don't expect any blog posts from me this coming week, April 29-May 5.  I'm going to rest and start to get my home back in order from the neglect of this past week.

Turn Off Week

We recently took a challenge from the April 2011 issue of FamilyFun Magazine. Turnoff Week. No TV, computer, etc. etc. for a week. I prepared by cueing up a week’s worth of blog posts and set them to post one every day while I was off. Jeremy still needed to use the computer for work, but no facebook games or hulu.com in the background. We had a couple instances where we did use the computer as a family during the week, though. One was to watch a video that went along with our scripture study (it was special for Easter). The second was to watch the premiere of Part One of the documentary, Working with Bubbles (work related).

But there was no sitting in front of a screen, wasting time.
The first day was kind of rough. The kids and I were having trouble getting along. It felt like there was no point in doing the turnoff thing, it wasn’t helping us at all and I couldn’t even get a break from the kids’ attitudes to get on the computer or watch a show.
Then the next day came. The kids knew we were planning on doing a Passover dinner so they were looking forward to that. They even helped make the unleavened bread.

Everybody started being nicer while we did this special activity together.
Without the distractions of TV and computer, we were able to focus on more important things. I was able to focus on more important things. I took Jr. (and sometimes Jr. Jr. as well) out every day, either to go shopping or to play at the mall while Jeremy was working at home.

We played more non-electronic games.

Jeremy even taught the kids how to set up a chess board (Jr. had his own way of doing it).

We played dress up.

Nichole's ballet bear got to try on a new outfit (which she's had since Christmas. Thanks Mom and Dad T.) and join Nichole for a tea party.

We used our creativity. Nichole ate like a mouse and Jr. sculpted an "E" out of his toast, one that sat upright on his plate.

We played "Cinderella.”

We tried some new foods.

Jr. Jr. even tried peas for the first time.

We decorated Easter Eggs… with crayons.

Jr. even decorated himself.

Nichole had her Easter party at school.

Unfortunately, we did have some sad times. We didn’t always get along, though I was definitely more patient that week than I had been for some time before. Some of us took turns not feeling so well.

Jeremy and I talked about how the end of the week was very different from the beginning. It was so hard in the beginning, it almost didn’t seem worth it. But things did improve. It reminded us of a talk given by President Uchtdorf in the April 2009 General Conference.
He had a friend who was struggling with his testimony. President Uchtdorf suggested some things for his friend to do. His friend practically gave up after only one week. It wasn’t working for him. I knew I couldn’t give up on this Turnoff Week if it wasn’t working after only one day.

Overall, I’d say the Turnoff Week was beneficial for all of us. Too bad the first thing we did Monday morning was get on the computer to make comments on the family blog.

We’re going to have to work on figuring out a balance.
So if I don’t blog as much for a while, know I’m trying to figure out that balance.

It was a good family week.