No Screen Week

Bill's 5th grade class had to take an end-of-year Healthy Family survey covering a huge range of topics. One of the topics was the amount of T.V. the kids watch each day. The survey found that 84% of the 5th graders at his school were watching a minimum of 120 minutes of T.V. each day. At first glance, that number seems astronomical. We were discussing it in the car and realized that we watch that much T.V. and we also spend a lot of time staring at the screen of a computer.

As he began to research some of the topics (yes, online. Ironic?) he found that schools nationwide challenge their students to a "No-Screen Week". He's adopted this and challenged his students to avoid activities that involve screens. T.V., computer, video games, etc. They have a little sheet that they can fill out each night that says what activity they chose in place of television.

Our family has accepted this challenge as well. I thought the boys were going to fight it, but they are excited about it! They are thinking of activities that we can do together, books they can read, and games they can play. I'll get back on here at the end of the week and let you know how this challenge played out. In the meantime, wish me luck and know that I am a little excited about the peace I hope will come from being unplugged.