Screen Free Week: Planning Your Week

So you've taken the pledge here to go screen free for seven days. You want to do some fun activities, but don't know where to start. Here is a guide that I have made to help you plan out your week. Remember, this is just a guide, you can choose more or less activities from each category to fit your family and schedule.

Pick ONE big project to work on throughout the week

 

1. Clean up and clean out the kids toys

Between Christmas, birthdays and those random presents grandparents buy when they visit, the stash of toys can get out of hand fast. Take a little bit of time each day to go through your children's toys together and decide what to give away or throw away, what to pass on to a sibling/friend, and what to keep. Make a trip to Good Will or Salvation Army or other donation locations

2. Clean Out the Clothes

My daughter is almost two and a half and there are clothes in here closet labeled 6months (no joke!) Take some time to sort through clothes. Make it simple with three piles, give away, put away (save for a sibling or for sentimental reasons), or keep. Try to find a women/children's shelter or other donation location to pass on your children's clothes

3. Do a Kitchen Make-Over

Last year I was digging through my in-law fridge and I found salad dressing FROM THE 90's! That's LAST MILLENNIUM! We all have skeletons in our fridges, freezers or pantry. Take some time and get all the old leftovers, expired food, or food you don't eat out of your kitchen. Pick out some things to donate to your local food pantry and THROW AWAY the expired salad dressing...please! If you have more time, go through your tupperware, utensils and figure out what you don't need and donate it!

4. Plant a Garden

Pick out a nice spot in your backyard, buy some cinder blocks or 4x4's and build a raised garden bed. It doesn't have to be fancy or big, but planting a garden is a great thing to do together as a family and a great way to learn about fruits, veggies and nature. Check out this link about simple raised garden beds! Easy Raised Garden Beds

Pick TWO or THREE activities to do sometime during the week

 

1. Cook and drop off cookies to your local fire or police station to say "Thank You"

Baking cookies is always fun for kids. Help them do the baking and let them decorate a "thank you" card to leave with the cookies.

2. Take a Nature Walk

Find a trail or a greenbelt near your home. Take the kid exploring, asking them to find as many different types of nature they can. You can even make a scavenger hunt list (include things like tree, bird, lady bug, frog, puddle, caterpillar, butterfly)

3. Take a trip to your local library

Check out some of the libraries near you. Most libraries have reading times and toddler times with fun activities, books and songs that are age appropriate. Check out their website for times and location.

4. Buy or borrow an old favorite book and read it to your kids

One of my kids favorite things to do is go to Half Price Books and pick out a book. Pick out an old favorite or be daring and choose a title no one has heard of.

5. Plan a play-date with friends

Find other friends that are participating in Screen Free Week (or ones that aren't) and plan to meet at the park. Make it extra fun with a picnic lunch.

6. Visit a friend or family member at work or home

My husband works kind of far away, but he would love it if we came and visited him during lunch time. He loves showing off his kids to his coworkers. Think of someone who would be excited to see you and the kids.

7. Plant some flowers

Get an old flower pot or go buy one and plant some flowers in it. Petunias are $1.98 for a pack of 6 (small ones) Brighten up your window sill or porch with some color.

Plan a family night

Here are a few ideas to have a family night that doesn't include movies or TV

1. Have a board game night. 

2. Make a meal as a family.

3. Have a cook-out or a picnic.

4. Take a walk or bike ride together.

5. Play a family game of soccer or baseball.

6. Go out to a baseball game as a family. 

 

Take time for yourself

We play the role of mommy, wife, caregiver, cook and so much more, but we often forget that we have an identity outside of these things. Take some time by yourself before the kids get up, or maybe after they go to bed. I found a quick, but good Bible devotional from Bible Gateway and have a link for each day. (I have picked out devotionals that I thought would be good for this week, so the link on the website WILL NOT match my link) I suggest printing each out and putting them by your bed or somewhere you wont forget. Take time and read them, and refocus. We all need this time, and never take enough of it. Now you have no excuse! ;)

May 5, 2014 Neighbor Needs

May 6, 2014 Praying and Waiting

May 7, 2014 Toward Perfection

May 8, 2014 Permission to Rest

May 9, 2014 There's No Place Like Home

May 10, 2014 Perfect Peace

May 11, 2014 What are You Waiting For?

Take time together as a couple

This is another thing that most parents don't do enough of. We forget to spend time with our spouses because we are too worried about the kids, or too tired after a full day with the kids. Its important to take that time and its important for your kids to see you and your spouse take time out together. So plan a date night out (dinner and putt-putt) or wait until the kids go to bed and play cards or a board game. My husband and I love to play scrabble together. We like the challenge and it's something that our kiddos (2 and 3) can't do (and its nice to do something they can't do sometimes!) Mainly just take time for each other and enjoy each other.


I hope this guide is not overwhelming, but helps guide your screen free week to be successful, fun and fulfilling for you and your family! Good luck and let me know how you celebrated your week! Here is a link to an activity log that will help you organize your week or you can let your kids fill in the activities they did!

Activity Log

God Bless,
Katie <><
grace.faith.dirt@gmail.com
Grace.faith.dirt on Facebook

 

 

Screen Free Week: How to Prepare

I know it's hard to admit it as a parent, but sometimes our kids get too much screen time. I know that with the third baby on the way, its really easy to stick the kiddos in front of the TV and have some resting time on the couch.

Well, I have a challenge for myself and other moms out there. May 5-11 is Screen Free Week. This is a national (often international) event put on by the Campaign for a Commercial Free Childhood, where families, schools and other groups pledge to turn off all sorts of media for seven days and find other things to do.

To find out all the information on Screen Free Week you can go to What is Screen Free Week?

Here a small portion of what the website says about this week, " Screen-Free Week is an annual, international celebration when schools, families, and community groups pledge to spend seven days without entertainment screen media. Instead of watching TV, surfing the web, or playing video games, they read, play, think, create, get physically active, and spend more time with friends and family."

So you are on board, but don't know where to start? 
Let's get prepared to keep the TVs, smart phones, tablets and computers off for a week and make it fun for everyone in the process!

Here are some tips on how to get prepared:

1. Decide as a family what "screen free" means

Screen free to one family might mean that they just keep the TV off all week, while other families might eliminate all sources of media. Talk about what is best for your family. Does someone need the computer for school work? Are text messages and email included or excluded. Decide as a family so everyone is on the same page.

2. Talk to your kids about what is going on. 

Prepare them, let them know that this week is going to be different, but fun! Make sure they know its not a punishment. Present it like a challenge or a game if they are discouraged. Ask them how many things they can think of to do other than TV.

3. Prepare Yourself

Try and plan out your week beforehand. Try and think of some things to do. Maybe have a few coloring/activity pages already printed out when your kids start saying "I'm bored". I will be writing a blog post about activity ideas and suggestions and will link it here when I finish it.

4. Be Reasonable

Don't try and do too much. We ALL want to be Supermom, but the idea of this week is to show your family that there are plenty of fun things to do besides sitting and watching TV. Pick a few fun and easy things to do during the week, but be flexible (We KNOW we can do flexible, right moms?!)

5. Have Fun

This week is supposed to be fun for the whole family! Don't stress about creating the perfect week. Take some time for yourself as well. After the kids go to bed, instead of watching TV read a favorite book or have a good conversation with your spouse.

I hope you will take the pledge to be screen free this next week!
Take The Pledge

I know we will be taking lots of pictures of our adventures (to be edited AFTER screen free week is over!) and I hope to see others pictures as well! Good luck and have fun!

God Bles,
Katie <><
gracefaithdirt@gmail.com
grace.faith.dirt on Facebook