Comments (3)

By Mom Unplugged, May 22, 2008 7:37 am

Recently Jens Hewerer of Giddio.com kindly sent me some review copies of his radio-type plays for children. “The Adventures of Billy Brown” are not traditional audio-books where an actor simply reads a story, but fully produced radio plays with music, sound effects, and different actors playing each part.

Apparently German children have been enjoying this form of entertainment since the 1970′s. Fond childhood memories of German audio adventures and a lack of anything really similar in the US, prompted Jens Hewerer to found Giddio and create his own “Hoerspiele” (literal translation: “hear plays”).

The stories bring to life the adventures of a big bear named Billy Brown and his best friend Emma. They are non-violent, not frightening, and short enough for young attention spans (30-45 minutes). Each adventure involves a problem that needs to be solved, and also has a few educational tidbits of information woven into the story.

One thing that makes these an interesting alternative to TV or videos is that they sound a lot like videos. With my eyes closed, I would not know the difference. However, lacking the visual component allows children to use their imaginations to visualize the action. For that reason, I think these might especially appeal to children who are used to TV and video.

One thought I had while listening to these, was that for parents trying to wean their children off TV or videos, these CDs might be a useful tool. The sounds will be familiar, but your kids will be using their imaginations instead of their eyes to take in the action.

When we tried the first one out, my 5 and 7 year-old both seemed to enjoy it. My impression was confirmed when, the next day, they remembered it and asked to hear another one. They lined chairs up in the playroom and sat and listened as if they were at a play!

There was a disagreement over listening to CD number three. I wanted to save it for an upcoming long car trip, but my 5 year-old didn’t want to wait until then. My 7 year-old thought we should wait so that she could “be surprised” on the trip. My 5 year-old “won” and they ended up listening to it at home, but they have since heard it (and the others also) again a few times, both at home and in the car.

Honestly, I am astonished at how much my children love these CDs. My 5 year-old is especially intrigued (the series is recommended for ages 3 to 7). I expected that they might enjoy hearing them once, but I really didn’t anticipate the eager requests for Billy Brown on a daily basis!

The formula must be just right for them. They laugh at the child-oriented humor, seem interested in the informational bits, and want to hear the stories over and over.

The other day we listened to Billy Brown and the Frog Tunnel in the car. Later that afternoon I heard my 2 year-old chanting “Save the frogs, save the frogs,” a line from the play, while she played with her toys. Obviously she had been listening with interest too.

You and your children can try out Billy Brown by listening to a free download of Billy Brown and the Mystery Package from the Giddio website. While they listen, your kids can color some free Billy Brown coloring pages. If they like the audio play, you can order the CD version of it, plus the other two adventures, at the Giddio site too.

Personally, I am hoping that Giddio can continue the Billy Brown series. My children have already been asking for more, and obviously wish that there were more than three adventures!

Comments (1)

By Mom Unplugged, May 13, 2008 2:26 pm

In all the business of life, I have not yet gotten around to sharing the TV-Turnoff Week story of Mom of 2, a reader who participated in the TV-Turnoff Week Blog Challenge by email. Here is her wrap up (which she sent promptly on April 28th, sorry I am so late!):

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“We did really well through the week (though things kind of collapsed on Sunday), and it was surprisingly easy! My 4 year old got really excited by the idea that, as I told him, “lots of people are not watching TV this week.” and didn’t ask a single time to watch TV!

I put up a NO TV sign on the TV cabinet to remind us not to watch, which he loved because it started with N, just like his name. The only protest was a short tantrum one morning by my 2 year old when his brother started talking about the No TV sign and he perked up at the mention of TV and was mad that I wouldn’t turn it on.

Saturday morning the kids wanted to play a computer game, but when I said that part of the no TV week was also no computer, they moved on to other things. They spent the afternoon and evening at a birthday party, where I suspect at least one video was watched, though they only talked about the bounce house and all the presents the birthday boy received. That night, I came in from dinner with a friend to find my husband watching TV and pointed out it was still no TV week. He argued that it only applied to Monday - Friday.

Sunday morning I slept in and got up to find the kids parked in front of the TV. Hey, what happened to no TV week? I asked. It’s the weekend, it’s over my 4 year old said. Hmmm….where had I heard that before?

So after a week without TV, we’ve decided that we’ll keep it off in the mornings before daycare. It just makes it easier to get out of the house. We’ll also experiment with turning it off earlier in the evenings, as having more attention from mom & dad leading up to bedtime did seem to help the kids settle down to sleep more quickly.

I also realized what a constant presence it’s become on the weekends. I’ll have to plan more activities so we don’t turn it on just because there isn’t anything else planned.

Mom of 2″

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Mom of 2′s experience is quite similar to many of the other final posts that I read. I will definitely put up a summary post of my impressions of the participants’ experiences soon.

Thank you again to Mom of 2 for deciding to join us via email!

Comments (26)

By Mom Unplugged, April 28, 2008 3:20 am

I sit here at 2:53 AM on April 28th. Turnoff Week ended here in Arizona exactly 2 hours and 53 minutes ago. Insomnia combined with an urgent need for a cup of tea means that I am getting the new Mr. Linky up in a very timely manner!

If you joined in with the 2nd Annual TV-Turnoff Week Blog Challenge, this is where you get to link to your final post. On Tuesday, May 6th I will announce two completely random winners from everyone who finished the challenge and linked to their final post here. Someone will win a complete set of The Adventures of Billy Brown audio plays, and another randomly lucky participant will receive a $10 Amazon gift certificate.

So…how did it go? Come on, ‘fess up! Tell us all about it. If it didn’t go as well as you had hoped, PLEASE don’t beat yourself up over it, but learn from your experience. What would you do differently next time? What worked? What didn’t? If it went better than expected, then we want to hear all about that too. What worked? What didn’t?

So…are you going to rush off and subscribe to 700 additional channels… or are you going to toss your TV and computer permanently out the window…or something in between?

(Please leave a comment too so we can all still find you if Mr. Linky goes AWOL.)

Comments (4)

By Mom Unplugged, April 19, 2008 9:19 am

Wow! Thursday was my biggest day ever thanks to all the people searching for information about TV-Turnoff Week. I actually had to upgrade my account in order to avoid exceeding my bandwidth! I only went from “Baby” to “Hatchling” … so I am really not THAT big time, but it was certainly a huge surprise for me.

Today I had planned a post with some alternative ideas to TV, so with this kind of an audience, I guess I had better come up with a few!

Since we are TV-free all the time, I can tell you what my kids like to do:

• Read
• Do art projects
• Play outside
• Play imaginary games with each other, or by themselves
• Build with Legos, Knex, or blocks (especially my son) and then create imaginary games
• Dress-up (also leads to imaginary games)
• Play board games either with each other or with me
• Do puzzles
• Write stories (my 2nd grade daughter)
• Play with the cats and dogs

Here are some suggestions and elaborations that might inspire you and your children. If anyone has any other ideas, then please comment!

• We are fortunate to have a great backyard and a swingset…plus a big forested area next door. If you are less well-endowed in the yard department or live in an apartment, then there is always a visit to the park, or playing at a friend’s house, or having a friend over.

• Be tourists for a day. How about a trip to local attractions such as zoos, aquariums, parks, or playgrounds that you might not have been to yet. Think about tourist attractions that you and your children might enjoy. I don’t know about you, but when I live someplace, I tend not to visit all the attractions for which that location is famous!

• Art Projects: you can always search the old Unplugged Projects (the category is: “Unplugged Project” of course!)

• Bring out some board games and have a 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)

• Turn on some music and dance (again: pick something you like too or you’ll go crazy!)

• Try a Kids Cook Night. Pick a recipe that your kids might not ordinarily like. I find that if my kids do the the cooking themselves (with supervision of course), they are more likely to enjoy the meal.

• Listen to a radio play for kids. Jens Hewer, creator of the Adventures of Billy Brown, recently contacted me about his wonderful series of radio plays. These are more than just books on tape. They are fully produced children’s radio plays, a format that has apparently been popular in Germany since the 1970′s. My review is coming soon, but in the meantime, you can download one of Billy’s adventures for free at his website, Giddio. There are also free Billy Brown pages to color. Perfect for Turnoff week and great imaginary fun for kids!

• Volunteer with your kids (especially if they are older). Habitat for Humanity, your local animal shelter, nursing home, or soup kitchen would probably love to have you help out for a day…plus you’d give your children a bit of perspective and teach them the good feeling that comes from helping others.

• Wash the dog, or teach him tricks.

• 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

• Teach your kids to knit, crochet, embroider, or french knit…or learn one of these skills together.

• Visit these sites for more TV-free ideas: Bubblegum Books, Center for Screen-Time Awareness, Instead of TV

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

Comments (12)

By Mom Unplugged, April 15, 2008 1:07 pm

So your usually wired children are bugging you during TV-Turnoff Week: “Mommy, I’m bored!” The dreaded words. If the obvious response of “go outside and play” doesn’t work, or you live in a big city apartment and “go to your room and play” doesn’t work, why not break out the magic “Mommy I’m Bored” Box?

Find a shoe box, paper bag, jar or coffee can and fill it with slips of paper listing ideas of things to do. Here’s how it works: Your child pulls out a slip of paper and does that activity quietly and happily for the rest of the day. (Is Mom Unplugged hallucinating?)

Well, if your child is just not that cooperative, why not let the little darling choose three slips of paper…the alternative to selecting one of the three proposed activities being “clean your room.” When issued this ultimatum, I bet he or she will suddenly find one of the three choices to be quite fascinating. If not, then at least they’ll have a clean room, right?

Of course the ideas that you put in there should be appropriate to the age, abilities, and interests of your child, but here are some that come to my mind -

Of course there is the Obvious:

-Read a book

-Ride your bike

-Play outside on the swing set

-Write a letter to grandma

The purely Academic:

-Read a book

-Do your homework

- Draw a diagram of the solar system

The purely Creative:

- Create a collage of magazine pictures depicting your favorite color

- Draw a picture of a new food that you have just invented

- Write a song or poem about broccoli

More interesting variations on the Obvious or the Academic:

- How many swings on the swing set can you do between the passing of one car and the next?

- Set the kitchen timer for 5 minutes: how many pages of your book can you read?

- Roll a dice 10 times. Keep track of how many times you come up with each number. Now roll it 20 times, how many times did you get each number? Is it what you expected? Graph this result.

The Old-Fashioned:

Hint - What did you like to play or do as a child? (not that I am saying that you are “old fashioned!!)

- Jumprope

- Hopscotch

- String-figures (Cat’s Cradle, for example)

But how about adding odd things:

- Write a list of every object in the living room that begins with “T”

- Make a sculpture of the dog out of Playdough

- Go outside and bring back five objects that are red

- Put your hand down on a random spot on the lawn. Study it very closely (with magnifying glass if possible). Draw what you find underneath your hand. (Grass? Rocks? Sticks? Bugs? Anthills?)

You get the idea. The “Mommy I’m Bored” Box could almost become a scavenger hunt type activity if you want it to. Or at least an exciting source of random fun activities. The possibilities are limitless, plus it could even be entertaining for you to create it!

If you try this during TV-Turnoff Week (or any other time), please report your findings: How old are your children and what ideas did you put in the box? What did your kids like and dislike about the concept? What ideas went over really well? Which were a flop?