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By Mom Unplugged, October 17, 2007 9:17 pm

There is another blogger out there who is trying to turn off the TV for one week, just to see how it goes. Becky of Boys Rule My Life (mom of three boys!) and her family have decided to try going without TV for one week. Becky says:

“Jeff and I have been talking about this for some time and after reading this post on Unplug Your Kids and seeing a tv commercial today showing a child coming home from school and the parents being too “busy” for their kids we’ve decided that it’s time: We are unplugging the tv for a week. ”
-We’re Going Unplugged, October 10th

One thing I think is clever, but perhaps obvious to most besides me, is that Becky actually physically unplugged the TV in order to avoid little fingers turning it on. Of course even the littlest children know how to push buttons and could turn on a TV with no problem. Plus, as Becky says: “…it is truly unplugged, which also means that I have to make a conscious decision to turn it back on.”

Becky is also trying to cut down on the amount of time she spends online. I must admit that the computer is also my weakness. During my TV Turn-Off Week Blog Challenge I cut back too, but it was hard.

Read about Becky’s first unplugged day here. It sounds like it was a pretty good day. Her oldest boy Will (age 5) was thrilled to play more trains, and Nathan (age 2) was a bit perplexed, but all was going fairly smoothly as of the time of her post.

She also posted an update today:

“Mornings have been less hectic. I don’t have to remind Will *quite* so much to get ready, brush teeth, etc. because the tv is not on to distract him. We’ve played trains or read books before school every day this week. The house is quieter. It’s nice.”

They have not been completely TV-free. The family has turned it on for a little while around 3PM, but only for a bit. The reduction in the amount of TV her family has watched seems to have made Becky pretty happy so far. She and her husband Jeff have been able to spend more time as a family, which was their main goal.

Becky’s “unplugged week” continues. Please stop by Boys Rule My Life to follow her family’s progress and wish them well!

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By Mom Unplugged, September 7, 2007 10:33 am

I walked out of my front door yesterday and was delighted to see this graffiti on my driveway:

My kids had been playing Hopscotch! I wonder how many children today even know what Hopscotch is, let alone how to play it. Probably if you are interested enough in my blog to be reading it, then your children know how to play games like Hopscotch, so I am “preaching to the choir” here, but I want to write about it today anyhow!

My parents were English and I remember my Mom teaching me to play hopscotch when I was little. I taught my friends, and we all used to play this fun hopping game. So, it was a real pleasure for me to see my children enjoying it too.

As I researched this post, I discovered that Hopscotch began as a military training exercise in ancient Britain during the time of the early Roman Empire. Soldiers had to hop across a 100′ field while in full armor and carrying all their equipment. This was thought to increase stamina and agility for battle. Roman children copied and modified the game drawing a smaller court and adding a scoring system. Thus, the Hopscotch game was born and was soon played by children all over Europe. Interesting, isn’t it!

Teaching children the “old” games is a great way to get them outside and away from TV and video games. Plus, since it seems we soon may have no more un-recalled toys left in our playrooms, Hopscotch is a perfect game since it requires only some chalk (preferably chalk that was NOT made in China) and a flat stone.

If you need to refresh your memory, check out the BBC Schools website for detailed rules of how to play this old game (apparently popular with children in Victorian England). The site also has a short video of a girl playing hopscotch so you can really see how it is done!

My good friend Wishy, who has lived in India, told me about a variation of hopscotch that all the children played there. I believe that the rules of “Indian Hopscotch” are basically the same, but she said that they draw the boxes really, really big so the hopping part is much more challenging.

A few more Hopscotch links:

Hopscotch 101 (History, rules, variations, etc.)
Hopscotch by Dagonell the Juggler (Brief history and different variations)

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By Mom Unplugged, August 25, 2007 9:01 am

Simple pleasures make children the happiest.

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By Mom Unplugged, July 18, 2007 1:21 pm

WE SURVIVED!!! Southwest Airlines will never be the same again. No, seriously, a four hour flight with an 18 month-old (in my opinion-the absolutely worst age for travel!) is never fun, but it could have been much worse.

Yes, she screeched, shrieked, whined and only slept for half an hour out of the four hour flight…but she didn’t actually cry. I felt like I ought to have offered to buy drinks for my neighbors, or perhaps I should have passed out ear plugs. But actually, I was the one who seemed stressed and bothered the most I think.

Pilot trick: when you have a screechy kind of child that you must take on an airplane, sit as close to the engine as possible since that is the noisiest part of the plane. Screechy child=bad, lots of ambient noise to help drown it out=good.

My two oldest kids were fabulous. I would take them around the world without batting an eyelash. Even while travelling, they remain unplugged. Many people nowadays wonder how it is possible to travel with children without hauling along a stash of electronics to rival NASA. Unplugged children don’t have portable DVD players and Gameboys, but there is plenty out there to keep them occupied, and you don’t even have to worry about fresh batteries! Your fellow travellers may actually want to thank you for unplugging your children on public transportation.

Now is the time of year when many family vacations happen. So, how do you travel and keep your kids entertained, yet unplugged?

My two oldest are now 5 and 6. They each pull their own little rolling suitcase packed with their activities, as well as a favorite stuffed animal or two. Note: I supervise the packing of the suitcase, or better yet, pack it for them when they are not there. This avoids us finding a suitcase full of rocks, scraps of paper, bits of string, and other “toys” that simply could not be left behind. I always try to include a few new “surprises.”

Here are some ideas that have worked for us:

Books:
An obvious choice. Try to pack lightweight, paperback books.

Crafts:
- A French knitter (easy for ages 5-6+ to do on their own - makes yarn “snakes” that can be coiled and sewn into various projects)
- Modeling clay (I squish one stick into a plastic Easter Egg which makes a great travel container)
- Wikki Stix (strings coated with wax, like candle wicks, can be bent into many different shapes)

Art Toys:
- Travel-sized erasable drawing board (Magna Doodle for example)
- Pocket Etch-A-Sketch
- Don’t forget the plain old pad of paper and crayons.

Travel Games:
- Are We There Yet
- Haba Story Telling Tin (children make up stories based on the picture cards they choose-very creative!)
- Also look for travel-sized editions of other favorite board games, there are many out there, you just have to search for them. Beware of games with too many small pieces to lose if you have young (or unreliable) children.

Magnetic Playsets:
- Melissa & Doug Magnetic Farm Hide & Seek
- Smethport Magnetic Playboards (some examples are below, but search for “Smethport” at Amazon toys to see all the possibilities).

Toys:
Choose toys that are small, light, and don’t have a lot of pieces to get lost.
- Lacing block
- Zip-lock bag full of hotwheels cars
- Peace Ring
- Piece of string or yarn (for Cat’s Cradle)

Creative Coloring Books:
I like to find coloring books that are not your typical stay within the lines type of activity.
- The Anti-Coloring Book series is wonderful with suggestions for all kinds of imaginative possibilities.
- The Taro Gomi books are also very original but have a lot of pages so may be too big to pack easily.
- Here are also a few other suggestions for coloring books featuring abstract patterns that can be colored in many, many different ways.

Wipe Clean Board Books:
Tip: Stash away an airline cocktail napkin or two for wiping these off.

Find-It Books:
- Our favorite is the Look-Alikes series of books by Joan Steiner. These feature amazing, realistic photos in which the objects are almost always something else (sidewalks made of crackers or wheels made of buttons, etc.). Kids (and grown-ups too) enjoy looking through these books over and over as there is always something new to notice. It is also a fun activity to say to kids “I see a penny” and have them find it. You will tire of that game before they do!
- Of course there are also the well-known Where’s Waldo and I Spy books, but here are also some additional ones we like that are not so common:

Scholarly Pursuits:
Not fun for all kids, but my oldest loves this stuff!
- Workbooks
- Flash cards
- Brain Quest

Learn Some Games Yourself!:
If you are really desperate, buy a book such as Car Games: 100 Games to Avoid “Are We There Yet?”. This book offers suggestions for over 100 fun games to play in the car, airplane, or even while camping or waiting in line for example (not all games rely on spotting license plates or signs). A fun book. Parents could learn a few of these games in order to provide timely distractions at critical moments!

As for travelling by air with 18 month-olds: my best piece of advice is grit your teeth and remember that you will never see any of those people again!

I wish you all happy unplugged travels!

PS. What works for you when your kids travel? Please let me know in your comments. I am always on the lookout for new ideas!

Comments (3)

By Mom Unplugged, July 3, 2007 8:33 am

One of the many great things about TV-free kids is that they really like to be outdoors. In the nice weather, my two oldest children are outdoors almost all the time. Without TV and video games, there is nothing much for them to sit around doing indoors. Besides - the lure of trees, rocks, bugs, bikes, scooters, swing sets, and “clubhouses” is too great.

In fact, last week I was very pleased that my children chose to go “sploring” outside (as my 5 year-old son calls it) despite being offered the opportunity to watch “Sprout” on TV at my sister’s house when we were there to have dinner. They climbed trees, found bugs, and moved sticks and rocks from “point A” to “point B.”

Several weeks ago, whymommy linked to a Washington Post article entitled Getting Lost in the Great Indoors. The basic point of the article is that today’s kids don’t like to go outdoors, unless the purpose is an organized activity such as soccer or Little League. They would rather be indoors with TV’s, computers, and video games.

A 2005 Kaiser Family Foundation study found that children ages 8 to 18 spend 6.5 hours a day on television, electronic games, computers, music and other media, with many multitasking electronically.

Here is a telling quote from the Washington Post article:

“In Great Falls, the Hefner family has a back yard of more than an acre, a green swath of kid heaven at the edge of Great Falls National Park. Three years ago, George Hefner, a general contractor who knows how to work a saw, built a two-story “treehouse” that stands on the ground between two leafy maples.

He imagined his children fixing it up, sleeping there.

But 10-year-old Paul cannot remember the last time he played in the little house. ‘Animals live out there, you know,’ he told his mother one day. His older sister Sarah, 16, admits that she has never set foot in it. ‘What would I do in a treehouse?’ she asked.”

According to the article, getting kids outdoors is a new venue for activists. There have been Capitol Hill hearings, state legislative action, grass-roots projects, and even a U.S. Forest Service initiative.

This recent public concern appears to be partly inspired by a book entitled Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder by Richard Louv. This post may be a tad premature since I have not yet read Mr. Louv’s book. It remains on my “To Read” list. However Mother Rising wrote an interesting post about it, that makes me want to read it all the more! (Has anyone else out there read it yet?)

The book seems to be creating public awareness of a trend that many parents have been noticing for quite a while. In addition to the obvious culprits, TV and other electronics, the article also suggests that parental fears of leaving children unattended, more working mothers, and more organized sports may also be to blame.

It does seem that today’s kids are so overscheduled that there may be little time left for unstructured outdoor play. Overscheduling is something I would like to avoid if possible, but the lure of fun, educational activities is always there to tempt parents (a struggle I wrote about here: The 6 Year-Old and her Executive Secretary).

It is so sad to me that we need grass roots initiatives and Congressional hearings (not to mention the $20 million that 40 “civic leaders” are trying to raise to fund 20 country-wide initiatives) all simply to encourage kids to go outdoors.

I am fortunate to live in a small town. If I lived in a big city apartment it would obviously be much harder to get my kids outside. I wouldn’t be able to simply release them into the backyard. We would have to depend on family trips to the park, the country, etc. I do realize how lucky I am.

However, there are plenty of families who do have the ideal safe, kid-friendly yard (such as the family quoted above) and who nonetheless have problems getting the kids outside. My advice is to try turning off the TV and putting away the video games. You don’t need a $20 million initiative to get your kids outdoors! Just allow them to “be bored” and see what happens.

Thanks to morguefile.com and photographer ximenez.