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By Mom Unplugged, April 28, 2007 8:41 am

TV Turn-Off Week is almost over, but this weekend might be the hardest part! A week without after school and evening TV, followed by kids home all day today and tomorrow because it is the weekend…but before you just give up and turn it on, here is an idea:

Read them Jimmy Jet And His TV Set, by Shel Silverstein and then say “Go outside and play or you’ll turn into Jimmy Jet!” They’ll find something to do out there: dig in the dirt, collect pretty rocks, make fairy houses.

Let me know what your kids do. Good luck and hang in there!

Jimmy Jet And His TV Set can be found in the wonderful collection of poems and drawings by Shel Silverstein entitled Where the Sidewalk Ends 30th Anniversary Edition: Poems and Drawings

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By Mom Unplugged, April 26, 2007 8:52 am

I hope TV Turn-Off Week is going well for you and your families. Is it quieter around the house? Are the kids playing more, reading more…maybe even listening more?

According to Shari Barkin, a pediatrician at Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital, in Nashville, Tennessee, better listening may be one of the first things parents notice after several TV-free days. She also says that “when children are exposed to fewer stimuli — eliminating the noise and distraction that comes with TV — the easier it is to stay focused on the task at hand.”

For more on TV, kids, and TV Turn-Off Week, including the reaction of a 10 year-old, please read the transcript or listen to the recording of an NPR story that was on Morning Edition this morning: TV-Turnoff Week: Helping Parents Pull the Plug.

Don’t forget to join our TV Turn-Off Week Blog Challenge, it is not too late! Click here for more info.

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By Mom Unplugged, April 1, 2007 10:58 am

Today we have decided to get TV. The satelite kind with 500 channels. APRIL FOOLS!!!

April 1st is here already which means that warmer weather is on the way…gardening will soon begin…and Spring Break is almost over! Yipee! How do you homeschooling Moms do it?

Our week started off fairly stressfully. The kids were getting used to being home all day, and I was dealing with a sick, whiny baby and habituating myself to constant noise, chaos, and “Mom, mom, mom, mom, mom….” I meant to get out my “Mom-Clicker ” (see my post - The M-word) for a Spring Break Mom-Tabulation, but never quite got around to it.

As the days wore on however, we all settled down. The weather was mostly too cold for outside play, and the baby was sick so no friends could come over to play for risk of infection. The kids built kitchen chair playgrounds and sofa forts, set up a “Bead-Shop” and “sold” me beads (see today’s photo). Click here to see what they did yesterday morning.

We tidied the terrible Clutter Pits that they call their rooms. Usually I find that it is best to do this when they are absent so certain items can “disappear” gracefully, if you know what I mean. But this time I couldn’t stand it anymore and waiting until next week was not an option for my mental health. My 6 year-old daughter surprisingly must have been in a tidy-up mood (for the first time ever) and agreed to part with two giant boxes full of stuff to donate!

Tomorrow we will be back to normal. Breakfast, getting dressed, making lunches, driving to school, then…silence, wonderful silence!

This is the way we spend our time without TV. Sometimes, after 99 “moms” or so, I would just like to be able to send them away to watch something and leave me alone, but I am glad that we choose not to do that. Life seems much more “right” this way, with the Bead Shops and sofa torture!

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By Mom Unplugged, March 31, 2007 10:52 am

When I die, I DO NOT want to be reincarnated as our sofa!

Our sofa is a practical sort of sofa. I found it years ago for a great price at a consignment store. It is a good solid sofa, with nice high sides, plump pillows and cute little bolsters. It has some style, in a slightly retro kind of way. It is wonderful for reading with a cup of tea, lounging with the laptop, or even sleeping on all night. Oh, and did I mention the color? It is upholstered in a sensible, kind of baroque-like pattern of goldy-browns and dark browns.

But, look closely at our sofa and you will see chocolate milk stains (well hidden by the pattern and brown color), cat claw snags, sags in the back cushions from too many cats and kids sitting on them, and a small split on one arm that has been sewn back together (easily covered by a throw). TV-free kids can be a little hard on a sofa.

This is what happens on our sofa:

The moral of this story is that if you are not going to sit your kids down neatly in front of TV, you’d better have a sturdy, brown consignment-store sofa!

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By Mom Unplugged, March 7, 2007 11:07 am

Before my first child was born in 2000, my thoughts had already turned to how to raise her. I do believe that much of who we are comes “pre-programmed.” However, as all parents know, it is nonetheless thoroughly daunting to imagine providing a life for another human being. One thing I knew was that I did not want her to become an MTV and video-game obsessed teen, lazy and unable to think and act creatively.

Being an “older Mom” (I hate that term!), I found myself having those fuddy-duddy, “back in my day” type of thoughts. It was in my post-partum turmoil of hormones and angst that I stumbled upon Katrina Kenison’s soothing book Mitten Strings for God: Reflections for Mothers in a Hurry . My unsettled state was fertile ground for the author’s message that simplifying our children’s lives is satisfying and possible. The book left me full of warm fuzzy feelings and encouragement that one can create a simpler family environment.

I was filled anew with determination to raise my daughter more simply: no TV, simpler toys, fewer organized activities. I wanted her to have time to just be a child.

If anyone out there is contemplating these issues for themselves and wants a warm, little boost of encouragement, try this inspirational book. When I feel discouragement setting in, I reach for the “Mitten Strings” and read a chapter or two. That’s usually all it takes to set me right.