So this week is National turn off the TV week. Jake's school sent out a memo regarding this week and encouraged all families to participate. Having enough advance notice, I decided we would do this.
Jake watches TV and plays on the computer, a little more than I would like. I have seen a study showing that the amount of time spent in front of a screen does little to make an overall difference in the kid's life -- it is the activities during the non-screen time that makes all the difference. Nevertheless, I would like to see Jake becoming more creative in how he decides to spend his non-screen time, with less whining "can I waaaaaatch?"
So Sunday night I told Jake what was up. After some initial confusion and lots of "why?" he was onboard. Monday was very impressive, he did not ask to watch or use the computer at all. Instead, he had school, then we went to swimming, then to the library where we picked up 8 books instead of our usual 4. (Interestingly, after I got home I realized that 4 of the books were about dragons, 2 were about superheros, and 2 were about firefighters. Not planned that way!) When we got home we read the library books and Jake just puttered around, playing with things.
Tuesday morning I came down to find Jake playing a game on Mike's iPhone. Mike thought it was just "watching movies" and not screen time in general. FAIL. That will not happen the rest of this week.
Tuesday after school Jake and I went grocery shopping and had a snack in the seating area while we were there. When we returned home, I got "can I watch?" and had to remind him about the no-TV week. His response? "Just 5 minutes?" Ha ha. After more reading of library books, we headed over to Gramma's house, where Gramma, Aunt Amy, and I were able to keep him busy and happy playing. Then home, a bath with Daddy, and dinner. So far, so good!
Will let you know how the rest of this week goes...
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