With all the modern gadgets in our daily lives (and in our kids’ lives too) everyday, do you ever wonder how your life will be if all electronic screens are turned off for ONE WHOLE WEEK?  Well, stop wondering and make this a reality.  This coming week, ditch the screens in our lives and look at each other in person.   No TV, iPads, Kindles, or SmartPhones, computers, please! 

 


National Screen-Free Week is an annual event in which parents, children, teachers, and others across the country turn off screen media and celebrate the magic of being unplugged.




In case your kids (or yourself) start to suffer from boredom because of all the new found free times, here are a list of good, old-fashioned fun activities your whole family can enjoy together!

• Learn to play a new musical instrument

• Attend community concerts

• Organize a community clean-up

• Put together a puzzle

• Visit the library. Borrow a book. Attend library activities

• Go ice skating or roller skating

• Listen to the radio

• Visit the zoo

• Paint a picture, a mural or a room

• Attend a high school sporting event

• Find out about your area's community center or park's activities

• Go swimming. Join a community swim team

• Read a book aloud to your younger sister/brother

• Plan a picnic or barbecue

• Go bird watching

• Volunteer for a community organization or charity

• Play with your pet

• Go dancing

• Write a letter to a friend or relative

• Learn to cook

• Plant a flower, vegetable or herb garden

• Read magazines or newspapers

• Plan a slumber party

• Start a neighborhood basketball, soccer, or kickball game

• Go camping (even if it's just in the backyard!)

• Join a choir

• Go through your closets and clothes. Donate surplus items to Goodwill, the Salvation Army or a local rummage sale

• Start a diary/journal

• Go to a museum

• Take a nature hike. Collect seeds and leaves. Make a collage with the materials you collected and post it on the refrigerator

• Play cards

• Start a community exercise group that power walks, runs, or bikes

• Get out the family photo album. Research your family history

• Go listen to a local band

• Make crafts to give as gifts

• Make up a story and write it down

• Learn to say simple phrases in a few different languages

• Ask an older family member to tell you a story about his or her childhood. Write about it

• Learn some new riddles or jokes

• Bake two batches of cookies; one for your family and one for a neighbor

• Watch the night sky through binoculars; identify the different constellations. Observe the moon

• Visit a local bookstore

• Go to a movie with your family or friends

• Walk to work or school

• Start a kids bowling league

• Train for a 5K race

• Go fishing

• Begin a family project

• AND FINALLY, OUR FAVORITE, HAVE A PARTY TO CELEBRATE SCREEN-FREE WEEK!!