Screen-Free Week 2012

We are beginning our post-screen-free week, as my seven-year-old is happy to remind me. What does this mean? It's a little different from last year. In years before that, the kids were too young for it to make a big difference, they were not allowed on the computer anyway. Last year, the relief for the older children, then 12 and 14, felt like the walls of the house had been sucked in and were being let out. This year, we created such a peaceful and lively enjoyment of the whole experience that it was not quite the same source of stress. The expectation was that the tv would not be turned on, so it wasn't.
Since the older two are in France, the computer was not an issue. In fact, the only time the family computer has been turned on this past month was if I needed to print out a coupon before a trip to the fabric store.

There were a couple of times last week when I wished I could tell them to go watch a DVD for a minute; while I helped a friend having nursing trouble with her newborn baby, while I had a conversation in French with another friend (an American), and when I was asked to do a conference call for work. Those moments passed without too much trouble, which only reinforced my commitment to less screen-time in our house, not a "woo-hoo! It's over!" feeling or a rush to catch up on some movie-watching for me.

We did so many more interesting things. On a personal level, I read more; first lazily immersing myself in a knitting magazine, reading "Henry and June," and then moving on to some other works I've been wanting to read but have not, for lack of time; Steiner works and books a good friend loaned me ages ago.  I finished one knitting project and began another, while listening to great podcasts on parenting and Waldorf homeschooling.  The holdover for this week is that, when given an hour to myself last night, I did not sit down and knit with a movie. Of course, I sat down to knit, (seriously, did you think I would not?), but I searched for a podcast on Grade 4, specifically the Human Being and Animal Block, to listen to instead.

The photos tell the rest, or part of it...how was your screen-free week? Will you try it another week if you did not do it last week?

Oh, and Lily and Aragorn, don't worry, we'll do another screen-free week for you when you come home; it looks like you had so much fun far from electricity and screens, that I'm sure you are eager to start again!