April 30th through May 6th, 2018 was Screen-Free Week, an annual program of the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood. The goal of the week-long event is to help “families, schools, and communities swap digital entertainment for the joys of life beyond the screen” (www.screenfree.org). Recognizing our need to break away from devices, my family decided to participate in Screen-Free Week. For seven days, we used devices only for work and school and avoided video games, TV shows, movies, and other forms of digital entertainment.
For the first three days, our 7-year-old struggled with having no screen time. Although we watch very little TV, both of our kids like playing video games. Our son used birthday money to buy a new video game this spring, and he asks to play it a lot. He likes to crash on the couch some days after school and watch a show or play a video game, so the first half of the week was tough for him. He whined quite a bit those first three days, and I spent a lot of time reminding him of other things he could do instead. After Wednesday, our kids stopped asking for screen time and automatically found other things to do. Our daughter finished a book she’d been reading, and our son played with some toys he hadn’t played with in a long time. We also found other ways to spend time together as a family that did not involve screens. I would definitely say that the week was a success, and I’m hopeful that this break from screen time helped us establish some new, healthy routines that we will be able to sustain as a family.
You may have missed the official Screen-Free Week, but it’s not too late for your family to hold your own. You can choose any week between now and the end of the school year, or you may find it better to wait until the kids are out for summer vacation to institute a screen-free week. It may be difficult for some members of your family like it was for ours, but I believe you’ll reap many benefits. Below are five reasons your family should consider holding its own screen-free week.
1. Enjoy the Great Outdoors
One of the greatest benefits for our family of Screen-Free Week was more time spent outdoors. With soccer season in full-swing, we haven’t had time to get our spring planting done. During screen-free week, we finally found time to plant vegetables in our garden and flowers in our flower bed. The kids ran through the sprinkler to cool off on a hot day, which was maybe their favorite part of screen-free week. We spent nearly the entire weekend outdoors. My 7-year- old and my husband went camping, while my 10-year-old played in a soccer tournament all weekend. Not only were we too busy to miss screen time during the day and too tired to miss screen time at night, we were re-energized by getting out into the great outdoors.
2. Take advantage of community spaces and resources
We love our local libraries, and we often take advantage of the many services and events they offer. During Screen-Free Week, visiting our local library helped us find new and fun things to do. In the middle of the week, I took my youngest to the library for some time to explore, read, and play. We had a great time building structures with Hexacus toys and finding new books to check out. On May 4th (Star Wars day), the kids played Star Wars Trivial Pursuit at the Conover Library. With busy schedules, we have not visited the library this spring as often as we typically do. Screen-Free Week provided a great opportunity to get back to the library.
3. Establish better sleep patterns
Research has shown that evening screen time can disrupt normal, healthy sleeping patterns. According to a recent study, blue light from devices confuses the body about when it needs to sleep. Other studies have shown that using devices in the evening can reduce melatonin and keep your brain alert. The only time my husband and I watch TV is at night after the kids are asleep. Some nights, we watch one or two shows before bed. Other nights, we might spend time checking social
media or watching YouTube videos. During Screen-Free Week, we used some of this time to catch up on our reading, and we even went to bed earlier than we normally do. Your family may find that keeping devices off in the evenings helps you establish better sleep patterns, which can affect your overall health and well-being.
4. Rediscover old favorite toys and games
If your kids are like ours, the excitement of new toys and games quickly wears off. Toys that were once favorites become forgotten and dusty before long. During Screen-Free Week, we got out some older toys and games and had a blast doing it! My son and I had an epic Pokemon battle, my husband and son played Battleship, and our daughter played dolls with a friend. Pulling out old favorite toys and games might help your kids find some joy in Screen-Free Week.
5. Reconnect as a family
I would say that our family has some pretty healthy rules and patterns about using devices, but sometimes it can be so easy to fall into patterns of spending time on our devices instead of spending time together as a family. If your family has a tendency to be on your cell phones in the evenings or let hours pass watching TV at night, you could be missing out on opportunities to connect as a family. Screen-Free Week was an important reminder to our family that time together should be just that: time together.
To learn more about Screen-Free Week, visit www.screenfree.org. Leave us a comment below to let us know how your family celebrated or plans to celebrate Screen-Free Week.
References:
https://www.sciencenewsforstudents.org/article/evening-screen-time-can-sabotage-sleep
https://sleep.org/articles/ways-technology-affects-sleep/
Related Articles You May Like (from our archives):
