Screen-Free Day

For the first time in a long while we decided to have a 'Screen-Free Day' yesterday. No e-mail, no Sims, no web games, no quick Google searches, no word processor for writing stories, no DVDs or TV. Here's what happened instead:

• lots of K'nex play
• imaginative play with Playmobil
• Noah and Sophie learned to make knotted hemp bracelets; Sophie made one as a gift and wrapped it, Noah made a nice one for himself
• Fiona made herself a beaded pipe cleaner bracelet
• I made a couple of simple beaded necklaces for Erin and Fiona
• I made a small hardcover book using marbled paper Noah had made
• Erin learned to make a new recipe for dinner
• practising got done easily
• Erin and Sophie made peanut butter brownies
• I got my sewing table tidied so that all the papercraft stuff that had been living on top of it got put away and I can now get to a couple of sewing projects
• the house stayed tidy
• we hand-washed dishes because we're out of detergent
• lots of reading
• we painted the pole we'll use for measuring lake levels
• we had a family meeting
• I planted some seedlings
• the kids tended to the chickens
• Sophie did the last two big review exercises in her 2A math book, thus finishing it up
• Noah did a big math exercise
• Erin did two-thirds of her week's music theory assignment
• we sat at the table together and drank herbal tea
• there was some outside play even though the weather was terrible
• the kids got along conflict-free for the whole day

Everyone agreed that it was a wonderful day. It was a reminder of the sorts of things the computer insidiously pushes out of our lives. We have agreed to continue with weekly Screen-Free Days for a time, to keep ourselves in touch with those things.