Last week was a big week of play in our family.
Screen free week, Earth day and St George’s day.
Last week I confessed that the previous year due to poor planning on my part the results were pretty bad. No one was happy. This year I’m happy to report that Screen Free week went well.
We started the seeded paper project the Friday before on family night. It was a lovely change to board games or DVDs which we have been doing a lot. Everyone was enthusiastic. We used music as our background. I talked more about our experiences in the Podcast: Earth day and projects over at Raising Playful Tots.
Monday was a lovely day in Colorado so we were out on playdates in the park and out walking. No one asked for a screen. The kids were all happy and tired that night. One of those days when the stars are aligned and all is happy in the house. Toys were played and everyone went to bed on time.
We skipped Tuesday for screen time week. With the MO watching Caliou.
During the week life is so busy that there are only a few times we really have to watch out that screen time doesn’t sneak in. On Wednesday we went to a Michael’s the local craft store to pick up a few things and look around. The youngest boys love to look at all the things they have there and there is a bargain bin of activities or numbers/letters they like to paint. With the extra walking around and the cereal play they both were asleep for the school pick up that afternoon.
The LO emptied the cereal on the table, over his high chair and littered the floor. So instead of throwing it all away we played with it outside in the empty sand and water tray. Driving cars up and down. Then we threw it away.
Thursday was quite hectic for the BG with a school function. We had to bring in something that was traditional for our family to share with the rest of the school. Naturally we brought Tea and biscuits. The weather had turned into rain, thunder and tornado warnings and so did the mood of everyone. Dad was home so the younger boys got to hang out with him and I was at school serving Tea.
Friday we celebrated St George’s day and Friday is also traditionally family night. However the boys had got into a big epic play of Superheroes so entertained themselves most of the evening.
Saturday afternoon we watched Night at the museum together.
Sunday the boys played the Wii and learnt a few lessons in anger management.
Today I have requests for Tom and Jerry already!
We usually do a lot of play activities during the week. You see them highlighted here on this blog. We did some new activities that you’ll see in the upcoming weeks and prepared for Earth day and St George’s day.
We didn’t do Screen free week every day and we had a good experience this year. I wish that the schools had done something or the local media to encourage some participation. Everyone was all about Earth day. Can’t see why you can’t do both?
The kids did ask to use the screens and in general the response from them was good. I tried not to say next week or maybe tomorrow. Just, why not try this instead or have you used this recently.
Dinner times wasn’t a big battle for us. We’ve worked hard at having lots of ideas to do around this time. The kids helped a few times this week with dinner. They were particularly nervous with a vegetable they didn’t like, the way I have cooked it in the past, and seeing it out knew it was going to be for dinner. I cooked it differently and they loved it. They helped cook it 🙂
