Trial & Error Summer: Screen Addiction

Summer vacation is coming up!!  Every year, I enjoy the month of May.  While my oldest is still in school and my husband is still working, the house is quiet and I can get a lot done.  But this year, the house is quiet and I'm stuck on the couch keeping my leg elevated.  The silence is making my cabin fever worse!

This summer I hope to write about how we deal with boredom in our house.  The easiest part of that is to keep a schedule, so my kids know what to expect and when to expect it.  Mom & Dad are both home in the summer, so we get to travel and do all kinds of fun things!  I try to follow some simple homeschooling lessons to make sure nothing gained during the school year is lost.  And, we like take advantage of any community programs or activities that our kids might enjoy.

But, before we can do any of those things, we need to change our mindset a bit when it comes to dealing with "free time."

Screen Addictions

My goal this summer is to break a our addition to electronics.  Maybe it's because I've been sitting here for 8 weeks, but I am just sick of watching TV.  I still check Facebook fairly frequently to keep in touch with some long-distance friends, but I get bored very easily reading the same things over and over.  I listen to music on the iPad, but I had lost interested in Candy Crush months ago.  My husband doesn't use the computer when there aren't sports scores to check.  And, I haven't seen him play the Xbox360 for months.  It just gets old.

Landon came home on Monday and ran outside to play.  Then, when he was asked to come back in to get ready for Cub Scouts, he proudly protested that he had not been active for a whole hour yet and kids his age need to be active for one hour every day.  He also, proudly, announced that it's recommended that kids his age play video games for no more than 2 hours - each week.  Since Landon is the one who shared the news, he was a lot easier to win over than I expected!  The whole thing is practically his idea now!

Can I just pause say how blessed I am to have a child with a respect for research?  No arguments - Just "this what the experts say, so I better stop playing video games".

I've learned the best way to break an addiction is to replace it with something, so you're not bored!  For Landon, he's obviously decided to replace his video games with some active outdoor time.

What about the rest of us?  Of course, the baby arriving in July will provide us all with plenty of distractions...

We've switched to non-smart phones.  Chris just brought home a STACK of books from the Book Fair at his school.  He also got a disc golf basket that has been entertaining everyone, even Raegan!  We even talked about setting up a volleyball net in the backyard.  We are going to stay BUSY & ACTIVE!!

While I'm stuck here on the couch, we enjoy eating dinner as a family gathered around tray tables watching an episode of a favorite show.  We're still together, eating as a family, and it fulfills a little of everyone's TV addiction.  But, as soon as everyone is home, we're going to eat at the table on the back porch as much as possible!  My husband loves to grill, so he will be more than happy to cook for us in the sunshine!

I'm getting excited for summer... are you?