Screen Free Day 1

Day 1 of Screen Free Week at my house was pretty darn good!    The kids asked for tv, but really in a half hearted way.  They were both happy to find other activities; painting, playing Polly Pockets, Legos, dancing and doing dishes. I probably read ten books yesterday and have an assignment this morning from Will to get a Spiderwick book to read to him.

Yesterday, in the hours not spent watching TV, Will built this:

A clever, clever lego battle scene complete with zip line!
 and Caroline painted this:

Hooray!!! Look at my pink hair! I love my girl.



What I'd really like to do with this project is start a better pattern of using imaginations more and screens less, so I'm not sure how long I'm going to make this go-- seven days or five?  Should I make this a regular occurence?  Every few months rather than once a lifetime?

 I want my kids to be able to fill time on thier own, without relying on electronic devices. This is much easier in the  warm weather months, they are great at playing outside, and immediately lapse into thier own imaginary world when riding bikes or playing in a pool.  But during the winter, they were helpless to figure out something to do.  My goal is to have days like today, when Will asked if he had time to play legos after dinner.

My mom suggested doing some sort of reward.  I'm considering it, like a new Lego set for Will, and  some new thing for Care.  I don't want to treat no tv as a hardship that needs a reward, but I think rewarding them with something that encourages imagination rather than zombielike staring at a screen adds to the point rather than subtracts.

Now that I am writing this on day two, I want to add that Caroline built this:

It's a city, built out of assorted girl stuff.

Just this morning, she's given her dollies a bath, is coloring at the table and hasn't asked for tv once. I think just knowing it's not an option really makes a big difference.

I also want to note that my kids generally do alot of playing and art and building, it's just that this is more production than is usual.