Unglued and Unplugged

So, a few months ago, cable suddenly got more expensive (i.e. we couldn't talk Comcast into giving us a promotional deal anymore), so we decided to just cancel cable and see if we missed it. And I'm happy to say, we didn't. So, we signed up for Netflix streaming for the kids. And between that and Disney and PBS online, the kids slowly started watching more and more stuff on the computer until it got to the point that I knew it was way too much. I tried to cut back on how much they watched, but it was hard to enforce. Then a week or so ago, I realized that the only way it was going to work is if we went cold turkey. So I decided we would have a tv-free (and computer monitor-free) week.

And let me tell you, I was scared.

What were we going to do with that time? Would the kids freak out and drive me crazy? Would I get anything done around the house? Would we miss a new episode of Doc McStuffins? (Kidding on the last one. Sort of).

I also decided that if I was going to be fully present, I would need to make some adjustments to my screen time as well. So my rule was that I was only going to use my phone for calls and texts during the day. No Facebook. No Words With Friends. No Pinterest. And the computer would be turned off completely until the kids were in bed. Oh boy. So, on the weekend before we were to begin, I went in search of activities, crafts, places to go, etc, to keep us busy and entertained (on Pinterest, ironically). I went to the store and bought some supplies, took a deep breath, and on Monday, we jumped in.

Usually, the kids watch shows in the morning while we're all waking up. I figured this would be the hardest part of the day. And Reed did ask to watch a show, but after I told him we weren't watching any shows today, he stopped asking. In fact, all week long, the kids only asked to watch the computer a couple times. I was amazed at how little they actually cared about it. We did fun activities and crafts, got out of the house to a couple places, and just enjoyed each others' undivided attention.

 And you know what? It was far from difficult, or frustrating. It was heaven. The kids got along better. We all got along better. We had time to do those fun things I always see on Pinterest and always think we don't have time for. We did have time for them, we were just wasting it. Something else interesting happened too. As expected, I wasn't able to get as much done cleaning and chore wise. The house was on the edge of falling apart all week. But the interesting thing was that I didn't care. You know how people always say that it's okay if the house is messy, because it's better to be raising your kids than living in a perfect house? I never really understood that, because if my house was messy, it frustrated me. But it turns out that it only frustrated me when I was doing something like surfing the web or playing games instead of cleaning. When the thing keeping me from cleaning was playing Kerplunk with my kids, it didn't bother me at all. I would go to bed at the end of the day in a messy house and think, "Well, it's messy because I was too busy playing and crafting and going places with my kids, and if I could go back, I wouldn't change how I spent my day." It was an awesome feeling.

We were planning on only doing this for a week, but I'm in no hurry to reintroduce shows. In fact, we canceled Netflix too. And I think that we were in the habit so much that it'll take a couple weeks to really make sure we won't fall back into the way it was, because I love this new way of living so much. I'm not trying to be self-righteous or anything. Heaven knows I'm far from the perfect mom. But I couldn't not share this experience, it's been life changing for us. And I know we all know those people who don't have TVs and never let their kids watch any TV or movies, and I always thought those people were crazy, but now I think they've kind of got the right idea. I don't plan on going completely media free. We still have a projector we watch movies on, and Mike and I watch some stuff online, and I think after we get the media addiction out of our system, we'll be able to watch some kid shows online once in a while, because I don't think they're inherently bad. But life spent in the real world is so much more rich and fulfilling, and I don't want to miss it.

BYU Paleontology Museum. It was small, but free and we had the place to ourselves.

Lookin' at fossils.

Kerplunk.

Apple prints

Apple seed "A"s

Rachel is very precise, focused, and thorough with art projects. Reed, not so much. Her attention span is like 5 times longer than his.

"Worms". Just pipe cleaners and colanders.

Flower lunch.

Rachel made this spider in her speech preschool, but we added the puff ball and googly eyes.

Then of course we had to make one for Reed too.

Cheerio "stringing" activity with play doh, spaghetti, and Cheerios. Reed put like 3 on, then he just wanted to play with the play doh.

Rachel was a lot more focused.

"Cooking" with dry beans and kitchen utensils. Both kids loved this.

Boats that we tried to float down a tin foil river in the front yard. The river didn't really work out, so we just filled up some water balloons instead and the kids had fun throwing them around.

We made dirt and worms for dessert one night. Reed thoroughly enjoyed the cooking and eating.

One day we did something we do every few months: take all the toys from throughout the house, dump them all in the the family room and sort and organize them. We also rotate out toys so they become "new" again. Reed and I tackled this while Rachel was in preschool.

And we didn't have to do any special activities the rest of the day, because we got out some "new" old toys.

Marble run from a couple cut in half pool noodles. The kids loved this. It took me a bit a trial and error to get the angle and taping right, but once we got it, those marbles were flying down the track and the kids loved it.

On Thursday we went to the zoo with Mindy and her sisters and had a blast!

All the older kiddos in our clan.

Reed loved the seals.

And the polar bear was being especially friendly.

Rachel and Mindy.

Rachel loved this elephant. It makes noise.

Reed does NOT like the elephant. At all.

Color sorting puff balls. By Friday, we had figured out that we didn't need to do tons of stuff to keep us busy, so this was the only really unique thing we did this day. We also read lots of books during the week. And I still have lots of fun things on my list to keep us busy for a long time to come! Bring it on!