We have a tradition that we try to keep going at our house. During the school week we generally don’t play video games. Saturdays are “Game Day” when the kids can play video games all day long if they want to. Sunday is “Screen-Free Day” which the boys often act like they hate, except once the screen time is removed, they find other things to do that they really enjoy.
I try to help remove the boredom/lack of direction/hopelessness that kids can sometimes feel when you just took away their favorite thing and they don’t know what to do next. My favorite thing to do is to clean off the kitchen table and set up something that I think they will enjoy. It might be a puzzle, a game, sculpey clay, a baking project, or art supplies. This is what I set up today:
Nothing fancy. Just clear space and simple materials.
Within a short time they all gravitated toward the invitation and were doing this:
I had some nice music on in the background. My daughter was at another table working on a 1000-piece puzzle. I was making pancakes and reading.
I find that clearing spaces and creating invitations is a really nice thing to do for the family. It provides an opportunity to bring out those card games/art supplies/stickers/projects that sometimes get forgotten during the regular weekday life. I’ve never set up an invitation at the table that the kids didn’t want to do.
Try it! Let me know how it goes.
This definitely works!! When electronics are restricted here, my 13yo DS heads for the biggest, clearest table in the craft room and creates origami, draws with pencils, pens, & markers, and sometimes just reads the art books. I might try setting out specific items, though, because he typically gravitates to the same things. What a neat thing to do on purpose!!!
This is a wonderful idea!