I'm back from
Screen Free Week.
We made a lot of great food, some of which Miss C declared edible.
We read a lot of library books, introducing some of my childhood favorites like
Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle, and
James and the Giant Peach.
I think, for me, being TV-less was a very easy part of this week. I'm not a regular watcher.
From time to time I suggest to Dave, as though suggesting going out to eat, "We barely use the TV, maybe we should just not have one at all."
And he always says, "Sure, might as well toss the computer too."
And then I shrivel up and die in a panic of How will I navigate the world??
I am a regular user of the InTRAnet. And I've come to depend on it for everything from getting a phone number, to mapping something out, to news, to staying in touch with friends.
So shutting it down last week created this kind of quiet space in my brain. I felt a little more connected to the very physical world, the one with wind and fog human interaction.
And I got lost driving without my mapquest.
But, I found a great ice cream shop I'd otherwise have missed.
I never did clean out that closet.
For Miss C, though her TV consumption these days is minimal, and consisting mainly of Super Why, she stretched out one day after an episode, yawned, and said, "TV makes me sleeeeepy."
And we've talked about this since, because it does make her sleepy, and she gets a little crabby transitioning from even a great program to doing something physical. Sometimes I'll have a book next to her to help transition from the end of program, back into play and play doh.
Or I'll tickle her to death saying, "TV makes you
sleeeeeeeeeepy! Come back! Wake up!"
Something new is always learned when venturing away from the same old.
We spent the last few days of Screen Free Week in the Adirondack Mountains, and I thought this would be the easiest part of tuning out. We rented a small cabin surrounded by views like this:
Easy Peasey Lemon Squeezy, right?
The small cabin was equipped with the basics: a bed, a kitchen, and the biggest collection of Princess and Barbie DVD's you've ever seen, in your life.
Next to a TV and DVD player.
Beside a stack of Princess Bling books.
Sometimes I think God is just laughing at me.
The explanation to Miss C didn't go over so well the first day, because she believed we'd driven a few hours
to camp out in from of the Princess DVDs, right? This is rustic living?
But we quickly got into a rhythm of hiking and canoeing and more hiking, and found her to be so awesome at climbing mountains that we nicknamed her Boulder Girl at the end of a 4.5 mile trek one day, after she scaled to the top of one peak, climbing massive rocks and thick winding roots of trees.
I'd read somewhere that when introducing kids to hiking and mountain climbing, they love scraggly trails and climbing with all their limbs. This was definitely the case. C was lackluster about plain old winding trails with no grade, but sprinted up steeper climbs like a spider.
In any event, it was a successful week. I'm back a little more mindful of my uses of this thing, and that's never a bad thing. I think we'll repeat the week in the future and maybe by then, I'll get that closet cleaned.
