75 Activities for Screen Free Week

Posted by in Modern Parenting, The Blog

Screen Free Week | Let's Lasso the Moon
Screen Free Week 2013 is Monday, April 29 to May 5. I will wrap-up my odds & ends, set an auto-responder on my email account, update my Facebook profile image, and pre-schedule blog posts in order to participate. Will your family join us?

Download our printable list of
75 Screen Free Activities!

Growing up, my neighbor had a Blow Up Your TV bumper sticker. As a child, I never understood it. This phrase later showed up on a No TV Week flyer my co-worker Jason Dean shared with me in 2005. We’ve been celebrating this amazing week ever since, but slowly it progressed from No TV Week to No Screen Week for obvious reasons.

What are the rules? Jason and I had a discussion last month, what does No Screen Week mean in now? Can he listen to Pandora? Does it mean no mindless surfing or social networking? Can he work on his novel on his laptop or do we have to fully unplug?

Do you want to participate? Here are the official rules:

Make it work for you. Participate for a week or participate for a day. Participate with just your TV or include all screens. Shut down all your social networks, or just vow to call friends instead of seeing what they are up to on Facebook. Make your own rules.

Here are our family’s set of rules for the week:

  • No TV all week, even after the kids are in bed
  • Instead of our Weekly Movie Night we will be doing Family Game Night
  • Computer and internet use is acceptable at work & school {winks}
  • I am not allowed to play on my social networks, but I am able to take 15 minutes each morning to share my pre-scheduled blog posts on Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest
  • Shad is not allowed to play WordFued, but he is allowed 15 minutes of web access to check stats and make fantasy baseball trades
  • The girls are allowed to yell at me if they see me using my iPhone for anything beyond making a phone call

Will you join us for a day or for the week? Can you break free?


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  • The Princess Mommy

    Our family does this once a month! (I thought we were the only ones b/c everyone else seems to think we’ve lost our minds.) LOVE IT! I mean, we don’t have a list of alternate activities, but it’s pretty amazing to see how much the family ends up interacting with one another. I’d even venture to say the kids LIKE these weeks! Ages 15, 13, 10, and 3. :)

  • http://twitter.com/Momto2PoshDivas Bernadette Grbic

    I am joining in with a modified version to suit us! No TV for the girls all week (limited for me at night!), No computer during the day – quick check in before the girls wake in the morning and 1 hr at night (aside from anything work or school related that must be done). I am going to limit my phone too and try to be present with the girls :) Looking forward to it. I have a few posts scheduled but aside from that, taking it day by day! :)

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=620400000 Hayley Skladanek

    This is super exciting… Ive long been Awe struck and very intimidated by the NO TV week I hear of from my BFF…I just announced it to the kids. I got groans and NO WAY’s at first. Then I read the list of Suggested activities, which inspired their own suggestions and ideas. Now THEY are as excited as Me!! An FYI…this week is May Day… another Free Fun Tv Free Activity is a May Pole, A Bon Fire, and a study of the Polish Unions May Day Celebrations and historical significance. Have Fun Everyone!!

  • Steph

    I would love to jump on board this bandwagon, at least for a day. Tomorrow is a no-school day here, so perfect for no-screen day. Should be interesting to see if we can all make it! : ) Thanks for the inspiration.
    http://theminddoeswander.wordpress.com/2012/05/03/the-morning-walk/

  • Kristina

    Loved your list. Missed you last week. I need an update on how this went :) I loved screen free week for the kids and it is continuing this week. I had a hard time with screen free week for me. I did love doing less online during the day though, esp naptime, so that will continue from now on!

  • Drclinicrobin

    We are on week 3 of no TV. We haven’t even let the littlest one (age 6) watch the dvd in the car. We took the Tv’s completely out of the house and haven’t moved them back in yet. Not really motivated to do so. We did not put away the computer as it has work related functions. Also, at this time of year in our neck of the woods, the weather can be unpredictable and life threatening. So we needed to stay in touch with our weather sources. (Lets be honest, FB and Pinterest were a “must” as well.)

  • http://theeducatorsspinonit.blogspot.com/ Kim @The Educators’ Spin On It

    We’ve been counting down actually to this week…my iPhone is my biggest distraction, I love that your girls can speak up if they catch you, little pressure there. Would love for you to share this on our Screen Free Activities and Resources Link up!

  • http://lessonslearntjournal.com/ Pauline

    Zina, you’re simply amazing. Love your list. Thank you! I’ll be featuring this as part of my play for bored kids roundup. xo P