Unplug During Screen-Free Week

By Megan Fischer, Director of Communications, Providence Children’s Museum

Shut down the video games, turn off the TV and step away from your screens —

April 18-24 is Screen-Free Week! This national celebration, which coincides this year with school vacation, is presented by Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood and encourages children, families, schools and communities to turn off screen media for a week — to unplug, play, read, create, explore.

Excessive screen time has long been an issue, but the problem is growing as more kids have individual devices and near-constant media access.  A national survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that 8-18 year-olds average more than 7½ hours per day in front of screens and consuming entertainment media, which adds up to more than 53 hours a week — nearly twice as much time as they spend in school.

And although the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends no screen use for children under 2 years, younger children also spend an astonishing amount of time at screens.  According to Nielsen, preschoolers average more than 24 hours of television viewing each week.

Dr. Susan Linn, director of Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood and author of Consuming Kids: The Hostile Takeover of Childhood, notes that while not everything on screens is bad, in general screen time encourages passive media consumption and limits the time children spend engaged in creative play.  “Unlimited access to miniaturized screens means that even when children are out and about, we are depriving them of opportunities to engage in the world,” explains Linn.  “They learn to look to screens rather than to their environment for stimulation, to expect to be entertained rather than entertaining themselves.”  Among other implications, screen time can also make kids less physically active and more prone to attention problems, poor school performance and sleep disruption.

So take a break during Screen-Free Week and see what you and your kids can do without.  Worried about screen time withdrawal?  Here’s a list of fun-filled, playful alternatives, contributed by Providence Children’s Museum educators:

• Go on a nature walk in a park or around your neighborhood.  Take paper and crayons and do rubbings of the bark of different trees.  Collect leaves and twigs for a nature art project.
• Have a family game night.  Make popcorn and play fun games like Uno or Cranium.  With a deck of cards, learn how to shuffle and try building card houses.
• Hold a family talent show.  Plan a few days ahead for practice, props and costumes.  Don’t tell each other what talent you’re going to perform so everyone’s act is a surprise!
• Take a dark walk — bring flashlights and explore your neighborhood at night.
• Have a book-a-thon.  Go to the library in the afternoon.  Then, after supper, climb into bed and read aloud to each other.  Don’t limit the number of books or chapters — just keep reading for as long as everyone stays awake!
• Design a mini-golf course inside or outside using toys and things found around the house.  Take turns with a real or plastic putter and golf balls.
• A different hide-and-go-seek challenge: take turns hiding and searching for something small, like a stuffed animal.
• Make outside obstacle courses using jump ropes, balls and chairs and have a relay race.  Take turns designing new courses.
• Have a toy carwash.  Bring out cars and any toys that need a scrub and gather sponges and soapy water.

And don’t worry if kids whine about being bored without screens — let them figure it out!  It’s amazing how boredom can inspire creativity if you allow the space for it to happen.

Have a wonderful unplugged week!

Other resources:

• Screen Time Toolkit in English and Spanish from Kaiser Permanente
• Media Use resources from the American Academy of Pediatrics
• Center on Media and Child Health
• Kids, Play & Digital Media resource sheet from Providence Children’s Museum

For more unplugged fun, visit Providence Children’s Museum during school vacation!  Meet llamas, lambs and other Fleecy Friends.  Fold and crease paper to create fabulous flying contraptions.  See performances by the Pumpernickel Puppets and the State Ballet of Rhode Island.  In celebration of Earth Day, watch No Time to Waste, an interactive family comedy about recycling.  And for adults, get tickets to Unplugged, the Museum’s 2011 gala, and support the Museum and child-directed play!  Learn more…