Screen-Free Challenge: Yes, Please!
I am honored to have my good friend, Jennifer Miller, guest posting this week. I’m sure you’ll enjoy her encouraging words. Pssst. Make sure you follow her on Twitter at @soy_aulait and her blog jennifermillerwriter.wordpress.com
As a Christian writer and mother, Jennifer Miller has a passion for quality children’s literature. She has an MA from the University of West Florida in English/Creative Writing and teaches creative writing classes at a Christian college. She has had creative writing and poetry lessons published with Schoolhouseteachers.com
We weren’t even home yet, and my four-year-old son Elliot was already asking to watch a show.
“We’ll see,” I said, but secretly, I was trying to think of another activity that could distract him. I didn’t want my preschooler spending all his valuable free time in front of screens, missing out on so much of what life has to offer.
I had already tried to limit screen time, but my attempts didn’t seem to be working. So, I came up with another plan—we needed to get away from screens completely to break the habit.
“Starting tomorrow, we’re doing a challenge,” I told my two older kids that night. “The challenge is to go screen free for ten days. Each day you go without screen-time, you get to put a sticker on this chart.”
To make the challenge enticing, I offered prizes for reaching checkpoints. Day 1 equaled a smoothie from Panera. Day 3 equaled a new book. And so on. The big prize, day 10, equaled a trip to an indoor play place. And, surprisingly, the kids seemed to be on board. My kids love challenges.
“Are you doing the screen-free challenge too?” my daughter asked.
“Sort of,” I said. I showed my daughter my chart. Since I use my computer for work, I had altered mine a bit—I would be off social media. Yikes!
Despite moments of weakness and some complaining, you know what, those ten days passed quickly, and, honestly, were a big success! Here are some things I learned along the way.
- The second day was the hardest of them all! I wanted to check Instagram so badly, and my son was more than willing to take a day off—good thing he has a sister who pushed him to keep going.
- My kids can entertain themselves. At first, I was worried they would constantly be asking me to play with them. However, this didn’t end up being the case (although, of course, I did spend more time with them). I mainly needed to give them the tools to entertain themselves. Here is what I did:
- I pulled out their Legos and even purchased a used kids table for them to leave their Legos on so the tiny pieces didn’t get everywhere. No thank you to stepping on Legos in the dark, am I right?!
- I also purchased puzzles. Both kids love PJ Masks, so I specifically picked out some they would be willing to do together.
- I encouraged them to go outside.
- We planned special activities. My brother-in-law came to visit, so we went out to eat, spent time with friends, and let Elliot go with his dad to some indoor water slides in our area.
- The challenge helped us strengthen good habits. We started reading together more, and I made good progress on some sewing projects.
- The challenge worked! Matter of fact, the kids went an extra two days without realizing the challenge was technically over. And, it did help break their habit of sitting in front of the TV as soon as they woke up or walked in the door after school.
Note: I should mention that I didn’t complete my challenge in ten straight days. I sometimes use social media for contacting people that I don’t have a phone number for, so I had to hop on to get in touch with someone. I just picked back up with the challenge the next day. Also, I didn’t count screens at the restaurant we went to or my son’s Friday movie time at his daycare. So, technically, he got to watch something twice during the challenge.
Once the challenge was over, my kids were excited to have screen time again (I mean, they are kids!). However, I believe they are noticeably more willing to accept a “no” and to find other ways to entertain themselves.
Also, they still play with their Legos almost every day—oftentimes together, which is a win in and of itself!
If you’ve been thinking about how to curb a screen addiction, let me encourage you to try a screen-free challenge. It was an amazing experience!
Ready to do a screen-free challenge? Go ahead, you might find it amazing!
