Taking the Screen-Free Week Challenge

I am so very excited about the upcoming week. Our homeschool is participating in Screen-Free Week, April 30th-May 6th. Our family is pretty "screen-free" all the time. We don't have cable or a converter box. My kids must earn screen time with chores and doing their daily math/reading (motivation for those with learning challenges in those areas!) They earn 30 minutes of screen time per task accomplished. That means they can earn up to 1.5 hours per day each and can use those towards any combination of Netflix, pc, Kindle, Wii and Android. I'd say we're pretty "screen-free" wouldn't you?

But this coming week, we will be even more screen-less than usual... 


During screen-free week, we will rely only on these devices for work and educational purposes:

• The computer will be used solely for work (that's right. No Facebook, Pinterest or Twitter!)
• The Kindle will be used solely for reading books
• The Android becomes a phone only. 
• The Wii gets a break. 
• Netflix will not be used, unless there's a documentary that fits into our history studies.

There are some excellent resources at the Screen-Free Week site. There is even a really cool organizer kit that you can download free full of ideas for things to do, pledge cards and even printable certificates of achievement. This is an excellent time to educate kids on how harmful too much media can be.

Also, take a look at this video:



What do you think of this idea? Could you do it? Are you going to try?
Happy Homeschooling!