Screen-Free Week in Pictures

We are officially back from "Screen-Free Week"!!. I'm not sure how I feel about it. I've enjoyed returning to a screen-free life. If not for blogging, I think I'd remain screen-free forever! Alas, I love interacting with other homeschool moms and learning from so many of you. So leaving the blogosphere is not going to happen. Still, I had a far more productive week than usual. It was wonderful! For that reason I will be scheduling my blogging time and avoiding as much Facebook as possible.

Our Week
The first day wasn't quite what we expected. Due to the lack of vehicle, I had to spend half my day just figuring out how to get the grocery store (I ended up walking) and then doing so. There were some other issues as well. This left the children bored and by the night's end, they each had said to me, "I've learned my lesson! Can we not do this screen-free thing!?" I laughed and explained, "It's not a punishment!! Today just wasn't good. It'll be better tomorrow." And it was. For the rest of the week, I never heard another word about returning to the screens.

I can not find the words to express the happiness I felt all week because we were on routine. We were productive. We had impromptu nature studies in the garden; I was able to spend more time reading to Lorelai and listening to her read because she's so excited at her reading progress. Nothing beats those in-the-moment conversations about everything from the economic benefits of machinery to corporations vs the hardship they place on small businesses and the environment (yeah..this was a conversation with the 9-year-old sitting on a bench at the grocery store) to how to convert military time or say "Come here a minute" in Japanese. Lessons can be found in so many places and with just a single question from a curious mind. We've all experienced these things, of course, but do you realize how much of this we miss by being in front of a computer?!

I simply cannot return to a place where I'm sucked into the internet. We don't have T.V. and Netflix never really sucks me in.. but that Facebook...OH BOY! But no more. Life out here is far more interesting! This is the time to build and maintain relationships. I can always be a computer-using hermit cat-less cat lady when I'm 70. (GRIN)

Below are pictures (and a video) from our week. They do not fully depict the joy, freedom and activities from the entire week. We took many walks; our homeschool days were perfectly on schedule; and we spent a lot of time reading together outside of "school time". Certainly they give a good idea of the fun we had.

Going for a walk

Recess time!

My 9 year old, Lorelai, getting some fun exercise.

Lorelai brought her BFF (middle) along to the playground

Lubber Grasshopper in the "nymph" stage.

Caterpillar of a Giant Leopard Moth

And here's a video.... of my other daughter, Alexis making her first attempt at pancakes.


(Sorry about the "spin" towards the end of the video... Ooops!)
I might add...the pancakes came out flavorless and rather "white" looking *lol*

Happy Homeschooling!