Defining Terms
Just before the end of school, I declared that this would be a Summer of Boredom. The criteria for what-this-means was not complex. Basically, I had two “rules.”
- Monday, Wednesday, and Friday are no-screen days.
- I am not your activity director.
We absolutely had to address the screen addiction we have going on in our house. The constant asking to play or watch. The willingness to sit and do nothing rather than find something non-screen to do. The reality that most of the conversations had by certain of my children are entirely focused on video game characters or videos they watched. Not cool.
Also, I am far too willing to think of things for my kids to do. They come and stand under my elbows, waiting for me to decide to go somewhere, come up with a craft or activity for them to do, or tell them what they could do next. Nope. Not anymore. I am not your activity director. Go find something to do. Preferably outside, but that’s negotiable.
Getting Started
School finished on a Tuesday, and we signed out at 11:00 am. For the rest of that day, I let the crazies do pretty much what they wanted. Screens were fine. Relaxing was the rule of the day. You want another snack…go for it!
Our first full day of summer break was a Wednesday. So, no screens. And there was some whining, but much less than I expected, to be honest. They played, they read books, we ate lunch and snacks. They bickered. Good times.
Near the end of that first week, I sat down and wrote out three papers: a daily “schedule,” an “I’m Bored” list, and an “Extra Chore” list (chores they can earn money for doing, on top of their daily, expected chores).
Evaluation #1
So we’re about two-and-a-half weeks into summer, and honestly, it’s working well. I thought I’d get a lot of pushback on no-screen days, but I haven’t. They get up and start playing or reading. They do things on their own. And when it is a screen day, they have done well putting the screens away after the timer rings, for the most part. Knowing they can have another turn later keeps the whininess at bay. Also, having the schedule in place means I can say, “It’s 9:30, so let’s do our daily chores before we get too far into the day.” And the dogs get fed, the toys get tidied…it’s nice.
It took about a week to figure out how to live together 24/7 again. Timmy’s used to having the house, and me, all to himself. So it was a hard shift to welcome three big kids back into his “kingdom.” The big three weren’t used to playing with each other all the time, so that took some practice, too. But for the most part, we’ve settled into being “us” again.
Also, it helps that the big three can read, are willing to read things for Timmy, and are learning to do things for themselves (like printing coloring pages from the computer or getting out their own bikes or scooters). I like having big kids, I must admit.
And lastly, I’ve been pretty impressed with what they’ve done without screens constantly in their grasp. Alex wrote a book, pitting the battle bosses from his Mario games against each other in a multi-round tournament. He drew them all, listed their strengths and weaknesses, and declared the winners. Then the winners faced off from there. (Baron Brrr won the whole rumble, in case you were wondering.)
In addition, the girls have made some books of their own. Megan’s was a memory book of sorts, and Erin did a book about our family, interviewing each of us on the same eight categories of things we like, so we could see out we all compared to each other.
In addition, we’ve climbed trees and enjoyed the disc swing, done a lot of bike riding, coloring and reading, and run errands. We’ve done our chores (mostly). We just finished our ball season this week, so we’ve had softball or baseball games most nights. I actually made my first-ever trip to Aldi’s with all four kids in tow (and survived!). And the big three got their own library cards this summer, to great excitement.
At this point..I’d say boredom is a very good thing.
