For the past several years, we’ve partnered with the Children’s Book Council for a joint celebration of Children’s Book Week and Screen-Free Week! Even though we’re postponing our official celebration of Screen-Free Week this year, Children’s Book Week is still on, and it’s inspiring us to UNPLUG TO READ this week for Screen-Free Saturdays! No matter where you and your children are at in your relationship with reading, there are so many ways to use words and images to explore our world.
This Saturday (or whatever day you’re choosing to go Screen-Free), take a minute to read.
“I can’t imagine a single Screen-Free Saturday without reading. With older kids like mine, we all set aside time to read to ourselves. But read-alouds for all ages (younger and my kids’ ages) is a special time for us too. At this moment, I’m reading to my daughter while my husband reads to our son, but there have been times when I have read books to both kids at the same time, or when we’ve reversed the parent-child dyad. Reading is an all-weather activity, which makes it ideal for every Saturday.”
-Rinny Yourman J.D., Washington, D.C.
Tips for Success
With our friends at Children’s Book Week, we’re offering a list of 100 Screen-Free, Reading-Related Activities! Here are some of our COVID-friendly favorites:
– Read a book without pictures.
– Read a book without words (They’re out there!)
– Hold a family book night — everyone reads a book at the same time, in the same room.
– Read to your pet.
– Find a new cookbook and try a new recipe together for family dinner night.
– Ask the adults in your life about their favorite children’s books growing up.
– Find a book about clouds, then go or look outside and see if you can identify them.
– Use a heavy book to press freshly cut flowers and leaves.
– Find a book about a place where an ancestor came from.
Need help finding a book? See below for info about libraries, support your local bookstore, visit your local Little Free Library, ask a neighbor (and sanitize) or check out and print PDFs from gutenberg.org.
Children’s Book Week
Children’s Book Week has so many great tools for your family to start, maintain, and expand upon a love of reading this weekend and beyond! Check out their website for everything you need to celebrate.
Our Annual Booklist!
Presenting our 2020 Screen-Free Week Children’s Book List! We’ve added some new, amazing titles and continue to enjoy our favorites from years past! Check it out here.
Community Connections
This week, we are encouraging folks to check in with their local libraries! In my town, our library offers a “takeout window” for books right now, so we were able to go and get books for the kids really easily this week. Other library systems are offering additional online resources, community book readings, deliveries, and more! Quarantine can’t stop us from enjoying books!
What better way to kick off your Children’s Book Week and your Screen-Free Saturday than taking some time to reflect on your family’s wellness?! To help everyone develop healthy relationships with tech, our friends at Digital Wellness Collective are offering virtual and personal events going on all over the world on May 1- check out the archive. Learn more here!
Enjoy curling up with a good book this week! How will you unplug to reconnect? Share your experience with us at [email protected] or tagging us @screenfreeweek on your social media (after Saturday, of course). Let us know what issues came up so we can troubleshoot together!
Haven’t taken the pledge yet? Join our community today and have access to regular Screen-Free Saturdays updates, resources, and activity ideas!