Success with Screen-FREE Week Frederick!

Success with Screen-FREE Week Frederick!

by , | Mar 11, 2019 | Uncategorized

We love this Screen-Free Week celebration in Frederick, MD, where the entire town gets in on the fun! In their video blog, Dr. Alison Bomba and Occupational Therapist Kelly Beins explain why they teamed up to create Screen-FREE Frederick.

AB:  Hi, I’m Dr. Alison Bomba, child psychologist. I own a private practice in Frederick, Maryland.

KB:  And I’m Kelly Beins, I’m an occupational therapist here in Frederick, and I’m also a private practice owner.

AB:  So, last summer, Kelly and I decided that we wanted to host Frederick’s very first community-wide Screen-Free Week. Which sounded like a very daunting task, that’s why we’re doing it together. But we’ve had a lot of fun with it so far.

KB:  We have, and we were really excited to be able to share with you guys some of the things that we’ve done to make Screen-Free Week doable and possible here in Frederick.

AB:  We started with the creation of a Facebook page, for Screen-FREE Week Frederick, which is totally ironic but that’s the way to reach people – social media. We also reached out to our personal and professional contacts and community leaders to get them involved and excited. And we hosted an interview day, in which we spent the whole day in our downtown with our fake microphone that we’ve created and our t-shirts, interviewing people on the street and local business owners about the importance of balancing screen time.

KB:  And one of the big goals that we set for ourselves at the beginning of this process was we would make it as big or as small as we wanted to. And being business owners ourselves, there isn’t a lot of time, and so the Facebook page has allowed us to do something consistent that isn’t really difficult, and the interview day allowed us to not only have fun with it, but connect with a lot of people in a short amount of time. And I will say, the fake microphone was kind of a …

AB: Big hit. So we’re keeping it light, we’re keeping it fun, we’re keeping people engaged throughout the year. So we’re essentially acting as a clearinghouse, our goal is to help promote events that are already taking place that are screen-free during Screen-Free Week. We’re also asking people to host events. We’re not going to do the hosting. We’ll make appearances at some of them, we’ll promote their events, so it’s a win-win.

KB:  And, when we were downtown, we had printed up – in addition to the wonderful fake microphone – business cards. And so these business cards we could give to the business owners or the people that we met on the street. And then in our private practices…

AB:  We’ve created flyers, and this is a nice easy way for people to distribute information to their own clients about Screen-Free Week. So just trying to get the word out.

KB:  Yep. And so basically our message is, it’s doable, it’s fun, and there are things that you’re already doing, I’m sure, in your life that can be consistent with and support Screen-Free Week.

AB:  So it has been easy and very fun to tap into our resources that already exist in our community and ask them to host an event, to help share our Facebook page, to get people on board with Screen-Free Week.

KB:  So we hope that you’ll have as much fun as we have in organizing a Screen-Free Week, hope that everybody is successful in their quest for unplugged parenting and screen-free fun.

Screen-Free Week 2019 is April 29 – May 5. Make sure you register your event here!

The Miraculous Power of Reading Aloud

The Miraculous Power of Reading Aloud

by | Mar 11, 2019 | Uncategorized

Reading aloud is a wonderful screen-free activity that can be enjoyed any time of the year! In this excerpt from The Enchanted Hour: The Miraculous Power of Reading Aloud in the Age of Distraction, author Meghan Cox Gurdon describes its many emotional and developmental benefits, especially in our fast-paced, tech-centric world. 

The time we spend reading aloud is like no other time. A miraculous alchemy takes place when one person reads to another, one that converts the ordinary stuff of life—a book, a voice, a place to sit, and a bit of time—into astonishing fuel for the heart, the mind, and the imagination.

“We let down our guard when someone we love is reading us a story,” the novelist Kate DiCamillo once told me. “We exist together in a little patch of warmth and light.”

She’s right about that, and explorations in brain and behavioral science are beginning to yield thrilling insights into why. It’s no coincidence that these discoveries are coming during a paradigm shift in the way we live. The technology that allows us to observe the inner workings of the human brain is of a piece with the same technology that baffles and addles and seems to be reshaping the brain. In a culture undergoing what’s been called “the big disconnect,” many of us are grappling with the effects of screens and devices, machines that enhance our lives and at the same time make it harder to concentrate and to retain what we’ve seen and read, and alarmingly easy to be only half present even with the people we love most. In this distracted age, we need to change our understanding of what reading aloud is, and what it can do. It is not just a simple, cozy, nostalgic pastime that can be taken up or dropped without consequence. It needs to be recognized as the dazzlingly transformative and even countercultural act that it is.

For babies and small children, with their fast-growing brains, there is simply nothing else like it. The youngest listeners respond in the most immediately consequential ways when someone reads to them, and as a result they’re the subject of most research on the topic. We now know that listening to stories while looking at pictures stimulates children’s deep brain networks, fostering their optimal cognitive development. Further, the companionable experience of shared reading cultivates empathy, dramatically accelerates young children’s language acquisition, and vaults them ahead of their peers when they get to school. The rewards of early reading are astonishingly meaningful: toddlers who have lots of stories read to them turn into children who are more likely to enjoy strong relationships, sharper focus, and greater emotional resilience and self-mastery. The evidence has become so overwhelming that social scientists now consider read-aloud time one of the most important indicators of a child’s prospects in life.

It would be a mistake, though, to relegate reading aloud solely to the realm of childhood. The deeply human exchange of one person reading to another is, in fact, human, which means that its pleasures and benefits are open to everyone. Teenagers and adults who are read to, or who do the reading themselves, may not win the same degree of scientific interest, but there’s no question that they benefit, too, in ways intellectual, emotional, literary, and even spiritual. For frazzled adults in midlife, whose attention is yanked in a thousand directions, taking the time to read aloud can be like applying a soothing balm to the soul. For older adults in later life, its effects are so consoling and invigorating as to make it seem like a health tonic, or even a kind of medicine.

We have everything to gain and no time to waste. In the tech era, we can all benefit from what reading aloud supplies, but with children, the need is urgent. Many young people are spending as many as nine hours a day with screens. They are surrounded by technology—it informs their world, it absorbs their attention, it commandeers their hands and eyes—and they need the adults in their lives to read books to them not despite that but because of it.

In our cultural adaptation to the Internet, we have gained and we have lost. Reading aloud is a restorative that can replenish what technology leaches away. Where the screen tends to separate family members by sending each into his own private virtual reality, reading together draws people closer and unites them. Sitting with a book and a companion or two, we are transported to realms of imagination in warm physical proximity to one another. For children, contemplating the illustrations in picture books quietly and at length helps to inculcate the grammar of visual art in a way that really can’t happen when the pictures are animated or morphing or jumping around. Where the infinite jostling possibilities of the touch screen make us feel scatterbrained, a story read aloud engages our minds in deep, sustained attention. The language of stories helps babies develop the linguistic scaffolding for early speech, and helps young children work toward fluency. When children are older, novels read aloud give them access to complex language and narratives that might otherwise be beyond them. The experience bathes children of all ages in torrents of words, images, and syntactical rhythms that they might not get anywhere else. It brings joy, engagement, and profound emotional connection for children, teens, adults—everybody. Reading out loud is probably the least expensive and most effective intervention we can make for the good of our families, and for the wider culture.

Screen-Free Week 2019 is April 29 – May 5. Make sure you register your event here!

Meghan Cox Gurdon is a book critic, essayist, and former foreign correspondent who has been the Wall Street Journal‘s children’s book reviewer since 2005.

Screen-Free Week Brings Community Together in Round Hill, Virginia

Screen-Free Week Brings Community Together in Round Hill, Virginia

by | Nov 13, 2018 | Uncategorized

When we think about Screen-Free Week, we tend to think of school and family celebrations. However, over the years, counties, towns, and neighborhoods have begun hosting Screen-Free Week celebrations of their own, whether to promote community wellness programming or to encourage residents to enjoy the outdoors; but as we’ve learned, the main purpose is bringing residents closer together while doing something fun. (For inspiration, check out 2018 community celebrations in Charlotte County, FL, Nevada County, CA, and Des Plaines, IL.)

The town of Round Hill, VA organized and celebrated its first Screen-Free Week in 2018. We were delighted to hear from resident Anastasia Campbell, Esq., that it was a real winner!

It was spring 2018, and the tiny town of Round Hill in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia was gearing up for Screen-Free Week. A small town that’s more than 100 years old, Round Hill is home to many communities and neighborhoods, all built at different times: some Round Hill homes are over 100 years old, some were built in the 60s, some in the 90s, and clusters of new neighborhoods were added recently.

All it took for us to organize a Screen-Free Week event was one fearless parent, a few committed town citizens, an open-minded elementary school principal, and a fantastic town planner. These amazing people pulled off a campaign to trade screen life for real life for an entire week.

We posted signs advertising our town-wide Screen-Free Week around town, and we used the town’s and community’s social media for screen-free advocacy and encouragement.

But the most important and challenging part of it all was getting the youngest generation, our children, to give up screens for more meaningful ways to spend time with family, ideally outdoors.

One fearless parent, Kathi Hottinger, met with Andrew Davis, the principal of Round Hill Elementary (a school of about 600 students), and together they agreed on some important details for the school’s celebration of Screen-Free Week:

  • Students would bring home a flyer from school on the first day of Screen-Free Week listing 100 fun screen-free activities to do as a family.
  • Students would be allowed to complete their homework without screens during Screen-Free Week.
  • Upon the successful completion of Screen-Free Week, students would enjoy an outdoors nature-oriented scavenger hunt at school.

With these details in place, the very first Round Hill Screen-Free Week began, and succeeded in bringing kids and families out of their homes and into the outdoors.

It went great, but it was not perfect. Some parents and kids still had screens and some teachers still assigned screen homework (just for one day).

Hiccups happen.

But the amount of fun our Round Hill families had was well worth all the effort: parents, kids, and neighbors really connected through hikes, playing games, or hanging outdoors and soaking up the sun. Sean Lloyd, a resident of Round Hill, organized a community hike at the nearby Appalachian Trail, a national treasure, which some Round Hill residents had yet to discover. Melissa Hynes, Round Hill’s town planner, found funding to purchase some native plants for Round Hill Town Park that would attract native wildlife and provide educational opportunities for kids. She organized a town-wide event where residents planted a pollinator garden with help from local scout troops.

And the students had a grand school scavenger hunt outdoors on Friday, with every grade taking a turn while two parent volunteers reshuffled and re-positioned the scavenger hunt items for the next group of students.

Round Hill’s Screen-Free Week proved how great it feels to celebrate life away from screens and in the great outdoors.

Screen-Free Week is a great way for a community to organize a variety of different outdoor events that bring families and neighbors together. As we learned, it can and should be done if we want to pass on to our children the value of reality, the value of neighbors, friends, and togetherness, and the value of real life experience without the distraction of a screen.

Screen-Free Week 2018 was bigger and better than ever!

by | May 18, 2018 | Uncategorized

What a week! From San Diego to Sydney, kids families and communities unplugged for Screen-Free Week 2018. And not only did they survive, they had a blast!

Here’s what we’ve heard:

  • Kids were more active
    They scaled rock climbing walls, jumped rope, wiggled on jungle gyms, hiked, danced, and got their feet wet at the beach. Students at the Margaret E. Small Elementary School on Cape Cod saddled up for their first bike rodeo! It’s the second year the school has celebrated big with the school nurse, guidance counselors and teachers working hard to make it a meaningful week.
  • Kids were more creative
    They painted, created cardboard structures, played board games, language games and math games. Anthony from Hyde Park New York said, “…when my house had no TV, computer and video games, all I did was read. Until one day I dreamed big about becoming a writer… Lovito read gave me an idea to write my own book…it made me happy.”
  • Kids used their extra time to help others
    Students at Warrenton Middle School in Virginia kids made cozy blankets out of donated felt to bring to pediatric cancer patients. “We’ve even had teachers sign the pledge,” said Linda Hume, a seventh-grade language arts teacher at the school.
  • Kids came up with their own ideas
    At Fayerweather Street School in Cambridge, Massachusetts, kids wrote cards with all the different activities they wanted to try on Screen-Free Week.
  • Kids were proud of their achievement
    Screen-Free Week also helps children achieve a goal, while trying out all kinds of unplugged ways of being. Classes at the Parent Center School in Salinas, California, couldn’t wait to hold up their certificates for a photo.

Making Screen-Free Week last

For many families and communities, Screen-Free Week is a springboard for assessing their relationship with media and making lasting changes.  Here are some ways to bring Screen-Free Week into your year ahead.

  • Make a family media plan – the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) Family Media Plan can help families devise a family plan that meets their needs and values.
  • Take the Wait Until 8th pledge with other parents to wait until least until eighth grade to give a smartphone to your child.
  • Try Device-Free Dinners  – with everyone’s screens out of the way, families can enjoy conversation at the table.
  • Improve sleep by setting bedtime limits – the AAP recommends that children’s bedrooms be screen-free at night and that screens are turned off at least one hour before bedtime.
  • Make a screen-free day or evening a regular part of your family’s routine – and stick to it!

And Save the Date for Screen-Free Week 2019: April 29 – May 5!

An Entire Screen-Free Year – on a Boat!

An Entire Screen-Free Year – on a Boat!

by , , , | Apr 25, 2018 | Uncategorized

Screen-Free Week is about disconnecting from entertainment screens for an entire week. But what if we were to ask children to disconnect for an entire year?

Hadley, Finley, Tilly, and Scotia Crosby lived an extraordinary 11-month screen-free family odyssey on the seas that drew to an end in July 2017. The four sisters and their parents shared amazing adventures and challenges, but did so together, screen-free. Columnist Thomas Farragher reported about their experience in The Boston Globe, and when he asked the sisters about lessons learned at sea, here was the takeaway: “Slow down. Walk, don’t drive. Spend your time wisely. Work at being a family, a family that enjoys being together. Oh yes, and unplug.”

We’ve asked Hadley, Finley, Tilly, and Scotia to share the challenges and benefits of going screen-free for 11 months on the seas, and this is what they told us. Many thanks to their parents, Kelly and Ned, for allowing the girls to share their story with us.

On the boat, not using electronics made me so happy because I got to spend more time with my family. I got to go up on deck and get some fresh air. I could play card games. When I was not using iPads, phones, computers or any other electronics, I felt so much better. I was not getting headaches or feeling sick. It made me feel so much nicer because I was spending time with my family and not staring at a screen. I was meeting new friends and having friendship with them. Me and my sister Tilly built forts with cushions in towels and brought our stuffed animals in them. We would pretend to take our stuffed animals up and down the deck. We would play nurse with markers clips and notepads. We would read and not go on any electronics – just read! Upstairs and downstairs, in our beds or out of our beds, just reading tons of the time. When we were not using electronics we were so much better and we talked and communicated more. My advice, Don’t use so many electronics! Can you promise me you won’t use so many electronics? Since we got back home we have a basket that we put our electronics in. If you use to much then it will effect your brain and you will get angry and I know that because it happened to me. What I am trying to say is don’t always spend time using your electronics. You will feel so much better not using them so much.

– Scotia Crosby, Age 7

Not having any electronics and living on a boat for a year has made a huge impact on my life in many ways. It has taught me to get outside and see the world and the nature in it. It has taught me to love others and be kind. It has made me happier and healthier.

Not having electronics has not only made me happier, but it has made my family happier, because when one person is happy, you can make everyone happy with even just a smile, a laugh, or a hug. Just one kind thing can make a gigantic impact on someone else’s life.

Looking at a screen all day can’t do any of this. Looking at a screen all day will just make you angry, tired and miserable. We got to see almost the whole world. We got to see huge rocks and huge leaves, we got to see the tiniest bug. When we discovered new things, it made us so much happier because we had never seen it before and we weren’t looking at any electronics. Nobody gets anywhere when all you do is stare at one thing. To be a scientist you have to look at nature, to be a doctor you have to look at nature, to be a lawyer you have to look at nature, to be the president you have to look at nature. If you want to be successful, you have to take a walk outside, or anywhere, and look at nature. Don’t just stare at a bright screen that sometimes can give you brain damage.

My family is the best family ever. We did an amazing thing, and some people may be saying like they did in response to my sisters Globe article, “Oh yes well I’ve seen a lot of other families do this, this is not uncommon.” Well everybody is different, and if you are that grumpy, then get off your screen and go see the world on a boat just like “everybody does.”

I have found that since being back electronics effect my brain in a negative way. The school I am at now we have to use an iPad for and sometimes I get sucked in on it for longer than I need to be. I find that I am extra grumpy and almost angry these days. I have to watch myself and make sure I get out and do things that make my brain happy and have a positive effect.  It was not until we got off the boat that I was able to get my first phone for my birthday. I was so excited and for a while I was addicted. So we have started this thing where my mom takes our phones and we have to read 1 or more books a week if we want to keep it…and not until we finish at least one do we we get our phones back. It is quite frustrating but I am pushing through it now and starting to get into some good books.

Not having electronics has done a lot for my family and me. I am so proud of all of us, and we are all so much happier. It has kept us in shape and we are getting back into the school groove. I love school and love my new friends. We get ourselves outside whether rain, snow, or shine, maybe even hail. Get off your screens and have some fun in nature! Maybe even take a trip on a boat for a year!

– Hadley Crosby, Age 13

When I was on the boat, it was the experience of a lifetime. Our family realized that we don’t need electronic devices to keep us busy. For example, my little sister Scotia and I, would take walks up and down the boat, pretending to walk our stuffed animal dogs. Whenever our parents were out buying food for the family and seeing if the island was safe, my sisters and I would play cards and dance to music until our parents would get back. When we were underway, we would all build forts out of cushions and pillows, and camp out in them the following night. Our parents taught us that we didn’t need electronics to have fun. We would spend most of our time in the water, playing games and snorkeling, seeing new fish and hanging out with dolphins and sharks. We would play games and interact with each other more than we ever had before. We would pretend we worked at shoe stores, real estate agencies, and clothing stores. We would name everything H.F.T.S. After our names, Hadley, Finley, Tilly, and Scotia. If we start using using electronics too much, it could effect our brains in a negative way. We have noticed a change from when we didn’t use electronics to when we have. Everything is better without electronics. Since we have been back from our boat trip, we have been using our electronics too much, which is putting us in bad moods.

– Tilly Crosby, Age 10

Having no electronics has made a huge impact on my life in the past year. Starting with having more family time. Also more time to focus on school work for home schooling. On the boat compared to now a lot of things have changed. On the boat we were always together and happy without electronics. There was never a question  “Why don’t I have an IPhone?” Or “Why can’t I get phones or iPad or any sort of electronic?” We just knew that we didn’t need them and/or we didn’t want them because that was the rule. We were on the boat for family time, not to worry about what was happening on Snapchat or seeing pictures of where people were on Instagram. It was just talking with my sister and my mom and dad. Asking for help with my homework from my older sister or parents instead of asking Siri. Now that we are back from the boat trip and back to real school there is so much more going on. My family and I never get to see each other anymore. Everyone is always going to different places at different times. And when there are family members home we are doing homework and figuring out the answers ourselves. We are able to do this because on the boat we asked for an example instead of just asking Siri for the answer. Everyday for homework whether it is in math, English, or any other subjects we know to try it ourselves and use what we learned from people to solve these problems.

On the boat we were forced to learn how to talk to people, to socialize instead of texting and making plans that we were going to play video games later or something like that. When we were on the boat meeting new people and seeing new places there never really was any time to think about electronics or worry that your phone was going to die and not be able to do your Snapchat streaks because you couldn’t charge your phone or other electronic unless it was a emergency. Sure, I thought about getting a phone but I never asked because I just knew that I didn’t need one because there really was no point. We were out in the middle of the ocean most of the time and there was no WiFi to do anything. So why spend money on something that’s not that important and wouldn’t be useful at most times. When we got back from the boat there was a rule. We had a basket when you walked in the door. That’s where you put your phone when you come in. Of course if you needed something it was always there for you to grab and use. But you didn’t need to be walking around with it all the time. When my sister got her first phone when we got back for her thirteenth birthday she was hardly ever on it. It was always in the basket along with everybody’s who was over our house phone too. Pretty soon there wasn’t even a question when you walked in the door to our house everyone knew that your phone went on the basket unless you needed it for some reason. This rule still stands in our house.

This is why and how not having electronics has impacted my life so hugely and this will be a life lesson for my sisters and I, hopefully for a lifetime.

-Finley Crosby, Age 12