RECLAIMING THE LIVING ROOM: SCREEN FREE WEEK
As Winter’s Night approaches, we invite families to participate in a screen free week. This is not about prohibiting or demonizing technology; it is an opportunity to take fresh stock of its use and impact on our family lives – to consciously place social warmth at the centre of family life, to replace the computer game with the old fashioned (but never outdated) board or card game.
It is an opportunity to nourish with stories (try reading a book aloud to the whole family) and to enjoy activity together such as taking a walk, making winter stars for your windows and whittling. Cooking is a nourishing activity on so many levels -let them make dinner from menu planning to clean up (chores can be fun if given the context plus it what being part of a family is about).
Try taking the cue from your children, what do they love to do? Plan the week together.
If technology is what they love, find the non tech counter offer. For example if they love games of building and invention – counter offer with a project. If they love mystery/adventure games, try puzzles, stories, quiz games and mystery/adventure excursions. If they want to connect socially on line – Join up with another family midweek for a potluck dinner or arrange to meet up at a park for Frisbee…
This week as adults, we can place reverence and gratitude for the “spirit of childhood” at the centre of our family lives with celebration and participation as key elements, but also extending this consciousness beyond one’s own family to include the valuing of childhood in all circumstances near and far.
In the words of Pestalozzi, this week can be about reclaiming the “living room” for families.
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Kindlehill School is a K-10 Steiner School that sits on a hill above the Wentworth Falls Lake, in the Blue Mountains, NSW. We are an independant school working creatively and in a contemporary way, out of the foundation of Rudolf Steiner’s philosophy for education.
