This comes at a great time for us because I have just revamped our books. Basically, I sorted, did a little purging, and boxed some up for rotating them later. The boys' books were just out of control. They couldn't see a tree through the forest so to speak. So now I've got two boxes of books in the garage and two bookshelves showing books by their cover, not their spine. The rooms are less cluttered and they are excited to see books they haven't seen in awhile.
In an effort to reduce our tv watching, I took away all the VHS tapes and all but 5 DVDs (Update: I got this idea from The Toby Show via Unplug Your Kids). Once we got rid of the cable, the DVD watching began to spin out of control. I replaced the videos with books and a CD player. Now what they see is lots of learning books (ABC books, science books, work books, human body books, etc) and books on CD. I also put a few CDs of children's songs in the CD player, too.
Nathan is having fun learning the "Hokey Pokey" and "If You're Happy and You Know It...". The DVD watching is diminishing and we're getting some exercise! (Try doing the Hokey Pokey a few times without getting winded...) LOL!
I thought this would be a good time to share some of the boys' favorite books, too. Will is really into manners and behavior books right now. Jeff captured this moment of me reading Why Do You Always Say Please? to Will during our one-on-one time.
This is Nathan's favorite: Slide and Find Trucks. Instead of flaps, this book has sliding doors. It is a bit of a memory game as well as teaching different trucks and tractors, colors, and drivers (police, firemen, etc).
My favorite book to read them is Five Minute Devotionals for Children. It's a quick nightly read about one of God's creatures and then there are questions for reading/listening comprehension as well as "What do you think?" questions. It really is a cute book.
So, with all of these books available, we should be ready to Break Free of TV come April 21-27 for TV Turnoff Week! Unplug Your Kids is doing a challenge; head over there and join me!My goal is actually NO TV that week. We've done a week without tv before so I know we can do it again. This time though, I think the kids will be a little less shocked because we've already been reducing it and I'll be a little more prepared with a few more activities. ;)
Not only is this challenge for tv watching, but for other "screen" watching as well. I'll be keeping the computer off except for nap times. I've tried this in the past, and IT IS HARD. What an addiction I have! Again, I'm hoping to have some extra activities planned to keep my mind off of it, too!
After the week is over, I'll have a post of how we did: the good, the bad, and the ugly (hopefully there won't be too much ugly).
This week, though, we'll be working on another Unplugged Project: FOOD!!! Maybe I'll have something new to add to Must Follow Recipes - wouldn't that be exciting!? :)
10 comments:
LOL, Our books are also "out of control"!
We are looking forward to NO TV WEEK
as well, I'm hoping it will curb some of Hubby's addiction.;-)
I'm not sure how I'll do without
the computer on all day, but I am working on it
to "green up" a bit more.
If I add one more challenge this month, I don't think I will make it! :) But, we too need to reduce our TV watching...so this will be a good impetus.
As an aside, I like how long your hair is getting. It looks really good!
You are a brave woman! First of all, I think my daughters might actually die without Disney channel, although we have taken it out of their room. I do limit their TV, but I don't even know if I could make it. There are several days when don't watch it because we don't have the time. That's why we have a DVR. Did you know you can record all your shows and actually watch all of them in a matter of 1 hour? That's what we've started doing. That way we can watch when we do have free time. Good Luck! I can't wait to see what you guys do this week.
I have to tame our books soon. Now that our three-season porch is open on most days, the kids' stuff has exploded again.
Thanks for sharing your ideas for book clutter control and some good books too!
I've been thinking about rotating my daughter's books too, to make them more exciting once she "finds" them again. Good luck with your week without tv!
Our book are crazy here to. As they say, they are coming out of the woodwork here. LOL. Good luck on your no t.v. I thought about doing it here but I do not seeing it happen for me. The kids maybe. That would be good right? :)
Thanks so much for joining in the TV Turnoff Week Blog Challenge, and for the great book-related suggestions. Rotating books is a good idea. I keep reorganizing all of ours in the hopes of controlling them, but it doesn't seem to work very well! I also like your little CD and book area where your videos used to be. Great idea!
Wow - I was just exploring that 5 minute devotions one last night. How do you like it? What age does it seem appropriate for? Looked really neat. we have too many right now, so maybe for next year :)
LOL cute post!!!
Great book clutter control ideas!!
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