FUN IDEAS FOR SCREEN FREE WEEK
Each year, the first week of May is designated as “Screen Free Week.” While phones, tablets, and computers are fun and educational, it’s incredibly important to make sure your kids are equipped to entertain themselves without technology. Traditional play encourages social interaction, creative thinking, problem-solving, and so much more!
- Purchase a disposable camera to document your screen-free week. Deville Camera and Video, located in Jackson, can process your film.
- Visit one or more of Mississippi’s many wonderful museums and parks. Here are a few we recommend in the metro area:
- Mississippi Children’s Museum
- Mississippi Natural Science Museum
- Two Mississippi Museums
- Mississippi Museum of Art
- Mississippi Agriculture & Forestry Museum
- Mississippi Petrified Forest
- Arts & Crafts. The ideas are endless, but here are a few suggestions)
- Collect leaves and foliage from your neighborhood and make crayon rubbings with what you find.
- Make homemade puppets from paper lunch bags or socks. You can set up an easy puppet stage with a bed sheet or blanket, and let your kids perform songs with their creations.
- Make homemade cards for upcoming birthdays and holidays.
- Visit your local post office to purchase stamps, then go home and write a letter to a relative or a friend and send it in the mail.
- Take turns scanning your radio station to find a song your like, then come up with a fun dance for each song.
- Visit your local library to get a library card and check out books.
- Choose a different day of the week to make special meals for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. You can even spend time creating a family cookbook from everyone’s favorite recipes.
- Pick a different board game or card game to play each night of the week.
- Get outside! Here are some playgrounds and parks in our area
- Clinton Community Nature Center
- Brighton Park
- Winner’s Circle Park & Flowood Nature Park
- Lakeshore Park at the Reservoir
- LeFleur’s Bluff Complex
- Laurel Street Park & the Belhaven Bike Trails
- Parham Bridges Park
- Strawberry Patch Park in Madison
- At the end of the week, plan a party to celebrate the completion of your screen-free challenge. Gathering with friends and family, each person can have a “show and tell” of what they’ve created and accomplished in their week away from screens.
Even though Screen Free Week is only once a year, we encourage everyone to be intentional about spending time away from devices. In doing so, we equip our children and ourselves with the ability to experience life in the real world.
