January Unplugged

So I have been gone for a while now.  I haven’t forgotten to write.  But a few months ago we decided as a family to do January “Unplugged”.  Thirty days with no television, no video games and no unnecessary computer time.  Sounds crazy right?  Why would we do this?   I have a love/hate relationship with technology.  It’s both extremely valuable as a tool.  But, it can also be a time drainer. Not to mention it can limit our time together as a family.  So we wanted to do our own social experiment and see if we could make it 30 days without devices.  Unfortunately for us, we need tech for our jobs.  So we couldn’t get rid of it entirely.  But the goal wasn’t to get rid of technology.  It was simply to spend more quality time together as a family. In order to make this more fun, we decided to spend some of our days living by candlelight.  We also bought a Dutch oven and tripod and did campfire cookouts in the backyard.  We made stew and roasted marshmallows while drinking tea by the fire. We lit the fireplace on colder evenings and played board games for fun.  We did art projects and read books together and spent more time at the library.  I got art museum passes from the library and we spent an afternoon enjoying modern art. One day we took an inflatable raft onto the lake and read The Hatchet while eating sandwiches.  When we got tired of the book, we went fishing. What was the result?  At the end of the month we decided unanimously that it was one of the most fun months we’ve ever had together.  We started a tradition together.  One that we’ve named January “Unplugged”.  Give it a try.  Who knows, you might decide it’s the best month you’ve ever had too.  Happy homeschooling!