Our “Unplugged” Week, 2008

By megret | April 27, 2008 at 9:59 pm | 7 comments | Learning and doing

Okay. I’m warning you now. This post is LONG, and it’s photo-heavy. What being unplugged meant is that I technically couldn’t/shouldn’t blog about what we did along the way, so I wrote everything down, chronicled it well in pictures, and prepared for this extra-lengthy post. So here goes.

(And let me first of all say how glad I am that we unplugged our family this week! The kids were more laid back, G’s curiosity went up a couple more notches, and we just had FUN. The days I thought would drag on forever seemed to zip by in lightning speed. We aren’t going to remain “unplugged,” but we are now, from now on, going to severely cut down on “tube time.” I don’t even have to beg. The kids showed me during these five days that they wordlessly approve of this decision!)

Monday – “Unplugged Day One”

- We began our day with hearing and singing Scripture memory and Bible songs from old cassette tapes I had growing up. Fun, fun! What a great way to give us perspective as we begun this week.

- First off: A foam soap car wash. I don’t remember where I read about this idea, but G loved it. He was absorbed in it for almost an hour.

- We made coffee filter butterflies.

- We wrote a letter to G’s “celebrity of choice.” Of course, he chose his favorite author, Richard Scarry.

- G then wanted to draw a picture for Grandad (my dad, who’s an artist/illustrator by trade) and mail it.

- Then we whipped up some Butterscotch Icebox Cookies (sans nuts).

- Played outside (put sand in each other’s hair) and blew bubbles on the patio….in other words, unstructured play!

Tuesday – “Unplugged Day Two”

- We finished our coffee filter butterflies….painted faces on them and glued on antennae.

- Played with Legos

- Colored in coloring books

- Read all Curious George books on hand

- Made honey wheat bread….then when it was baked, enjoyed it warm with honey.

- We used an untapped jewel of a book (that my good friend Lanna helped me unearth at an used bookstore a couple of years back) to create a paper Busytown! So much fun. To wrap it up, G enjoyed a finger puppet show put on by yours truly, and he snapped a picture or two of the performance.

- We did three loads of laundry….G loves to help toss clothes in the washer and then into the dryer….and changed the sheets on the beds.

- We also swept the kitchen….

- G really, really enjoyed a couple of games I’d been saving for our “5 Senses” week but decided to add in to the mix. We played “What’s in the bag?” and “What’s that smell?” He was very, very good at it!

- We ended the day with a leisurely watercolor painting session.

Wednesday – “Unplugged Day Three”

- Tuesday night, the kids spent the night with Ken’s parents, so Wednesday morning was spent playing outside in Grandmama’s yard. It was a cool day, but beautifully sunny, and when I arrived to pick them up, I couldn’t help but join in the fun for a few minutes before we headed on our way.

- We had a puppet show.

- We did more laundry!

- We played again with Legos and Duplos.

- We made caterpillar name collages.

- We mopped the floors. (Or rather, I mopped the floors while Rainey napped and I got G going with a water-play activity in the kitchen sink with tea pots, cups, and whisks.)

- Perfect timing….our Brighter Vision package arrived in the mail today, so G immediately set to work on the craft: Rainforest animal sand art. He talked about this for a couple of days afterwards! I see I’m going to have to go buy some colored sand.

- We played a caterpillar ABC game (thanks for the idea, Jennwa!)
G set to work putting the plates in order from A to Z.

He had to sing the alphabet song after a bit so he could tell which letter to place next. He sang it with passion and exuberance every single time. :0)

Ta-da!

- Another idea from Jennwa….the tray memory game…..came next. G played this as many times as objects I had on the tray….and then begged to play it again. In fact, he’s asked to play it every day since then. :0) A big hit!

- We went to visit Ken at work (the kids love writing on his gigantic dry-erase board).

- Their cousin, Branson, and his mom and dad (Ken’s brother) came and had dinner with us.

- We made homemade ice cream mix, but it turned into solid ice….so nothing to talk about there. :0)

Thursday – “Unplugged Day Four”

(Less photos today; my camera’s memory card filled up in the morning and I didn’t get to upload/empty it till later in the day.)

- We did manicures and pedicures. (Let me clarify. For myself, I painted fingers and toes. For G, I buffed his nails and trimmed them and his cuticles (a “manly” manicure). For R, I painted her toenails a dainty peach color.)

- We played Phonics Bingo (another game from Brighter Vision).

- We took measurements of our den/playroom for a rearranging plan for Friday (G loves to take control of the tape measure).

- We listened to more cassette tapes….books on tape, tapes I recorded as a kid of me talking on my Fisher-Price recorder.

- Went outside when Ken cut grass….G helped by trimming along the sidewalk with scissors. He received his very first fire ant bite of the season.

- For dinner, we made homemade pizza! G loved eating the raw dough. No eggs? No problem with me. He also assisted in placing the pepperonis on just so.

- The kids took blue-tinted bubble baths before bedtime.

Friday – “Unplugged Day Five”

- We rearranged the a good part of the house today…it took most of the morning and early afternoon….one room kept turning into two, then three…..you know how it goes. We still don’t have it like we really want it to stay….but it was fun. We gave up some outgrown toys, rotated more toys, and moved some of them out of the playroom into the kids’ bedrooms, including R’s play kitchen. Great idea; she’s been playing with it nonstop.

- We changed out the HVAC filters, and G took the opportunity to examine the ductwork. Just like in the Busytown book! he exclaimed, flashlight in hand, eyes wide.

- We made lemonade just so we could pull out and use these cute little monkey drink picks I bought at Pier 1 years ago and stowed away.

- We took the car through a car wash nearby….a touchless car wash….using “torrential monsoon water jets” instead of brushes. The kids weren’t hip on the idea….they sort of have a love-hate relationship with professional car washes.

- We picked up Chik-fil-a for dinner. (Eating out is a treat for us.)

So that was our week.

Now I have to get busy planning this coming week’s curriculum/lesson plans. Somehow adhering to a single theme (“farm”) doesn’t seem as exciting as our come-what-may attitude last week, but that just means we’ll have to have more weeks like that one thrown in for fun every now and then.

Anybody else participate in “Unplug Your Kids Week?” If so, I’d love to hear about what you did.