I spent last week making final plans for our homeschool year, our most “plugged in” year yet. I think that most of us with school-aged children must be facing something similar, and I am very grateful for our online schooling options. My middle school and high school kids will all be taking online classes (I can tell you more about that in my next post if you’d like.) However, it has always been my goal to minimize screen time, and I can’t pretend that screen time in recent months at our house has been minimal. So much has gotten in the way of my ideals this year. This pandemic and the financial consequences of it that are requiring us to work more, extreme weather making outdoor play unpleasant-too brutally hot and dry for weeks followed by weeks of too much rain and nasty humidity, and being just plain stressed, overwhelmed, and discouraged at the state of everything. My goal heading into this fall is to be more intentional when I can, to spend more time planning ahead for unplugged activities for my younger kids (while structuring screen time with my older kids so that they don’t sit looking at one all the time!) but also to give myself grace when things don’t go as planned. Mom’s mental health has to be a priority as well. Please don’t forget to take care of yourself, even if that means letting your little guys watch shows in the afternoon while you read a book or catch up on work.
Over the years, whenever I have fallen into allowing more screen time than I’d like, which in my experience leads to kids not knowing what to do with themselves other than more of the same, I have sat down to make a list of activities. Some of them only require me to set out the materials, and some require me to be a part of them. Maybe two lists would be good? Activities with mom, and activities without. I have collected many books full of ideas over the nearly twenty years I’ve been parenting. I first started making these lists when my oldest son was a baby who didn’t sleep and I didn’t know what to do with him. I was twenty-two when he was born and the days were long.
When my friend, Rachel Wolf, started working on The Unplugged Family Activity Book, she had no idea how timely it would be. So many of us are looking for fresh ideas right now, or even new takes on familiar ones to help us get through these months. Rachel sent me a copy a few weeks ago and it’s a beautiful, inspiring book. The activities are divided seasonally and I always love it when a book is organized that way. When I pull out my stack of activity books to work on my lists in the coming weeks, hers will be at the top. Right now, we have loads of marigolds blooming and Rachel’s summer flower bunting project was a perfect afternoon activity for Mabel. She loved carefully threading the flowers, and I love that I will be able to use the dried marigolds in my dyepots this winter.
Rachel would like to give one of you a copy of her book as well! For your chance to win, leave a comment on this post. I will close comments and randomly select a winner on Friday.
The winner is Bethany, who commented, “I would love a copy of this book! I would also love to know what your own activity list includes if you ever were up for writing a post about that. :)”
I’ve emailed you, Bethany, and will hopefully write that post sometime soon!
I would love to own a copy of this book! What a wonderful resource to have on hand!! Planned activities at your fingertips always take the stress level down when organizing learning adventures. Thank you for offering a chance to win a copy!!
This book looks amazing!! Thank you for sharing!
What a timely book! And beautiful pictures too. So many are in the same boat.
What a beautiful activity! Hope the give away is open internationally!
How lovely. I may make my own marigold garland!
Her marigold bunting is just stunning! What a smart activity and beneficial for all. Thanks for sharing about her book, we all need ideas for so much time at home/together.
Love this book!!
I have had my eye on this book, it looks so lovely. Thank you!
Oh this would be great with 5 at home and reluctantly doing distance learning for the foreseeable future. ❤️
I love the look of concentration on her face while she is threading the flowers. They look beautiful!
Would love to win the book. Thanks for the opportunity!
Would love to win this book! I follow your blog for many years now from Hungary, Europe. ??
This sounds fantastic! I’ll be looking for it at the library even if I don’t win!
What a beautiful activity!
Wouldn’t we all have more joy with more time unplugged!
Thank you for the recommendation!
Wishing you all the best this year ~ Jeannine
I could really use a resource like this! Thanks ?
I will be helping my daughter with homeschooling while she works from home and also has a 4 mo preemie baby boy I will help with. This book looks great for new ideas! Thank you for this giveaway.
Fun things for kids to do that don’t require heavy mom involvement or clean up, please share a list! And thanks for a chance to win!
This is just what we need right now – thank you!
What a wonderful resource.
This book looks wonderful!
That sounds like a wonderful book. I hope your school year goes well. ?
I would love to have an unplugged resource to find unplugged activities!
Two of my kids need more direction than the others–screens are really attractive to them. Thanks for the chance to beef up my parenting resources! Praying your school year goes smoothly (and that you have strength when it doesn’t).
This book looks amazing!
I’m definitely in the camp of allowing too much screen time! I would love to be more intentional with both screen time and keeping it from consuming our days!
I’ve had my eye on this book since if came out! I’m not a very outdoorsy person but have been craving a different lifestyle for our family since we moved to a more rural area. It would be so amazing to win a copy!!
This book is so timely! I’m homeschooling my 5yo (and 3yo) while my 9yo and 11yo go to school in person (though I’m expecting them to be virtual schooling by mid fall).
I could use a few new ideas. Often feel stuck
This is ALWAYS something I’m striving for in our house. Less screen time, more time making/doing. I would love to see more of the activities in the book. My girl, especially, would find it useful.
What a neat idea a marigold garland is. Sadly my marigolds did not do all that well this year. Too hot I think and I wasn’t always faithful watering.
The book sounds amazing.
Great resource!
What a lovely book! We’d be so excited to add it to our home library. I’d be curious to know what activities you did with your little one who wouldn’t sleep?
What a lovely book! Like you – too much time plugged in these last few months. As we gear up for the school year – both homeschooling and our two oldest in private school, we are trying to ease it back. Would love a post on your online curriculum! We used a program a few years ago for our oldest before sending him off to school and were quite happy with it. Thank you for the giveaway!
This sounds like a lovely book!
even if i don’t win this is the perfect gift for so many of the children in my life – what a lovely book…
I am a grandmother taking care of my 10 year old granddaughter. Both of her neighborhood friends moved last week so a gift like this would be a blessing. Thank you, Ginny, for the opportunity.
The book sounds amazing. My granddaughter loves crafting and is having remote learning 3 days a week. This would be a godsend for her!!!
What a lovely book addition this would be to our library during these strange times!
Love the marigold garland, and this looks like a wonderful book! I think people of all ages could benefit from the “unplugged” philosophy! I’m going to make a marigold garland….just beautiful!
This books looks beautiful and inspiring! Thank you for the chance to win! :o)
Just what I need!
This looks like a wonderful book! Thank you for being so encouraging, transparent and inspiring in your sharing with us. I especially loved your words of encouragement about giving yourself grace in today’s post.
I would love a chance to win. This book sounds like just what we need right now! Thank you =)
I’d love to have a copy of Rachel’s book, she’s so inspiring! And so are you Ginny!
This was a great post. Thanks for reminding me some screen time is ok!
The book sounds terrific!
We are homeschooling for our first time this upcoming school year and we have two boys age 9 & 7. Having a new look at activities would be wonderful!
Raising 4 under 12’s can be a challenge… New ideas would be so helpful ?
This book looks great, I was trying to find it at the library but no luck. Id love you win a copy, that flower project looks so fun and beautiful.
My daughter-in-law gave her 2 littles rocks to paint and they loved it. My grandchildren are 4 & 2. They’ve now created a very colorful rock garden. Another creative activity for littles.
I love your reminder not to guilt ourselves if screen time does happen, getting dinner to the table has brought out the screens more than I like but when the 1yo thru his blanket into a hot skillet last week, I gave in for all our sanity. But some fresh ideas pre-dinner time would be great! Especially as sprinkler season draws to a close…