Since school just started for us this week, and since our Dream Satellite TV went bad on us last week, we are without any English TV channels at the moment. While I am actively pursuing a fix or a refund from our provider (public outing may follow if he continues to ignore my calls), we are actually benefiting from the lack of TV. The temptation is gone. When my kids ask to watch TV, and I say “no, we can’t” they realize we quite literally cannot and they drop the subject. Of course we have plenty of DVD options, but I am sticking to a no TV during the week policy and it’s going fine. So far, anyway.

Last night, my daughter helped me make dinner instead of watching a show while I made it (a common routine in the past). My son finished his first school project two days early. He wasn’t rushing through homework to get to TV time. Plus, there was no drone of TV noise in the background while he worked on homework.

We are doing some screen time substitution via the computer. However, that time is spent on math and learning websites getting math practice in a fun and interactive way. The kids are also reading more, playing more and getting to bed earlier.

We’ll see how long this experiment lasts. So far, I think the detox has been positive and eye opening. What are your rules for screen time (TV, computer, handheld games, Wii) during the week? How about on weekends?