The TV Free Me

It's recently come to my attention that I'm watching entirely too much TV. It's on practically 24/7. Well, I was getting a little fed up with it so I decided to challenge myself (and my 2 kids) to cut down to 2 hours of TV a day. Depending on your perspective that can either seem like a lot or seem like you've just had the rug pulled out from under you! Well, we are in the later category in my house. My husband is not on board with this new challenge and that's OK, as long as he keeps his TV watching to when it doesn't interrupt our 2 hour minimum. So far so good. :)

So how do I keep track of how much TV we're watching? Well, I wrote it up on our dry-erase board. (But I'm thinking I'll make a simple word doc design, cover it in clear contact paper, and use velcro on the tokens). We each get 4- 30 minute tokens a day. I also made up a few simple rules to go with it. We only get 2 hours a day, once that's gone then it's gone for good, and you can lose TV viewing time with bad behavior but not earn it back. Easy Peasy.

One thing that is tough for Ian (almost 9) is the boredom syndrome. To combat that I made up an 'Idea Jar'. There are all kinds of ideas in the jar, from chores to games to craft and sewing ideas. I wrote some simple rules out for this too. We are headed into the winter and times will be hard to get outside so the first rule is to pick an idea that's weather appropriate (inside and outside have been written them). He is also not allowed to pick and idea, not like it & put it back, once the idea is picked he must go do it, and with out complaining. Lastly, he's to have fun!

So how are we doing so far? We started mid-week last week.

Jameson is doing pretty good. He is still asking to watch TV pretty regularly although he's not throwing a fit when he's told no. He's learning to use his imagination and reading a lot. He just turned 2 on Oct 1st, by the way. :)

Ian is also doing pretty good. He was sick and stayed home the 2nd day of our new TV rules and did really well. He pulled several ideas from the Idea Jar and spent a good amount of time with his nose stuck in a new book. He is almost 9, by the way. :)

I am doing excellently! I've gotten my TV viewing time down to about 30 minutes a day. My days are just too full to watch TV now. I've been reading and journaling more. I've been piecing a new quilt together, working on custom orders, and taking care of my business in general, and even took the TV out of my sewing room. I've also canned quite a bit of food recently and have been spending more time in the kitchen actually taking my time to cook a meal. I've done a million things here and there! I'm so glad I took this plunge!

Scrappy Fan Quilt

Home Canned Goods

TV removed from my sewing room!