It's not as messy as it sounds but it is fun. My Tivo/dvr is all programmed to catch those important shows I won't be watching this week like Deadliest Catch. It's TV turn off week and I have plans chocked full of fun projects and events to get me away from the TV and even more time with my family. 

You see it's not the kids who are the TV hounds, it's their mom. It's only in the evening between 8 and 10 pm but it's nice to mix it up a bit. Honestly, it's my winter habit of watching tv in the evening while I'm knitting or something. In the summer I get too busy with my garden and being outside. That confession admitted, ……it's still Turn off you TV Week.

A great activity to do with any age is Squish Painting. You'll need some acrylic paint you have around the house, printer paper or newsprint, a rolling pin and a small paint brush which is optional.

 
1. Fold the paper in half.

2. Place little splotches of paint on one half of the paper.

3. Fold the non-painted side of the paper onto the painted side of the paper. Use your rolling pin rolling back and forth from side to side, width wise. This is your squishing action. The squish sound effect works very well here and actually helps the painting action.

4. Open it up and see what you have.

 
We thought our painting looked like a butterfly. The fun part of squish painting is that you don't really know what you're going to get when you open up the paper. Here are some other examples of how we placed the paint and what we ended up with. We have a lot of fun guessing what each painting is. As they say, "Art is in the eye of the beholder". We can have five people in the room and everyone sees something different.

Be sure you lay your paintings flat to dry. Once dry we like to hang them up on a clothes line for a new sort of artistic banner. 

Here are a couple more links about Turn Off TV/ Screen-Free week April 18-24. I hope these links give you a bit of encouragement and information as to what this is all about and some ideas on what to do.

Screen-Free Week

101 TV-Free Alternatives

Unplugged Family Activities

Please join us for Screen-Free week. You can share your challenges and successes here in our comment section.