19 Apr, 2010
Know More Do More Mondays: screen time (part 1)
Posted by andrea tomkins in: - Know More Do More
I might as well start out by saying I wasn’t crazy about the activity we drew last week.
Encourage your family to be physically active even when watching TV; do some fun aerobics. Only 10% of Canadian youth are meeting the guideline for screen time of <2 hours per day.
I find this stat a little shocking, don’t you? How do these families find the time to watch TV or sit in front of a gaming console? If they’re watching TV, what are they missing out on?
The girls watch very little TV during the work/school week. Same goes for the Wii, the computer(s) or the iPhone or iPod Touch (which the girls are allowed to use). We’re just too busy.
Comparatively, they do watch a lot of TV on Saturday mornings; from the time they wake up (which is 7:00ish) until about 10:00 a.m. (Which is about how long it takes for Mark and I to get up and make coffee.)
We spend one day per weekend at Mark’s parents, and THAT’S when they cram in a week’s worth of screen time. During our six months of winter, we’re all playing on the laptop or the Wii/Wii Fit for most of the afternoon. When it’s warm, however, we’re out by the pool. (Thank goodness for that.)
Anyway, getting back to this week’s challenge, I didn’t think I needed to make them leap up and do jumping jacks during their three hours of Saturday morning television watching – mostly because we’re almost always doing something more active Saturday afternoon.
If anyone is squeezing in some fitness during TV-time, it’s me. I drop and do 20, spend two minutes doing jumping jacks and/or lunges while heating up the milk for my morning coffee, draw circles with my legs while brushing my teeth every night (it’s harder than you think), and do crunches before I go to bed.
Perhaps if the girls watched more television – or were younger – I’d make them do it. But I didn’t.
The girls have been biking and skating with their friends all around the neighborhood almost every day. We’ve been going out for a walk every night after dinner. Sunday we went to our local park and participated in the annual Spring cleanup event. We’ve been busy.
So that’s been our week!
I’m going to start drawing the tips for the coming week at the same time I post about the previous week’s activities. I think it’ll be more interesting that way. And if a couple of people do it with me i’ll consider it a bonus.
This coming week I am cheating and picking my family’s activity without the help of the tip jar. And here it is:
Participate in a TV Turnoff Challenge: Screens Free Week is April 19-25
Screen time typically increases as a child ages… and activity time decreases.
This is going to be a challenge for sure, especially for me and Mark. This means: no TV or movies, no Wii or X-box (which belongs to Mark), and no games on the iPhone. No computer games (for the girls) or random Internet surfing (for me).
What will we do instead? If the weather’s good: go outside. We’ll read more. Play games. Maybe go explore a new park if the weather is good.
I’ll let you know how we did next Monday.
What about you? How much TV does your family consume during a regular week? And would you consider joining us and tuning out for awhile?
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This post is part of the Know More Do More initiative spearheaded by the Champlain Cardiovascular Disease Prevention Network. KMDM is about empowering parents and inspiring them to take charge of their children’s health by taking easy steps to increase activity levels and improve eating habits. I’m one of two champion families who has been asked to take this challenge. You can join too. Check out the official website for more information. You can also get healthy tips by following @knowmoredomore on Twitter. If you’re blogging about your participation, please let me know so we can cheer each other on!
