Go wiggle your toes in the dirt!

Jeff Utecht has a great post – Turn off the screen and go play!:

” This week we have been celebrating TV Turn Off week at our school, and when your wife is the counselor leading the charge, you set a good example. So for the past couple of nights we have not watched any TV, turned on a computer or participated in any “Screen” activities….

After some meaningful ponderings, Jeff says something that resonates with me:

We can’t ignore that technology exist for this generation; what we need to do and learn is to balance the use of technology with good old fashion play. Maybe preschool students don’t need to watch a movie every day, or a 2nd grader doesn’t need a Gameboy. How do these activities help foster growth in students? Sure a Gameboy is great when you are traveling. It will keep a kid occupied for hours, but do they need to play it for hours when they get home from school?

I agree totally! I live in the country for a reason. Although I did very well academically throughout my life, it is creativity that has always served me well and prospered me in most every career.

I do not attribute the creativity of myself and my siblings, one of which is a graphic designer at Disney, to our brilliance — for indeed we are NOT brilliant. (Though the Apprentice fellow is a MENSA member, none of us are.)

Any succees we have, is rather partly attributable to what I call the “Wiggle your toes in the dirt” factor.

I believe it is important to get out of the house and “do stuff.” My favorite “stuff” is family time, fishing, running, frisbee, playing with the dogs, reading, talking, telling jokes, riding the Mule (a golf cart like contraption) through the farm, working on the farm, cooking, ping pong, taking pictures, pulling a weed or two and just “doing nothing” outside. Sometimes I just lay on the slide and look at the clouds or swing a little.

These are the intangiable things that I believe are ESSENTIAL to the growth of my own children as well as my own happiness.

Do you know what puts me in a good mood at this moment? The smell of jasmine that covers my entire yard. If I need a lift, I go outside and inhale that dreamy perfume.

I've enjoyed looking at the clouds lately. They have been beautiful and white and fluffy.

The other day it was pouring down rain and I let my two well children go play in it (My daughter just had a tonsilectomy) and jump in mud puddles until they were as brown as the bird dog!

Life is so full of wonder and beauty. It is also full of amazing gadgets and toys. But it is in the diversity of things that I become ME and kids become above average.

For me, it is when I wiggle my toes in the dirt that the cobwebs in my brain disengage on the breeze.

Jeff goes on to quote The TV Turn Off Network which has created a Facts and Figures about TV habits:

Average number of hours per week that American one year-old children watch television: 6
Number of hours recommended by the American Pediatric Association for children two and under: 0

Average time per week that the American child ages 2-17 spends watching television: 19 hours, 40 minutes
Hours of TV watching per week shown to negatively affect academic achievement: 10 or more

Hours per year the average American youth spends in school: 900
Hours per year the average American youth watches television: 1,023

So, get away from the TV, the laptop, the gadget and spend some time like Jeff does and many other greats outside doing “nothing.” Perhaps why some of the blogging greats like Jeff and Kathy Sierra are so great is that they push their rolling chair away from the keyboard and get a little “non-screen time.”

Can you?

Even more so, can you do that for the children in your sphere of influence?