Stone Screen-Free Week, April 29 - May 5!

This week is Screen-Free Week (formerly TV Turn-Off Week), sponsored by Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood.  Please click here for a plethora of resources to help your family unplug!  While this is an initiative that largely has to be undertaken at home, we support limiting time with the bunk boxes and will be sending home materials through the classrooms. Students who return the screen-free week form will receive five Eagle Dollars, plus be entered in a drawing for great prizes!

A few hints for parents, for sensible screen use all year round:
-  Turn on the "closed captioning" feature of your television set and leave it on.  This increases exposure to print even while children are watching TV.
- Keep televisions and computers out of your child's bedroom.  Put your computer in a high-traffic area in your home so you can always monitor what is being viewed, with whom your children are communicating and how much time is being spent in front of screens. 
-  Both adults and children should put phones away and resist texting during mealtimes, at restaurants, and at performances.  As adults, we should also be very careful never, ever to text and drive.  Manners and safety are both examples we set for our children.  
- Don't be afraid of turning off your television during commercials, or any other time something makes you the least bit uncomfortable.  Do you let real people shoot guns, insult their elders or gyrate while scantily clad in your home?  Then why invite them in through the television screen?  Use your remote control to kick them out and send the message about what is acceptable where you live. The practice of "muting" or changing the channel regularly will help your child from becoming desensitized to violence and other derogatory or destructive behavior we see on screens.
- View the video Consuming Kids by clicking here.  Bolster your own media literacy and you will make more informed decisions and have more meaningful discussions with your own children about what is seen on the screen!