Love this! We have a lot of similar set ups at our house, too. Our old tv was a hand-me-down from Omar’s parents, and was pretty big. We that kicked the bucket, we opted for a much smaller Samsung Frame TV. These are not cheap, but you can mount them and it looks like art. We got new living room furniture this past year and were finally able to mount the TV and I love it. I love that it displays art(and I love the art it displays! I look at the painting we chose all the time), and I have had multiple people turn to me a couple of hours after being over and say “wait - is that a TV? I never would have guessed” - so a win/win there :)
No TV is a game changer, which we’ve done for over a decade now. We watch stuff on the ipad in bed or on the computer in the kitchen; certainly less appealing. For sporting events it encourages us to go out to a bar with the whole family, which can be really fun.
Great games we keep on the kitchen table along with the conversation cards are the Animal Balance game (Amazon) the cracker barrel triangle peg thingy, and the Top Trumps “Deadliest Predators” cards (an Em for Marvelous stocking stuffer rec!) I notice even our adult friends taking an interest in these games whenever we’re hanging out in the kitchen.
Okay, I don’t want to brag here, but (aside from the conversation cards) it felt like you described our house, haha! Granted, I‘m pretty sure I got the guitar hook idea from your blog years ago ;-) (Thanks for that!) But the piano (and other instruments) in the living room, a big book shelf in the main room, board and card games on the coffee table (we actually store them openly on the "shelf“ under the coffee table, if that makes sense?), books on all the nightstands, cozy blankets in a basket! Now excuse me while I go unfold them, ha!
This is so good Emily! Makes me want to walk around my house and consider what cues already exist, and what I could add in.
Two of my favorite recent adds are a record player (to teach my girls that music doesn’t only come from Spotify 😅) and an Aro box to act as a home for our phones.
Ever since reading this post I have thought about it daily, and started thinking about things I can change in our home to make it lower screen. Thank you for sharing!
This is such a great post - I have been thinking about it all week! I particularly appreciate the photos demonstrating such cues. Inspired by you I've been pulling out some handwriting workbooks to put on the kitchen table when we get home from school (my 2nd grader has been asking to learn cursive and we've been slowly working on it!) and we have a big friendsartlab coloring banner that I put out on the dining room table with a bunch of markers to make it easy to just sit down and start working. Reducing the barriers to start on something that isn't a screen definitely makes a difference!
Oh my, Emily! I was desperately in need of a solve for the never ending amount of BLANKETS that end up on the floor for forts, beds, and homes that are built in the living room on a daily basis. THANK YOU!
Love this! We have a lot of similar set ups at our house, too. Our old tv was a hand-me-down from Omar’s parents, and was pretty big. We that kicked the bucket, we opted for a much smaller Samsung Frame TV. These are not cheap, but you can mount them and it looks like art. We got new living room furniture this past year and were finally able to mount the TV and I love it. I love that it displays art(and I love the art it displays! I look at the painting we chose all the time), and I have had multiple people turn to me a couple of hours after being over and say “wait - is that a TV? I never would have guessed” - so a win/win there :)
No TV is a game changer, which we’ve done for over a decade now. We watch stuff on the ipad in bed or on the computer in the kitchen; certainly less appealing. For sporting events it encourages us to go out to a bar with the whole family, which can be really fun.
Great games we keep on the kitchen table along with the conversation cards are the Animal Balance game (Amazon) the cracker barrel triangle peg thingy, and the Top Trumps “Deadliest Predators” cards (an Em for Marvelous stocking stuffer rec!) I notice even our adult friends taking an interest in these games whenever we’re hanging out in the kitchen.
Okay, I don’t want to brag here, but (aside from the conversation cards) it felt like you described our house, haha! Granted, I‘m pretty sure I got the guitar hook idea from your blog years ago ;-) (Thanks for that!) But the piano (and other instruments) in the living room, a big book shelf in the main room, board and card games on the coffee table (we actually store them openly on the "shelf“ under the coffee table, if that makes sense?), books on all the nightstands, cozy blankets in a basket! Now excuse me while I go unfold them, ha!
This is so good Emily! Makes me want to walk around my house and consider what cues already exist, and what I could add in.
Two of my favorite recent adds are a record player (to teach my girls that music doesn’t only come from Spotify 😅) and an Aro box to act as a home for our phones.
Ever since reading this post I have thought about it daily, and started thinking about things I can change in our home to make it lower screen. Thank you for sharing!
This is such a great post - I have been thinking about it all week! I particularly appreciate the photos demonstrating such cues. Inspired by you I've been pulling out some handwriting workbooks to put on the kitchen table when we get home from school (my 2nd grader has been asking to learn cursive and we've been slowly working on it!) and we have a big friendsartlab coloring banner that I put out on the dining room table with a bunch of markers to make it easy to just sit down and start working. Reducing the barriers to start on something that isn't a screen definitely makes a difference!
Oh my, Emily! I was desperately in need of a solve for the never ending amount of BLANKETS that end up on the floor for forts, beds, and homes that are built in the living room on a daily basis. THANK YOU!