Take a look at this new book “The Big Disconnect: Protecting Childhood and Family Relationships in the Digital Age” by, Catherine Steiner-Adair EdD.

Catherine Steiner-Adair clinical instructor in the department of psychiatry at Harvard, a school consultant, and a therapist in private practice, interviewed over a thousand children between the ages of 4 and 18 looking at how technology was effecting their relationships and their social and emotional lives. Hardly surprisingly she found that the amount of screen time was detrimental to childhood development; and because of their parents’ obsession with their devices children were having to compete for their parents attention, harming communication and even fracturing families.  In an interview with the Huffington post she suggests 8 important things all parents should know about “screen time”. Take a look, very few of us have escaped completely and even we are a little guilty of some of these!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/04/ways-screens-are-ruining-your-familys-life_n_3860927.html

But the solution is simple, if you are guilty of disconnecting, help your family re-connect by making a conscious effort to go outside and have some fun in the natural world at least once a week. If you are short of ideas for outdoor adventures, buy one of our books or have a go at our weekend “challenges”.

Every Friday we will post a simple idea for a fun activities you can have a go at that weekend.  It’s not a “screen” ban, just an opportunity to have some fun outdoors with your children for a couple of hours every week.  Have a go and post some of your adventures on twitter with #screenfree and #goingwildnet for others to share and a chance to win a signed copy of one of our books.