Lex’s school is celebrating “Screen Turn Off Week” this week. They kicked off the celebration on Friday night with a fun event at school called Brain-o-mania! Lex came home with a paper “brain” hat and they have been talking all week about fun things to do that stimulate the brain. At the Brain-o-mania event they had all sorts of activities set up throughout the school. Arts and crafts, balls and games in the gym, robotics, puzzles and games, challenges, and even real brains! Local college students apparently bring over human and sheep brains every year and the kids can touch them! Lex was talking about that all week and super excited, but when we finally made it to that room at the end of the evening they were out of rubber gloves and Lex seemed to have lost interest anyway. He took a quick glance at the brains then moved on to a build-a-brain 3D puzzle. It was a really fun night and my only complaint, if you can even call it that, is that there was so much to do and not nearly enough time. I felt like I was rushing the kids through the whole place trying to see it all. In the last room we made it to I was talking to a teacher who said that they do basically the same things every year so the kids start to know what to expect and are able to plan their time accordingly. I guess it’s just us kindergarten parents who are still feeling harried :) It was fun though and I’m glad Lex was excited to go. He really loved the robotics stuff and both kids spent a lot of time in the arts and crafts room.

The kids, and a classmate, watching the robotics demonstration. Alan and Lex probably would have spent the entire time here if I'd let them.

Eve in the arts and crafts room.

Hard at work making sculptures out of recycled stuff.

Our last stop of the evening. They drew flags to add to a banner to be delivered to a Ugandan school that the town has a relationship with.

This week they are earning prizes for amount of time spent reading (Lex is leading his class so far!) and doing lots of other fun activities. Last Saturday I saw a URL in a magazine for a neat looking website (nutrition related) and I asked the kids if they wanted to play with it for a bit. Eve jumped at the idea, but Lex said, “Remember Mom, it’s screen turn off week. I’ll just play with my toys instead.”  So we left the screen off.   :)