Matthew Jervis - How to Entertain, Distract, and Unplug Your Kids: Tricks, Tools, and Spontaneous Screen-Free Activities

WHATEVER. JASPER JERVIS (SON)

ITS OK I GUESS. HES MY DAD. ROMY JERVIS (DAUGHTER)

I HAD NO IDEA HE WOULD REMEMBER ANY OF THIS STUFF. I DIDNT. JOHN JERVIS (DAD)

I DONT HAVE KIDS, BUT IF I DID, ID TOTALLY TRY THIS STUFF! WANNABE PARENT

SO FUN! MY KIDS LOVE MATCHING SOCKS NOW. THANK YOU! ACTUAL PARENT

IM JUST GLAD WE DIDNT SCREW YOU AND YOUR BROTHER UP TOO BADLY HONEY JAN JERVIS (MOM)

Copyright 2015 by Matthew Jervis

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without the express written consent of the publisher, except in the case of brief excerpts in critical reviews or articles. All inquiries should be addressed to Skyhorse Publishing, 307 West 36th Street, 11th Floor, New York, NY 10018.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file.

Cover design by Matthew Jervis

Cover and interior illustrations by Matthew Jervis

Print ISBN: 978-1-63220-625-1

Ebook ISBN: 978-1-63220-749-4

DONT PANIC BE CREATIVE

To Romy and Jasper,

The two reasons I make anything.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Hey there, Im Matthew.

Im a dad, teacher, artist, maker, and designer. So, as you can well imagine, Im pretty busy.

I wrote this book because I love my kids and want to spend every waking minute with them, but the reality is, I cant. Sometimes Dad has to work, pay the bills, run errands, or even talk to other adults.

But still, I didnt want to just leave my kids up to their own devices or mine. So I started inventing little games and projects to occupy them for twenty minutes here, an hour there.

To be truthful, my first attempts at these games were mildly wicked, like Go find Daddy a $4 bill. Although I do offer a new take on this family favorite here in this book.

But soon, they were onto me, so I had to move beyond impossible tasks. And as it turns out, kids are a lot more receptive to an engaging activity than a boring boondoggle.

These days, I delight in coming up with projects to entertain, educate, and inspire kids. My own kids, and other peoples.

And so I give you: How To Entertain, Distract, and Unplug Your Kids!

Sorry, hammer. This book will be the new favorite tool.

Enjoy.

Love,

INTRODUCTION

Here I am touting the fact that this book offers a bunch of "screen-free" activities and here you are looking at a screen! In my defense, I did say the screen-free activities are for the kids. I didn't say anything about the adults being screen-free! I mean, that would be crazy right?! So, lets make a pact that this little online book is just for you and not for your kids. Deal? Now that that's out of the way...

Dad, Im so booooooored!

Weve all been there. Our internal record is stuck, we wander around aimlessly until weve had enough of it and knock the side of our jukebox to stop the incessant skip, and finally we find a groove and were off and running.

Being able to whack ourselves out of boredom is a learned skill, and one that I would characterize as a pretty important one. The ability to pick ourselves up and switch our focus and move forward could be considered a survival skill!

As kids, boredom can feel like an endless slog, but with the right kind of support, they can learn to change their course on their own and not wallow in their boredom for too long.

Of course there are different kinds of boredom. First, you have that deep-seated general apathy kind that might require some professional help.

Then theres the kind your kid gets on a rainy afternoon. If you can get your kids to see their way through that kind, you could actually be teaching them a very important life lesson.

Self-reliance, as defined by Merriam-Webster, is reliance on ones own efforts and abilities. When you look at it like that, being bored could be a very important teaching moment! One that requires patience and determination. We so easily give in to our kids at those moments and hand them our phone or switch on the TV, just so they stop complaining about being bored! Ugh! Who wants to hear that all day?

What we should be doing is nothing, or as little as possible; dont give in to the whining, just toss them a book and tell them, Read your way out of it! Or my favorite, Only boring people get bored!

Eventually we want them to be able to look at things a little differently so we can knock their own skipping record back into the groove. Thats what Id like this book to do. Simply help you to look at lifes moments a little differently, possibly opening yourself up to seeing new opportunities so you can recognize the teaching moments that happen all the time. Raising kids is not easy, but that doesnt mean it cant be fun!

Stuck inside for the weekend? On a long car trip? Want the kids to help out? All seem just a little easier when you can see the situation as a potential adventure full of fun lessons and goofy little games that might actually teach them to be more self-reliant and creative problem solvers, when really you just want to occupy them for a couple minutes and get off your back asking to see your phone!

HISTORICALLY SPEAKING

Throughout history, parents and care-giving adults have been tasked with passing certain valuable life skills and knowledge down to the next generation. Practical skills like hunting, sharpening sticks, building fires, and folding laundry, along with more social skills like how to shake hands, make friends, and mingle at parties. Long ago these were deemed important bits of knowledge that every child would need to know in order to ensure their survival in the world.

Today, on top of all that, were also expected to entertain our kids. We hope, mostly in vain, for some form of magic to fill in the boring bits but alas, most times its on us to supply the magic. What if you could combine teaching important life skills with entertainment? Maybe that sounds too lofty an idea or is it?

JUST LONG ENOUGH

My brother Shawn and I were lucky enough to have spent our formative years in Colorful Colorado with two creative parents. Thing is, being a kid in that part of the country meant, in most cases, that you were at some level participating in one or more of the natural offerings of the area. Activities such as camping, weekend hikes, cross-country skiing, or, God forbid, snowshoeing were all on our list of things to do as a family.

Fine. But as we grew older it took a great deal of creativity on the part of my parents, most notably my father, to keep a couple of bored teens engaged and entertained during these family outings. Of course, this was before the Internet or the bounty of digital devices available to kids these days. But like kids today, we wanted to do anything other than clomp around in nature every weekend. We wanted to be home, hanging out with our friends or just watching TV. Another mile? was the eternal refrain echoing through the hills.