It's TV-Turnoff Week!

Ever since 1995, schools and other organizations have sponsored TV-Turnoff Week.
Today is the beginning of this year's turnoff week: seven days of finding other things to do than watching TV.
It's intended to make people think about how much time they, and their children, spend watching TV, and to spend a week focusing on other things to do.
If your child's school doesn't sponsor it, consider starting it yourself---today.
I first heard about this yearly event in Jim Trelease's Read-Aloud Handbook but today's Washington Post KidsPost also discusses it.
According to the article in the Post, pediatricians recommend that kids spend no more than one hour a day watching TV, using computers, and playing video games. "The more time you spend in front of the TV, the less time you spend reading, writing and doing arts and crafts and sports.
If your kids are not familiar with The Wretched Stone by Chris Van Allsburg, this would be a great week to read and discuss it. In this book, sailors find a glowing stone on an island and bring it aboard the ship. Soon they are mesmerized by it, and all they want to do is sit and stare at it. Hmm---what could this symbolize?