When the holiday season arrives, it’s easy for kids to reach for a screen.
But at The Oaks Academy, families are discovering the joy of unplugged play through a simple, yet powerful challenge: to collectively log one million minutes of tech-free activities.
Dubbed the “Million Minutes Challenge,” the initiative encourages students and their families to embrace screen-free time by reading, playing games and engaging in creative, hands-on activities. With its roots in the school’s commitment to fostering meaningful connections and active minds, the challenge has inspired parents to rethink how they approach family time.
The Indianapolis Recorder sat down with Oaks Academy director of marketing and communications Brooke Reeves and parent Alicia Sanders to get some tips to implement this challenge as the holiday breaks approach.
Don’t be afraid to try new things
As Reeves explained, getting started can be the hardest part, especially if your family is dependent on technology during their free time. As a parent, however, you have to be the one to stick with it and find creative ways to solve the inevitable boredom.
“You have to be willing to do new things and think creatively about how it’s going on,” Reeves said. “I think the first thing we always tell parents is sometimes you just have to try it. It’s like building a muscle.”
Model the behavior
As Reeves and Sanders explained, kids will follow the parents’ lead, particularly when it comes to screen time. Modeling the expected behavior without technology is necessary (at least until the kids go to sleep).
“As a parent, how can you model this and maybe give up some of the ways you’re using technology to be more intentional with that time you can spend with you children?” Reeves said.
For Sanders, who has been implementing tech-free play since 2018, being intentional is the solution for kids who may not want to engage.
“Just be really intentional about if your child is not going to be on technology, then neither are you,” Sanders said.
Find an activity to do together
Finding activities to do outside of technology can be challenging, but, as Sanders and Reeves explained, it’s essential.
“Try to find an activity to do together,” Sanders said. “It might be difficult. Everyone’s family looks different but find an activity that you can do together.”
Sanders and her family participate in clubs, ride bikes together and are learning to play chess. For Reeves and her children, she has seen an increase in time spent with friends away from school.
“We also have seen a lot of families, especially with younger kids, just be a little more intentional about scheduling a play date during the week, something they may not have done before,” Reeves said. “I know I have younger kids and we’ve definitely taken advantage of that.”
Baby steps
For Sanders, it wasn’t an overnight change. Taking small steps to achieve the big goal of going tech-free is necessary, especially if your children are used to free-range technology use.
“Take baby steps,” Sanders said. “I remember when we first started there were a lot of growing pains. ‘Well, my friends are doing this’ and ‘They want to do this.’ Blah, blah, blah. It was a lot of growing pains.”
As Sanders explains, these steps can be something as small as shaving off a few minutes each day from your time with technology. Little by little, those minutes may add up to a million.
For more information about The Oaks Academy and their Million Minutes Challenge, visit theoaksacademy.org.
To read more local news, click here.
This reporting is made possible by a grant from the Indianapolis African-American Quality of Life Initiative, empowering our community with essential health insights. https://iaaqli.org/Contact Health & Environmental Reporter Hanna Rauworth at 317-762-7854 or follow her on Instagram at @hanna.rauworth
