Submitted by Bedford Youth and Family Services
It is easy to get busy and stay busy in this vibrant community of Bedford. In fact, it was because of this busy-ness that the Bedford Community Partnership initiated Bedford Families Unplugged in October 2004. Supported by the Bedford Selectmen and Bedford Public Schools, Bedford Families Unplugged boasts a long list of endorsers and supporters. Due to the success of the program over the years another Unplugged day is scheduled for March 4, 2015 with the full support of the Selectmen and School Committee.
“Providing respite from our daily, in too many instances, over-scheduled routines just once a year yields little likelihood of making a lasting impression,” according to Bedford Public School Superintendent Jon Sills. “Hopefully making Bedford Unplugged a bi-annual event will create greater opportunities for reflection or family time or face to face recreation.”
Based on a program started in Needham, Bedford Unplugged Together hopes to remind people that life holds more than what is on the other end of a plug, be it a computer, a television screen, or a phone. The goal of the evening is to encourage various activities families can do together without electricity and that emphasize person-to-person interaction. Bedford Public School students will have no homework, evening sports, or required activities and the School and Town will have no required evening meetings. Parents are encouraged to be home for dinner and families can have a night off from their respective “daily grinds” for engagement and fun. The School Committee has arranged for the no homework and no sports while the Selectmen have asked all Town boards and committees to reschedule any of those meetings that might have originally occurred on that Wednesday night
Families are encouraged to plan activities together for March 4 just as they did with the original Unplugged day in November and to try to build activities like this into their daily lives, whether the Town or the Schools declare “Unplugged” or not. According to Bedford Youth and Family Services Director Sue Baldauf, who coordinates Unplugged efforts on behalf of Bedford Community Partnership (BCP), the goal of Unplugged is to increase and improve family connection and relationships. “BCP is not interested in mandating that people do nothing but in supporting families being connected to each other, especially in terms of providing support to our children and youth. We know that when kids have access to caring adults, they do better socially and educationally. We want our adults to remember that not only on Unplugged days but always.”
If you have questions about the program or would like more information, contact Youth and Family Services at 781-275-7727.
For a partial list of activity ideas, consider the following:
- Eat dinner backwards, starting with dessert first!
- Have breakfast for dinner one night
- Make your own pizza night
- Have an indoor picnic
- Play a board game with the entire family
- Kids plan & cook dinner for parents
- Eat out – kids’ choice
- Read a book out loud together
- Eat out – parents’ choice
- Wander in the Bedford Town Forest
- Go text free – talk face-to-face the whole day
- Illustrate a song that inspires you
- Go email free – talk in person instead of on line
- Make a card for someone you love
- Go fish – get out the cards & play your favorite card game
- Design a family Jeopardy game or trivia contest
- Clean your closets & donate coats & clothes you don’t need
- Take cover – build a fort out of tables & blankets
- Count the geese at Great Meadow Wildlife Preserve
- Tell 5 people why you are thankful for them
- Take a walk around the block by the light of the full moon
- Turn off all the lights & have a conversation in total darkness
- Organize a relay race or scavenger hunt for your neighborhood
- Send a thank you note to someone who has helped you
- Draw family portraits without looking at the paper
- Frame something you have been meaning to frame & choose a spot to hang it up
- Take a mini-vacation to Boston – visit a museum, walk the Freedom Trail, or explore
- Learn more about another culture & cook a meal from that country or region
- Visit Bedford Public Library & check out a book for the family to read
- Volunteer as a whole family at the Food Pantry, a church, or some other favorite charity
- Make a statement day – Put your favorite quote on a white t-shirt
- Trust Walk – Build trust by taking turns being blindfolded & being led around
- Puzzled – invite your neighbors to a puzzle & pizza party
- Organize a neighborhood clean up & recycle cans & bottles for a favorite charity
- Camp out inside – make popcorn, use sleeping bags, tell stories by flashlight
- Help a family in need with a donation of food to the Bedford Food Pantry
- Sign up for a Trails Committee walk in one of the Bedford conservation areas
- Walk in a conservation area near you – download a map from the Trails website
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