When life without mobile phones and television is unthinkable for most of us, a group of children from the Colchester Karate Academy in Essex have taken up the challenge and emerged triumphant. The challenge was to not use their mobile phones, television, computer and game consoles for a month. The youngsters had to switch off their mobile phones and lead a gizmo-free life of thirty days. How did they keep themselves engaged? What did they learn from the 30 days of abstinence?
According to Mirror, the kids spent more time with their parents and siblings as a result. Though on day one, nine year old Hamish Lucas was bored to the core playing snakes and ladders and Roulette, on day 30, he enjoyed the other activities like cooking a banana cake, practicing karate moves, Halloween costume designing with his sister, reading books, cycling with dad and shopping with mum much more than watching TV or gaming. “It’s been fun going without it” he wrote in his diary. His father said that he recommended this to every parent and that his kids aren’t bothered much about video games and TV as much as they were before.
Ten year old Rowan Scott wrote in his diary that the undertaking was “more fun than I expected” and that he even forgot where he put his DS! His step mother Landi Fourie added that the kids were “much calmer and easier to put to bed at night.”
