Johnhwilburn.com

Last week a little girl asked me if I could help her make a birthday card for her Aunt using construction paper, crayons, and stickers.

Of course I was happy to help!

it ended up being her, and two of her cousins making home-made birthday cards. They were understandably simple and basic, but the kids had a TON of fun making them!

Yesterday two of the girls asked if they could make another card for their cousin who had his birthday over the weekend. We ended up with six from the same family working on a creative craft.

Watching these young people working with their hands I was reminded of an important truth….

Simple pleasures bring the most joy

Children in Saint Vincent are (like children everywhere) addicted to technology like phones, or tablets. In 2019 the Government began giving tablets to every child in School. While I understood the need for children to have technology to be used in education, this was also a VERY Bad idea.

Until that time children enjoyed simple pleasures that didn’t Involve screens

1. Pitching marbles
2. Playing a game together
3. Swimming
4. Fishing
5. Making a kite with sticks and trash bags, and then flying them
   

But when children got tablets, suddenly they weren’t interested in simple pleasures anymore. I can remember a school principal telling the children nobody should be playing marbles at school because it makes their hand very dirty, now no child would possibly be interested in playing marbles!

The truly sad thing is the simple pleasures like making a birthday card or playing a game outside are BETTER for the children. Because they use their creativity and imagination instead of turning their brain off, which often happens when using technology.

Yesterday reminded me how it is often hard to get children to unplug….

But it is better for them in the long run.

The simple pleasures will become boring for them at first because they are used to being constantly entertained by screens. But the more time they spend away from it, the clearer their mind becomes, and the more freedom they have to creatively have fun.

In a perfect world children will live without technology

But today they best thing we can do is remove those screens, and give them some construction paper and crayons instead.