The modern instinct with free time is to fill it. Whether in our own lives or in the lives of our children, we imagine that something productive or mindless is the antidote to an uncommitted hour. Middle school teachers Kyle Blackmer and Shane O’Neill encourage us to think differently.

This week on HeightsCast, the duo shares practical reasons and methods for protecting our family’s free time, which helps to cultivate interests, relationships, and the wellbeing of the whole person. They speak especially to our role as parents, teachers, and coaches: to clear the way of obstacles and model our own good use of free time.

Chapters:

• 3:27 Good free time
• 5:33 Role of parents in a child’s freetime: not entertaining but spreading a feast
• 7:34 Sunday as the day of rest
• 10:03 Leisure not as a thing “to do”
• 12:17 The Sabbath and sports
• 17:10 Overscheduling as an obstacle
• 22:42 Wasting time vs. free time
• 25:57 Cultivating interests, fostering friendships
• 30:53 Consumerism as an obstacle
• 35:20 Why free time is ultimately valuable
• 42:06 Modeling healthy free time

Links:

• Leisure: The Basis of Culture by Josef Pieper

Also on the Forum:

• Leisure and Acedia: Contemplative Homes in a Frenetic Age featuring R. J. Snell
• A Summer Fully Alive by Nate Gadiano
• What Is the Difference between Free Time and Leisure? by Joseph Bissex
• Friendship for the 21st Century Boy featuring Alvaro de Vicente