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

Is His Free Time Freeing?