WIXX Screen-Free Week 2026 | Take the Pledge
Put the screens down September 21-27. Take the WIXX Screen-Free pledge, grab a free family or classroom toolkit, and get a week of ideas that beat scrolling.
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One week. No screens. September 21-27, 2026.
Your kids can beat a level, hold a streak, and scroll for an hour without blinking. But can they go a week without a screen?
WIXX is challenging Northeast Wisconsin families to find out. Take the pledge, grab a free toolkit, and swap one week of screen time for the stuff kids actually remember.
Why We Are Doing This
A week without screens is not about taking something away. It is about what comes back.
- Families reconnect. Kids and teens come out of their rooms, and dinner turns back into a conversation.
- The isolation breaks. Nobody feels alone in a house full of people staring at their own screens.
- Play gets messy again. No rules, no app, no scoreboard. Just kids figuring out what to do next.
- Neighborhoods wake up. Bikes in driveways, kids in yards, families at the park.
One week is enough to notice the difference. That is the whole idea.
How It Works
1. Take the pledge. Sign up in the Take the Pledge tab. Parents and kids both sign on. It takes about a minute.
2. Grab your free toolkit. Parents get a week of activities, a printable calendar, and a pledge to hang on the fridge. Teachers get a full classroom kit, a letter home, and a class tracking chart.
3. Play the week out loud. Tell us how it is going. WIXX will share your wins, your fails, and your funniest moments on the air all week.
Hear It All Week on WIXX
Starting September 21, WIXX has a screen free tip every day, plus families calling in with how it is actually going. The good, the bad, and the kid who cracked on day two.
Tell us how your week is going: Call (920) 406-1011 | Text 31011 | Tag us @101wixx
The pledge is simple, and it is meant to be doable for a real family.
During the week of September 21-27, I will:
- Skip TV shows and movies
- Skip video games
- Use the computer for school only, so no games, no social media, no chatting, no scrolling
- Use my phone for essential communication only
Instead I will: get outside, play games with family and friends, read, listen to music, build something, or learn a skill I have been putting off.
Parents make the call on exceptions. A big game, a family movie night, a school project on a deadline: those are yours to decide.
Free, printable, and built for this week specifically. Both kits are dated September 21-27 and carry no school branding, so any family or classroom can pick one up and run it.
Parent and Family Toolkit
A printable pledge dated for the week, a day by day calendar to fill in, and a big list of screen free ideas sorted by age, indoor or outdoor, and how much time you have. Plus a short survival guide for the first 48 hours, because that part is real.
Teacher and Classroom Toolkit
Everything you need to run the challenge with your class: a rollout plan, a script for introducing it to students, a letter home to parents, a class tracking chart, a student pledge, and no cost reward ideas.
Need a plan? Here is one week, already built. Steal it, change it, or ignore it completely.
Monday, September 21: Play at the Park
Meet up after school. Kickball, pickleball, playground, and a picnic dinner if you want to make a night of it.
Tuesday, September 22: Game Night
Board games, cards, trivia. Winner picks Thursday’s dinner.
Wednesday, September 23: Independence Day
Take a walk or a bike ride. Alone or with friends, no adults required.
Thursday, September 24: Free Play
Open gym, art projects, board games, stage time. Let kids pick and let it get loud.
Friday, September 25: Neighborhood Night
Knock on doors. Cook out. Play night games until somebody’s mom yells for them.
Saturday, September 26: Get Outside
Hit the trails. Bring a scavenger hunt list and see who finishes first.
Sunday, September 27: Family Time
No agenda. That is the point.
Full versions of all seven days are in the toolkits.
Teachers, Bring It to Your Classroom
Ms. Berken’s students in De Pere have been doing this for years, and it works. The classroom toolkit gives you the same thing in a version you can put your own school’s name on, already built around September 21-27 so your class is on the same week as everybody else. It is free, it takes about ten minutes to set up, and there is nothing to buy.
Running it at your school? Let us know by emailing corey.carter@wixx.com. We would love to put your class on the air.
Does my kid have to give up screens for school work? No. Computers and tablets for schoolwork are fine. The pledge is about games, shows, social media, and scrolling.
What about my phone? Keep it for essential communication. Texting a parent for a ride counts. Two hours of TikTok does not.
What if we mess up on Wednesday? Then you start again on Thursday. Nobody is checking your screen time report. The point is to notice how much of the day screens were quietly eating.
Can adults do it too? Please do. It is a lot harder to sell this to a twelve year old while you are holding your phone.
Do I have to do the whole week? Take the pledge and do what your family can. Even three days changes the house.
