How to Have Fun with TV Without Watching It

Tired of spending every night flipping through the channels looking for something to watch? Make Television fun again. Without watching it. Some fun and simple games that promote togetherness. One of them might even help your kids on their next history test.

Prisoner Of Love

This one is a lot of fun and even has an educational family variation. Almost every cable or satellite system has a parental lock out feature. Most of the time the guide to using it will say something about not using your birthday or other obvious milestones as pass codes. Find out just how obvious those dates are to that special someone. Lockout their favorite channel with your birthday, anniversary or other special date. If you are feeling generous you can tell them what date they are trying for. Eventually you might have to get creative and make them work for it. How long in minutes and seconds does your favorite song last?

Family Variation: If your kids need to remember certain special dates for history, make one of them the lockout code. Keep changing it up. Rotate the code and clues each day to keep them learning new dates.

Hide and Seek: A New Twist on an Old game.

Yes, you are going to hide the remote. That could just end up being frustrating, but we've got a couple variations to make it interesting. The key to all of these is they can't go around trashing the house looking for it. They have play CSI and uncover the clues.

Do you recognize it?

Take a picture of the remote in some obscure hiding place. Make sure there are subtle location clues in the picture. Maybe just the corner of some object they look up every day, or a close-up view of something they only normally see from a distance.

Puzzle it out

You can use on-line puzzle generation tools to create a word search or crossword puzzle that reveals the location when solved. You can make the solution the actual hiding place or just another clue. If you are a true sadist at heart, you can make the location of the picture that shows them where the remote is. This one can also be combined with prisoner of love. Set the lock out code, then provide them with a puzzle that gives clues to what date they are trying to remember.

Twenty Questions

A classic that still works. They can ask twenty questions about the hiding spot. You could do this with nearly any object, but using the remote has special advantages. They will be looking for it during down time when they can relax. This helps focus those relaxing moments on interactive togetherness rather than the traditional passive viewing experience.

Ransom the Remote

Probably not one you will want to use all the time, but if you spring it on them and make it interesting it can be fun. Once again we employ the digital camera. Take a picture of the remote hanging over the garbage disposal or hiding in some other precarious pose. For those of you with Photoshop skills this can be a lot of fun. At the bottom of the picture, state your demands.

These are just a few ways you make TV interesting without actually watching it. The key is to be creative. What could you do with your TV during a power failure? What games can you play if you can't see the screen: just hear the sound. Get creative and enjoy your TV without even having to turn it on.