We live in a world surrounded by screens. In our home alone we have nine screened devices. Included in that count are our phones, camera, and GPS.
Growing up I remember having a total of two screen devices in my home, a television and a computer. To use either of these things was a special treat, especially since I had to share with five other siblings. My kids however have grown up with these things all around them and it is just the life they know. If one of them wants to watch Dora while the other one wants to play Angry Birds then, hey we've got an app for that!
I read an article the other day that children five and under should have absolutely no screen time and kids ten and under should not operate screened handheld devices of any kind...This just seems really unrealistic to me. I am sure I'm not the only one with a house filled with screens so my question for you is, how do you regulate your child's screen time?
Do they earn the time they get? Is there a set amount they get each day or week? Are there some devices you are more strict with while others more lenient? Or does it all come down to the type of screen play they are doing, for instance if they are watching tv they get 30 minutes but if they are reading electronic books or playing educational games do they get more? What if they need it for homework?
We are still working on our system. Screen time effects our children differently. Although they both seem to really like screen time one of them gets overly aggressive when they've had too much. Currently we have anywhere from zero to twenty minutes a day of total screen time. Some days, twenty minutes is just enough to take the edge off and make for a very happy and smooth day. Other days though, this restrictive plan seems to cause more problems.
I am interested to see your take on screen time and how you manage it in your home.*
*I realize that in an atempt to cut down on my personal screen time I cannot continue to post daily. I am going to revise my goal from "post daily" to "post regularly." :)
1 comments:
We don't allow our kids to use a tablet. Ever. Sometimes we will hold it and let them watch a 2-5 minute video, but they are never allowed to use them alone.
It's the same with the phone. I don't think that enough research has been done on cell phones (or tablets). Even though we use them and do not have a landline our home, we only allow the kids to use them on speakerphone. And again, they don't hold it.
And we do not have cable, so the only stations we get in our home are the local religious networks. Which is why we don't have the antenna hooked up. This leaves us with only movies or you-tube through the tv; we strongly limit the amount of tv our kids are allowed to watch, and try to keep it to none until they are two. Although we do own baby signing time and our oldest three watched it before they were one. But that's the only time they were allowed to watch it. As far as now, (with the three that are 2+), they are allowed to watch a movie about once a week. Watching any type of show really effects two of our children and afterwards their attitudes are really bad. It doesn't matter what they watch (which we are also very strict with). So in order to keep everyone's attitude as good as possible, we rarely have the tv on.
And lastly, the computer. We've never allowed our children to use the computer until the last few weeks, because our oldest is supposed to be doing some supplemental math on it for school. So it's just been this past week that any kids have done a kid-specific thing on the computer. In the past, they have seen a few you-tube videos, or just watched us doing what we are doing.
For the most part, I really try to keep all the screens off and focus on the kids and the house when the kids are awake and around. I'm not always good at it, but I try.
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