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Posts mentioned within this podcast:
Surviving Summer (and Free Printable)
How I Limit My Kids’ Screen Time
Teaching Kids to Clean (e-book)
28 Days to Hope for Your Home (e-book now retired – for detailed guides, check out my books: How to Manage Your Home Without Losing Your Mind and Decluttering at the Speed of Life.)
Just listened to this week’s podcast, and wanted to share about how we manage screen time. We have three kids, one of whom would play video games from morning to night if we’d let him (and he’s only 7–yikes!!). We started our method with our youngest who’s not in school yet, as the other two had a “no games until schoolwork is done” rule. He had a “you must read (or have read to you) two books before you can play games” rule. This goes along with our participation in the summer reading program, as now that school’s out, we just break down their weekly goals into 6 days (we also have game-free Sundays) and that’s how much they must read before the games can be turned on. You could use anything your kids need work on, or just supplement their summer with little bits of math and grammar to keep them from forgetting skills they’ve learned over the past school year. Of course, daily chores must be finished before games can be played, and if they get started too early in the day, I have them take at least 20 minute breaks every hour or so (but they’re always willing to play outside at their ages, so that’s not hard for us–yet). Hope you have a great summer!!
So I came over here hoping to read all kinds of Mom Wisdom about handling screen time. I guess everyone is already on summer vacation. Today is our last day so we’re a little behind in Wisconsin.
My boys are 5 and 8 so they’re in the phase where they love video games but haven’t quite reached the full on tilt older kids seem to have. Well, the 8 y/o recently discovered Minecraft and the moment we install that at home I see our needs changing.
Anyway.
When they were younger we did a token system for screen time. During the school year they each got 10 tokens a week with each token being worth 25 minutes of TV (the length of a show on Netflix) or video game time. It kind of worked for awhile but the problem was they weren’t quite ready for the time management aspect of it – especially the 2 y/o – so had to manage that for them. It also didn’t allow for the longer periods of time we sometimes allow on weekends or days off school when the weather is crappy. My husband plays with them sometimes too and we didn’t want to necessarily limit that because they used all their tokens that week.
This summer the rule is they can play video games on weekdays at 4:45 p.m., the hour before dinner, if they’ve set the table and fed the cat. (TV time isn’t a huge issue because they watch first thing in the morning and know they’re done for the day.) I was mostly doing that during the school year but for summer I set the time in stone so they’re not asking al day. Weekends will be a little looser and I’ll also let them play more on occasion if the weather gets hot and we’re trapped in doors. I don’t have a problem with marathons every once in awhile. I’ve also set up ways for them to earn extra hours here and there in the form of prizes for the summer reading program and a successful week practicing a musical instrument.
We’ll see how this works. We’re pretty good with routines but not with set in stone reward systems and limits
And like Nony, in our house you are not entitled to video game time. If you’re a jerk it goes away. 😉
Are you taking a break from podcasts this summer?
I am. I didn’t officially say it because I hoped I could do a few, but it’s not looking good . . . I’ll definitely start back up when school starts.