Screen Time

Screens hold a potent allure to our little ones. It's sobering to consider that screens will most likely be part of every day of their lives on this planet! But as an exhausted parent in need of a slow cuppa (or a scroll on our own screen) - what a tool for a reprieve. And when used in moderation, what a fabulous window into the world. Even today in social isolation we were watching penguins at the Melbourne Zoo and opera in Europe! With some very hard months ahead, I'm not going to write about the negative effects of too much screen time here, but instead share with you how we've chosen to navigate screen time in our household. And how our method has resulted in a cleaner house and kids kicking their personal goals!

WHAT WE DO
I have a home made 'Screen Time' chart stuck up in a visible and heavily frequented area of our home. It's been covered with clear contact and I have a whiteboard marker blue-tacked to the wall beside it. Each of our kids has their name written at the bottom of one for the tick box columns on the chart. Whenever the kids exhibit any of the behaviours listed, we reward them with a 5 minute tick. Positive reinforcement at it's finest!

HOW IT WORKS
After a few months of trial and error we've arrived at focusing 5 minute rewards for:

• Mornings AND evenings : eating their breakfast, getting dressed, brushing their teeth (without being told to OR told how to). In our home we also offer a 5 minute bonus if they can have these all done before 8am.
• Packing up or making tidy an area they have walked away from (without being told to OR told how to)
• Going to bed 'without a fuss' - meaning that they are content and stay in bed after we give them their stories and goodnight kiss (without being told to OR told how to)
• Helping out around our home. Common jobs worth 5 minutes each include: hanging out the washing, bringing in the washing, sorting the washing, putting away the washing, unpacking the dishwasher, and doing the dishes (without being told to OR told how to)

The kids can only ever 'cash in' once per day, and it has to be initiated before 5pm. We never remove any time off their charts. Then we simply wipe off the ticks to start again. If the kids can't cash in for some reason / they forget to / they want to let their time accumulate more they can take it the following day. At times we may bend the rules and let them watch a movie in place of a few days worth if we have a very busy week (just not going to happen over the coming months!). Another big rule is that they are not to watch the other's screen time, but if they want to use up their minutes to watch or play the same thing that's ok.

As a result of this system, we are more consistent as a parenting unit and the kids are more understanding of what we expect of them. And they are motivated to offer to do housework! Definitely makes the running of our home much easier. I'd be interested to hear how other people get their kids to help our around the home too - please leave your comments below.

I understand this isn't going to be a fit for everyone's household but if you'd like to try out our system I've included a free printable version of the chart that I"ve made up for you to try out below - with a version for 1, 2 or 3 kids (if you need more name spots just print it twice).

WHAT ELSE WE DO
There are a few other times technology pops its head up through our average week too which I'll mention here:

• Friday night movie night : we take turns as a family (Mum and Dad included) to choose a movie to watch together every Friday. This is also a low effort TV dinner night!
• Sunday arvo Nintendo Switch chill time : this is a new addition to our week because of our social isolation. In order to mark the weekend as unique to the weekdays we are letting the kids turn our lounge room into a cubby from Saturday morning. If the cubby is packed away by 3pm on Sunday we are willing to give them a BONUS 30 MINUTES (if used in combination of their chart time that could be up to ONE HOUR!).
• As part of our 'School Based Rewards' we are offering up 2 HOURS of Switch time as a Nintendo Night. Every single marble that has been placed this week has ended up in that jar so it will be on the cards in the coming weeks.
• Educational viewing - I hope to watch some documentaries / BTN / other educational sources in the afternoons over the coming weeks as we continue to navigate homeschooling. I am looking forwards to encouraging opinion writing for our grade 3 in writing a movie review, and factual writing for our grade 1 as he records what he learns about certain animals during a nature documentary.
• Creative time - including the Stop Motion app for animating lego or clay figurines
• Other educational uses as seen here
• 'Babysitting' for desperate times, during sickness, important conversations and when full focus is needed by the caring adult elsewhere for a period of time... even for self care. Be kind to yourself!

Pictured: the kids enjoying a 7 minute workout yesterday courtesy of Youtube!

WHAT DO YOU DO?