The key is balance.
Technology is the gift in this season when we need to stay home so much.
How do you and your kids use the TV, computer, iPad, tablet or mobile phone at home? What clear guidelines have you set in place with your child?
We aren’t going to run away from it or let them loose with whatever they want to do with their devices, especially with the older kids. It is an awesome tool. We just need to manage it well.
What works for us is setting limits and building technology habits like taking eye breaks, gaming or app limits, bedtime locks and prioritising time-in with each other.
Meanwhile it has been a point of connection with my kids when we talk about what we read on the article, or share a funny meme, watch a show and documentary that we can discuss deeper, or read and listen to an online or audio book together.
Screens are also a creative outlet for kids, especially as they get older. One of my girls draws extensively on Sketch, another is learning from Youtube on how to understand scripting language to create a game, and my preschooler is repeating the Chinese phrases from an audio book story with exact tone and pronunciation.
The key is balance.
Outside the time limits given, the non-screen time allows them to expand on what they were doing on their apps into pen and paper. We had a season of them drawing sketchbook pages full of floor plans of a potential house they wanted to build in the game.
Meanwhile, my preschooler will be requesting me to read her favourite book on Libby with her (because I forgot to renew the book and so returned it quickly without telling her), well…till I find that book at the library again.
Grace
Where you can find me:
@gracedays123