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Kids’ Screen Time: Tips and Resources

November 25, 2014 by Jaimi Erickson 6 Comments

Ready to have the ENERGY to be the best mom you can be? Get started! Thanks for stopping by!

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This post contains affiliate links. Please see my disclosure. 
I was not paid to offer the included giveaway.

Kids and Screen time-tips and resources for teaching healthy habits and finding balance. A book giveaway is included for a limited time only!

Have your kids entered the age where technology use has become one more thing to think about each day? I recently read a statistic that said the average child in the US engages in 4-7 hours of screen time per day…per day! Think about how often we use technology for learning, then add entertainment, interaction as in phone calls and, bam, you have a lot of screen time! Kids screen time is a big parenting issue these days.

 

I could not believe the stats of kids and cell phones that Krissy, of B-Inspired Mama, shared in a recent article she wrote on the subject. An interesting infographic regarding how much and how young children are using technology and getting their own cell phones amazed me!

 

What age is appropriate for a child to have their own phone?

How is this monitored and protected by mom and dad? 
My husband and I have started to talk about what age we think will be appropriate for our kids to have their own phones. It is a security and safety issue in some homes. How did we manage in our childhood with no cell phones?
“Too often children are given screens to pacify and occupy them when it’s not an emergency or special occasion. Instead of learning how to live in the real world of communicating with people and occasionally feeling bored, they are given a screen world for their entertainment pleasure. More and more studies demonstrate the adverse effects of screen time on the brain and your child’s social and emotional development”  (Growing Up Social, pg. 28).
How much is too much?  

 

Is giving the kids the smart phone in a doctor’s appointment harmful?

 

How about on a trip in the car?

 

How can I protect the safety of my children in a world without boundaries such as the internet and social media?

 

There is a new resource to help answer these questions and more!

The book Growing Up Social: Raising Rational Kids in a Screen-Driven World, by Dr. Gary Chapman, (author of the book The 5 Love Languages), and Arlene Pellicane, discusses this very topic and provides strategies for parents to find balance in this tech world with kids and screen time.

“Parents are needed more than ever to provide instruction, correction, and positive modeling to a child regarding screen time, even if this digital world seems like unfamiliar territory. We live in a brand-new era when children are digital natives and many parents are digital immigrants. In other words, many children know more technology than their parents, and that is quite different from how the world worked hundreds of years ago” (Growing Up Social, pg. 169).

My children have entered the ages where questions about screen time have to be answered.  It is not always easy to decide how much they  can use the iPad, phone or TV.

Often I find myself wanting to be a “yes mom. ” My kids want to play with the educational phone apps and it is learning, but saying yes all the time to technology use is not good for my children. Sometimes no is necessary.

Karyn, of Teach Beside Me, reviewed the book Growing Up Social on her blog, and said some great things about it. While I have not reviewed the book, I have 1 free copy to give away! I encourage you to read Karyn’s review whether you are interested in entering the giveaway below or purchasing the book for yourself.

 

We parents have to educate ourselves and set an example of constructive screen use. It does our family-building harm if we are always staring at a screen rather than interacting face-to-face. Families are not really experiencing time together if each member is on their own device at the end of the day.Limits need to be in place. I am still trying to find that balance in my home, but we err on the side of less. Sometimes we have to say “no.”

The online medical information site Medline Plus, run by the National Library of Medicine at The National Institutes of Health, has a great article entitled “Screen time and children” that sums up the effects of screen time on our developing young children…and not so young children, if you have teens in the house. It is not a simple problem or simple parenting issue, but their are strategies for keeping screen time in balance.
“When a screen-driven child faces an uncertain task, they often disengage and stop paying attention. They check out mentally when they hear something that doesn’t interest them.
In the screen world, children are trained daily to get what they want, when they want it, and how they want it. That may hold their attention fast, but it doesn’t sound much like the real world we are preparing our children to live in” (pg. 98).

We all have to teach our children about technology and screen time. How do you teach self-discipline in this area?

 Implement these 4 tips to help kids learn to balance their screen time use.

 Some things I have done to use my phone and screens less are:

 

-Turn off notifications from social media apps and only keep the phone ring and text message signal on so I am not tempted to check each new notice of something new that is not really urgent.
 
-Only check social media 1 or 2 times per day (morning and evening), OR LESS. I tend to check it more when I have nursing infants in the house, but when I am busy with my kids, I use it less.
 
-No phone usage at the dinner table, in our kids rooms, or in our master bedroom…aside from the alarm clock feature!
 

-Let the kids use the devices with time limits…even if the apps they are using are educational.

-Set time limits for technology use, and enforce them. Use a kitchen timer to keep everyone accountable and give kids a concrete ending to their screen time.

There are many activities we can do face-to-face with our infants, toddlers, preschoolers and older kids; they do not need to be using technology every day. When my children are infants and toddlers we do not have them use technology much or at all since their brains are much less mature and their attention spans are still developing.We still have movie days here and there, and allow our kids time to use technology under our supervision, so we are not a “tech free” house by any means. Use your discretion as the parent.

I mentioned in my post about Free Preschool Online, that we set the limit of 15 minutes for each of our children on a portable electronic device most days. Of course when we are traveling long distances on a road trip with kids, we relax on that rule a bit.

Making a plan about technology use in the home is a great start for keeping a balance for all family members when it comes to screen time.

 

How do you monitor your kids’ screen time? Do you limit it?

Teaching children balance in their use of technology and balancing their screen time. Resources and tips plus a giveaway for a limited time only.

 This article is featured in A Complete Guide for Stay-at-Home Moms: Parenting Tips.

View all of the included resources HERE.

 

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Filed Under: motherhood, parenting Tagged With: books, preschool, screen time, technology

Comments

  1. Arlene Pellicane says

    December 1, 2014 at 8:50 pm

    Thanks for the great ideas Jaimi and for hosting a giving away for our book Growing Up Social!

    Reply
    • Jaimi says

      December 5, 2014 at 6:22 pm

      You bet, Arlene! I look forward to the winner receiving it. What a great resource for parents.

      Reply
  2. Nina says

    December 1, 2014 at 4:25 am

    We're pretty anti-screen time with our kids. My five-year-old can watch 30 minutes of a movie per day. He doesn't get to use any smart phones or computers. And he didn't watch television until he was two, and we're doing the same with our toddlers and keeping them away from screen time until they're older. I am all about real-time communicating and don't want my kids to end up like those teenagers who stare into their iPads during parties!

    Reply
  3. K Johnson says

    November 26, 2014 at 12:31 am

    We set limits how much time they get per day. No more than 2 hours total except for rare, special occasions!

    Reply
    • Jaimi says

      November 26, 2014 at 10:52 pm

      Thanks for sharing that! We try to keep a limit most days too.

      Reply

Trackbacks

  1. How to Stay Connected When Family Lives Far Away - The Stay-at-Home-Mom Survival Guide says:
    September 3, 2017 at 12:31 pm

    […] also “schedule” time to talk on the phone or FaceTime. Our kids really look forward to FaceTime with Grandma and […]

    Reply

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Will you be spending time with family for Easter? Will you be spending time with family for Easter? 

My husband’s parents have arrived - adding one more big dog to our house and lots of crafts and fun. We have not seen them since June. Everyone is excited to spend time together.

Both of my big kids have birthdays and we will all get to spend time at the beach this month. Our school work will morph into field trips so we soak up every day we can being present with family. 

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Ice cream after helped of course. 😂

All prepped for my in-laws coming to visit us after not seeing them since our move last summer. Looking forward to some fun events ahead that will make my kids think they are on spring break but they will technically be field trip days. Check, check. 

Are you guys on spring break this week? What do you have planned?

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Some days you put on the 10 year old comfy jeans, Some days you put on the 10 year old comfy jeans, fill your mind with encouragement and just keep moving forward. 

Recovery days are not just for working out. They are for the mental state we walk around with too. Yesterday felt heavy. My God is a power lifter and takes the burden away. 

Today will be better.

Today we will rest and refocus.

Hooray for comfy jeans, motivational graphics and the Word to focus on through it all. 

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🌟That Face!!🌟 That little boy is soon to t 🌟That Face!!🌟 

That little boy is soon to turn 13, guys! I mean in a few weeks. 😅

This is a throwback but brings back so many fun memories. 

—————————————

I love creating activities and crafts on the fly. Always have even before my kids were here.

I noticed that my son did not have a lot of little toy people to play with while he was pretending one day. We have a few cylinder blocks in a set. We never used them when we built. I thought we could turn them into little DIY toy people. 

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I am so excited and yet in complete shock by how fast these little lives grow. I have never missed moments and I am so so grateful especially as we approach the teen years in my house. 💛 Soak up even the hard days of being a mom. TOTALLY worth it. 

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👌 There are a lot of parenting opinions out the 👌 There are a lot of parenting opinions out there. I try to ignore a lot of them. 😂 

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💛 Friday Introductions💛 It has been a while 💛 Friday Introductions💛

It has been a while since I did a good run-down here to give ya the cliffs notes (are those still a thing) version of me. 👋 

💛 Detroit-born a few blocks from where Eminem lived. The city is still my hometown despite moving away as a kid.

💛 I am a big believer in traditional values, but with a modern woman twist. My husband drives his career and I drive this household.

💛 We live in eastern NC 30 mins from the beach. I want to stay here forever, truly, but military life will come to an end some day...still don’t know specifically when that will be.

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👌What is the cliffs notes version of you? What do you want people to know/realize most of all?

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🌟Teaching Kids to Make Friends🌟 Often our c 🌟Teaching Kids to Make Friends🌟

Often our children learn hard lessons when they have to move to a new state or school. 

My kids have become all too familiar with this through military life. Every three years they have to make new friends.

It is not always simple.

As a child, my family moved a lot. We were not military, but in junior high I moved to a new state and had to make all new friends.

This was a challenging and even to some extent a traumatic time of life.

Being the new kid, is a humbling experience. Suddenly you are hoping that your peers will want to get to know you and like you. It creates some self-consciousness.

Reading is such a beneficial way to teach children about life lessons. It teaches much more than that. It teaches self esteem through the cuddle time. It teaches language skills, and it teaches children to use their minds to be creative.

As they have grown and navigated more friendships, books are a resource for us to discuss tough challenges. I have found a great series of books that present friendship challenges and help children learn to navigate them.

It just so happens that the author is my neighbor too! How cool is that?! Moms are amazing.

These books will be treasured by your family for their quality values. The @stingrayjelly series teach children how to make friends and navigate friendships to love others well and support them through shared similarities and recognized differences.

Author, Lauren Giannella is a military wife and my neighbor! Anna Perdue is the illustrator and also a military child. 

Read my blog post for details on each book and links to purchase through @barnesandnoble 

We love our military community and all they do to give back.

What are your favorite children’s books that teach children how to make friends or help them maneuver through tough life challenges?

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