How to do No Screentime with Kids
No Screen Time Day is something we recently initiated in our household. No, it wasn't meant to induce self-torture on ourselves as parents! Rather, during this time of quarantine due to Covid-19, there has been an inevitable spike in our children's screen time - be it iPad, phone, or TV. As we are homebound, there has been an unavoidable reliance on our screen-facing gadgets to shoulder the burden of entertaining our children or keeping our sanity. Besides entertainment purposes, screentime comes into the picture due to school e-learning and social interactions held virtually as well. Hence, I felt it was important for the children to get a break from it all once a week. Their eyes and minds also need a break, after all, for health reasons.
So we picked one day of the week (Saturday) and gave it a go! After 2-3 successful episodes, I thought it would be good to share what measures were effective and sustainable for us week on week:
- A SHARED MINDSET: Inform the children of this plan in advance and agree on it together. It is important that you make them equal partners invested in this initiative. Each time, I had a reminder conversation about the "No Screen Time Day" with the children the night before so they know what to expect the next day. I was pleasantly surprised that my almost-3 year old son also bought into this initiative. This is probably the single most important thing to do because it puts them in the mindset and everyone is on the same page.
- OUT OF SIGHT, OUT OF MIND: Put away the electronic devices like iPads. Remove/hide all temptations.
- RULES ARE FOR EVERYONE: You’re in this together. That means, no TV time for us parents and limiting time on the phone in front of the children.
- EXERCISE: Starting the day on a physical, active note seems to keep them mellower for the rest of the day. If you're able to, begin your morning with a bike ride or long nature walk. It helps to expend their pent-up energy and starts the day on a healthy note.
- BOOKS: We did lots of book readings during slow parts of the day and during meal times for my younger one. My younger one often wants to see Peppa Pig or some cartoon during his meals but with animated readings of a slew of books, he was just fine. In fact, he completed his meals much faster this way!
- BOARD GAMES: Load up on family board games! Family picture bingo for kids, Connect 4, Jenga, Uno...these are all great games that you can play as a family.
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| Family picture bingo game - lots of fun for kids ages 3 and up! |
- Stock up on STE(A)M supplies: I have two very active rambunctious boys so I have a ready supply of arts & crafts, Legos, etc so they can do free play and give you a break during the day. If you aren't doing it already, use this time for the kids to create something of their own. Give them a Lego challenge, bake together, print out coloring sheets online for the kids, have them do artwork and put up a pretend "art exhibit" in their room, or plan a craft activity to do together.
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| We created cool things with Legos. This is a Lego catapult we created thanks to the website Little Bins for Little Hands |
MUSIC: Create a family playlist of everyone’s favorite songs and play that in the backdrop to create happy vibes in your home.- Embrace the slow living, chill day! When the kids are doing independent play, don't interfere. Instead, use that for your downtime. And yes, you will get downtime...it's not going to be as tough as you think it to be!
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| A moment of quiet solitude in the day when the kids were engaged in free independent play (and there were actually plenty of moments like this. It's not sooo bad!) |
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3 comments
loved this post totally..will definitely have a no screen day for my kid and me ofcourse..m very fussy about too much screen time .. so i personally love this post..i'm glad i came across this
ReplyDeleteHi Khusbu, Thank you so much for reading. I'm so glad it resonated with you and that you found it helpful! :)
ReplyDeleteThat's really commendable..really appreciate the shared mindset..so important to get the kids approval too.
ReplyDeleteAditi
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