Score Keeping Summer - Making your big kids earn screen time

As we near the final day of school, I am thinking about what next week and the nine following weeks will bring for my kids. While some of our summer days are booked with summer camps and vacation time, my kids will have plenty of downtime.

While I am very good with unstructured time and downtime and understand the importance of it, I don't want either kid wasting away beautiful summer weather bathed in the blue light of a screen. 

I also work from home and need at least some time to get things done with minimal cries of "I'm bored" or loud squabbling. 

The past few summers, we've compiled a list of activities that will earn you screen time, and I posted it, although my past list was a lot more basic than the one below. 

I am fully aware that some of the items on this list also involve screens. However, they are more productive than hours spent binge-watching fluff. The kids and I both worked on this list together. Feel free to borrow anything here to keep your kids entertained this summer.

Photo by August de Richelieu: https://www.pexels.com/photo/mother-helping-her-daughter-with-homework-4260477/

Ways to earn screen time in our house 

• Walk the dog
• Go to the park
• Run an errand (buy milk from the corner store, mail letters, return a library book, etc.)
• Go to the library
• Swimming
• Playing outside with friends
• Crafts
• Yoga
• Practicing karate
• Playing quietly in your room
• Deep clean your room (twice a year, the kids go through their toy bins, bookshelves, clothes, etc., to clear out old items and make room for new items, time spent doing this activity counts)
• Reading (in addition to comics, graphic novels, and other books of interest, both kids have agreed to read two novels this summer and work on projects about them with their tutor. Jack's first novel of the summer is The Great Gatsby. Molly's is The Green Mile.)
• Sessions working with their tutor
• Online drawing tutorials
• Doing Word Searches
• Learning cursive writing (even though this is being re-introduced into the curriculum in Ontario, I think they're old enough just to miss it)
• Learning French on Duolingo
• Typing tutor games
• Taking an online babysitter/health and safety course
• Babysitting
• Cooking or baking
• Storyboarding and working on one of their movie projects together
• Playing a board game
• Writing postcards
• Outdoor chores (staining patio furniture, pulling weeds, washing windows, etc.)

What do you do to keep your kids off screens for the summer?

The Summer of Scorekeeping & Minimizing Screen Time

 After a year and a half of online learning and limited affordable summer camp options, the hubs and I began to worry about exactly how much screen time Molly and Jack would be getting, particularly when we were working and they were lazing about this smmer.

While some days of camp,time outside with a vaccinated babysitter, family vacations within Ontario, and visits with Nana and Papa are all on the schedule there will also be a lot of downtime.

I am a big fan of kids having unstructured play time, on the other hand I have deadlines and Zoom meetings, and two kids fighting or complaining they're bored often leads to screen time to keep the peace, quiet, and deadlines met.

So, the night before the last day of school Chris and I sat out on our back porch to brainstorm some ideas on keeping screen time to an absolute minimum. Then, I had an idea.

Like most parents, I had seen the images of notes from parents to their kids doling out the Wifi password each day ONLY after they had completed a series of chores. This popular online parental trope gave me an idea.

Image Courtesy of Social News Daily

That night we decided during working hours the kids would need to earn their screen time. We came up with a list of activities that earned them screen time. Some earned at minute for minute other items, like a successful 45 minute session with their tutor would earn them double screen time. 

Essentially we gamified screen time. Within those parameters things like pre-approved online drawing, crafts, and educational tutorials do not count as screen time. A minimum of one hour of reading a day is on the list as required, but again completing the reading earns them screen time. So far the kids love the process and when they don't feel like doing the items on the list they'll draw, work on crafts, or play together quietly. 

Here's the list of items our kids can complete to earn screen time. Ironically some of it involves being on screen, but we're okay with that.

• Reading
• Writing letters or postcards
• Playing with the dog outside
• 15 minutes of typing tutor games
• Chores (what needs to be done is determined on a day by day basis)
• A productive, focused session with their tutor
• Tutoring homework
• Speech therapy sessions (this one is only for Molly)
• Walk the dog with mom

I'm happy to report a week in this is working! Another thing we did to get the kids excited was to join the TD Summer Reading Program. The kids can search for ideas on books to read, log what they have read, and write recommendations for other kids. The goal at this point is 20 books each for the summer. 

How are you keeping your kids off screens this summer?

Wildflowers - Book Review, How to Raise a Wild Child

Growing up, some of my fondest memories take place outside, I imagine and hope that many cusped Gen Xers/ Millennials feel the same way.  In early years, these memories took place in my backyard, eventually moving to the ravine, park, and surrounding area.  On our annual trip up north each year we'd spend hours searching for clam shells, swimming, balancing on giant air plane tires and falling into the water almost as often.  At night we'd play "Wolf", essentially a game of hide and seek where you had to howl like a wolf every so often to help give clues to the person who was "It".  Parents were always nearby, but never helicoptering, and it was great!

I want the same sorts of experiences for Molly and Jack, despite us all living in the city (and not the suburbs 25 years ago), which is part of the reason I was intrigued by Scott D Sampson's book, How to Raise a Wild Child, The Art and Science of Falling in Love with Nature.  Don't get me wrong, we love living in the city, but want both kids to develop a strong appreciation and love of the great outdoors.

You might recognize Dr. Scott from his role as resident paleontologist, on air host and series science advisor, on the hit children's television show Dinosaur Train.  This show is known for the tag line (created by Sampson's wife), "Get outside, get into nature, and make your own discoveries."   In his book he discusses ways and benefits of getting children involved with nature at any age, with specific focuses on early childhood, middle childhood, and tween/teen years.

Sampson discusses Nature Mentoring Tips, and practical applications, and stories from his childhood and life with his own children to help inspire.  While I feel this book has more to offer for parents with slightly older children then mine, there are some great tips on small ways to get your children more involved in nature at any age, I'm pretty proud that we already practice a lot of Sampson's tips for Nature appreciation for little ones with the minions, although I imagine most people who haven't considered the importance of outdoor activities for their children probably won't read this book.

This book touches on the tip of the iceberg about the unhealthy increase in screen time our children experience, paired with extremely limited free play and time outside.  The lifelong love affair with media starts early with 47 percent of children aged zero to one watching TV or DVDs and those who watch spending an average of nearly two hours a day of screen time.  Older kids today spend an average of more than seven hours each day in front of electronic media, and in sad contrast only four to seven MINUTES each day in unstructured outdoor activities such as climbing trees, building forts, playing hide and seek, tag, or riding a bike.

Molly and Jack on a hike fall 2015.

Sampson talks about embracing outdoors as close to home as possible by spending time in your backyard, keeping a bird feeder, and finding daily space to enjoy nature with your kids.  His book also touches lightly on the awesome Bienenstock (Natural) Playground trend, and provides sample unstructured and organized activities (like family nature groups, visiting farms and geocaching) to help increase your families time living life, and balancing a love of nature with modern technology.

If you're looking for some ways to get everyone in your home outside and offline a little more I recommend picking up a copy from your local library, bookstore or Amazon, particularly if your kids are in the eight to 13 age range.   The book also provides an interesting examination of older kids (and at risk kids) and increased involvement in nature as a great way to build confidence and practice safe(r) risk taking.  I'll probably reread it in a few years, after the first time one of the minions asks me for a cell phone.

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