Summer Screen Time

I am loving our summer system for allowing the children on screens. Typically, we spend a lot of time at the pool during the summer. The first 2 weeks, we got into a habit where as soon as the children walked in the door, they immediately got on their iPads... or turned on Netflix... or fired up the Wii. Before I knew it, 3 hours had passed by the time we sat down for dinner!

Haaeeeelll no. That ain't happnin'.

I called a meeting in the school room, and presented the plan.

While I do want you all to have a very relaxing and fun summer, I do need to put a boundary on the amount of screen time each of you get. Henceforth! One hour of screens will cost you one hour of school work. You give me an hour of work, I give you an hour of screens. This can be reading (from the approved summer reading list), Spanish, handwriting, review material from last year, or math. Expecting fuss and protest, I stood there in silence while they stared back at me. After a few seconds, the middle one replied, "Ok." Then they all ran off.

"That went better than I expected", I thought.

A few minutes later, the older two re-entered the room with a list of questions.

1. So what is the limit per day?
~No limit.
2. Are there roll-over minutes if we don't cash in the work minutes each day?
~Yes you are allowed rollover minutes.
3. How are you going to keep track of this?
~Good question. Here is the official clipboard I will use to document your work time and screen time.
4. Where is the approved reading list?
~Approved reading list is underneath the pad on the clipboard.
5. Can we do certain things together to save time?
~You mean teamwork? Synergy? Community? Of course. In fact, I would encourage that.


So far the system has worked beautifully! The children get home from the pool and walk straight to the school room and get out their books! They have been working together and encouraging one another. They have been reading together and doing math flashcards. WOW! I don't get this kind of participation during the school year!


This has me thinking - perhaps this will remain our screen-time reward system all year long....