Screen time

I typed this a few days ago before it was severely put the test by the kids but we have got through it (I think!)

Jessica left a comment asking if we let the kids have access to tv, computer and handheld games. We are pretty relaxed about it all I think. Back in November when we first started unschooling they watched loads of tv. Some days it seemed as if that was all they were doing but after about 2 weeks of pretty constant tv watching (or so it felt) they began to do other stuff too. They started playing in their room together making up some lovely games. At the moment the TV doesn’t really come on until after lunch. We have UK sky here and the UK is two hours behind us so there is nothing they want to watch until after lunch. At the moment they might watch it for an hour in the afternoon and an hour after dinner.

There is usually one day a week that they watch a lot of TV (normally Saturday but they have watched a fair bit today already!) If I feel worried that they are doing nothing but watch cartoons then I get other things out that I know they love to do. They have spent pretty much all day in front of the TV or playing on their DS’s on Tuesday and Wednesday but today they aren’t being drawn towards it at all. I got out the paints after lunch on Tuesday and we did quite a bit of painting after they spent about 2 hours in front of the TV. They were back in front of the TV again after they had finished painting for another 2 hours but then when we had took Vic to work they didn’t bother with it and played in their room.

They have access to the family computer that they can use whenever they want. Joshua usually goes on this every day. He plays PC Games as we don’t have the internet at home yet. He loves playing ‘Zoombinis Maths Journey’ (I like him playing it too!!!) and ‘Age of Empires’ and other strategy type games. Ellie loves to play Zoombinis too and Monopoly Junior. She goes on it every other day or so.

They both have a Nintendo DS that they like to play. They mostly play it in the car on the 40 minute round trip to take Vic to work.

They spend a lot of time just playing together and I love listening to them play and putting on funny voices. They play with their pokemon figures and their little Sonic the Hedgehog figures.

We are also fortunate that the weather is usually fairly good here for most of the year so they can play outside too. Over the summer pretty much every waking minute is spent in the pool trying to keep cool.