Screen Time Compromise

My son loves a screen. It kinda bugs me, but its true.

I try to make sure he does it in moderation, but he has gotten to the point that he is almost constantly asking for time on the computer, TV, his LeapPad, or any other device that he can think of at the time. Now before, it bugged me, but not quite as much, because I still controlled it all. You wanna watch TV? Fine, Wild Kratts it is.

You want to play on the computer? I will gladly type in pbskids.org.

6:30 am on a Saturday? Sure, you can play on your LeapPad in your room, while I continue to sleep, everything on there is educational.

However, now that he’s a little older, learned how to work the remote and the keyboard, he’s got some different interests. Now, I’ve got to figure out if Teen Titans Go is ok for a 6 year old to watch and be somewhat aware of what he’s doing on nick.com. And on top of all of that, make sure that he’s not staring at any screen all day.

So, one recent weekend we were doing our normal back and forth–“Mom can I watch/play insert screen item here?” “Not right now honey”–when he stumbled upon my Nook. Now he’s read books on my Nook before, even recorded himself reading Where’s Spot?, so he’s familiar with it and how to find books that he enjoys. And even though I had it out because I was reading it, I was not going to interrupt this opportunity to let him read. So, he spent the next 30 minutes or so listening to various books on my Nook bookshelf, and then he found his way over to the Epic app and we learned how to find books there too.

Here he’s reading I’m Cool, one of his favorites

So, even though he still got what he wanted from the lure of a screen, I’m not mad ’cause I also got what I wanted, which was him spending some time with books. Finally, a win-win!

#RaisingReaders