momee Posted July 24, 2014 Share Posted July 24, 2014 Any hints would be appreciated. She's surrounded by it (as we all are) but seems especially tempted as she has much older sisters. Her siblings were nowhere near this saturated with stimluli when they were younger. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joanne Posted July 24, 2014 Share Posted July 24, 2014 Any hints would be appreciated. She's surrounded by it (as we all are) but seems especially tempted as she has much older sisters. Her siblings were nowhere near this saturated with stimluli when they were younger. What type of media, what form, how often? A routine with school, play (including large motor, sensory, fine motor, reading, outdoor) family rituals and routines, and chores will help. Lots of unstructured time will be counter productive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
momee Posted July 24, 2014 Author Share Posted July 24, 2014 I guess I'd like help in figuring out how to make it less appealing to her at 6 when she sees dad for work and big sisses on their phones. Thanks for the reply though. I'm sure I'll get an idea, just thought other moms might be dealing with this in their youngers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maize Posted July 24, 2014 Share Posted July 24, 2014 With videos/tv I have found if my kids go a week with none at all they stop asking. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slache Posted July 24, 2014 Share Posted July 24, 2014 I'm hard core about this. We don't have a television. Phones are off and put away during certain times (most) of the day. We've had the flu for the past 3 weeks so the computer's been on all day, but it's usually only on from 6-7 AM and 7-8 PM. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joanne Posted July 24, 2014 Share Posted July 24, 2014 I guess I'd like help in figuring out how to make it less appealing to her at 6 when she sees dad for work and big sisses on their phones. Thanks for the reply though. I'm sure I'll get an idea, just thought other moms might be dealing with this in their youngers. I requested more info to try to help. You can't make it less appealing; you can't change her level of interest and attraction. You CAN impose limits and structure life so that she has less time and opportunity for media. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farrar Posted July 24, 2014 Share Posted July 24, 2014 One of my tactics has been to focus on media literacy regularly with my kids, even when they were young like that. I feel like it has been helpful for advertising messages and helping my kids be suspicious of toy claims and of junk food and of some of the messages about gender roles that the constant media can bring. Just to combat it directly. I would second finding plenty of other stimuli and making strong routines for when the screens can be on and off. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slache Posted July 24, 2014 Share Posted July 24, 2014 Children will do what you do, not what you say. Perhaps a better post would have been "How can I have less media in my life?" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TammyS Posted July 24, 2014 Share Posted July 24, 2014 I guess I'd like help in figuring out how to make it less appealing to her at 6 when she sees dad for work and big sisses on their phones. Thanks for the reply though. I'm sure I'll get an idea, just thought other moms might be dealing with this in their youngers. Well, I would try to lessen how much of it is around. If Dad needs to be on the phone for work, have him go to his "office" (even if that's just a chair with a pad of paper so that she can see he is in "work mode"). Give sisters time and place limits on their phone use. If they're on it all day, OF COURSE the 6 year old finds it appealing. She already sees what (to her) looks like a lot of older people being enthralled with media. Why wouldn't she be? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScoutTN Posted July 24, 2014 Share Posted July 24, 2014 We have very, very little of it in our lives generally as a family. No smart phones, no cable. My kids watch about 2 hrs of tv a week - usually animal shows like Nature or Wildkratts. Movies are very occasional. My kids don't play on the computer except for an occasional round of Angry Birds or Rush Hour at a doctor's visit or someplace not kid-friendly with long waiting times. We sometimes look up something on the internet or watch a You Tube video together, but not every day. Dh and I generally save our internet time for when kids are asleep or not here. We work hard to do as others have suggested - strong habits and routines of other kinds of playing. Priorities are clearly set on imaginative play, outdoor play, reading, playing and listening to music. Electronics are the last resort. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted July 24, 2014 Share Posted July 24, 2014 ITA with Slache, but putting it into practice is another matter. :( ds had his screen time taken away for 24 hours yesterday when he pushed me out of the computer chair. He's writing long letters about how much he hates me and learning a ton of phonics in the process. I really don't want to unground him in 45 minutes and he can't tell time.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arcadia Posted July 24, 2014 Share Posted July 24, 2014 I deleted all the games on their tablets for bad behavior. All that is left are academic stuff. My boys didn't touch their tablets for a whole week since it is too boring. They get to play an hour a day. ETA: My TV needs an antenna to get public broadcasting channels so we use the TV as an external monitor for watching NOVA on the laptop. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
73349 Posted July 25, 2014 Share Posted July 25, 2014 We have done as much as a month TV-free to get DS out of the habit of asking to watch, and have now settled on no TV before 4PM or after it's time to wash up for dinner. His computer use is limited to Xtramath (a few times a week), Salsa for Spanish (one episode a week, to be replaced by La Clase Divertida in September), and the occasional Starfall or YouTube. We don't have smartphones, and I think that really helps. Maybe it would help to think of OFF as the default mode for your family's devices, and only turn them on when you have a particular reason and intended duration. Or maybe you would like to start a screen-free Sabbath, or have other distinct times and places set aside as screen-free. DS loves candlelight dinners, outdoor adventures, and new-to-him art media--do your kids have unplugged hobbies that you can capitalize on? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rosie_0801 Posted July 25, 2014 Share Posted July 25, 2014 Dd doesn't see me use anything I can't claim is "work" of some sort. If "work" is stretching it too far, I'll say I'm "reading and thinking." We lead a pretty low tech life at my place though. No tv, cheap and nasty old phone and the only computer/ dvd access is my laptop. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted July 25, 2014 Share Posted July 25, 2014 My ideal kids' computer would be for coding and word processing only and not connected to the internet, or at least not by default. When the TV broke in '96, I told the kids we'd get it fixed when we could afford it. We never did and eventually hauled it out to the curb for the trash two years later when we moved. We could afford dance lessons, karate lessons, a car, and a purebred cat, but nobody wanted to get the TV fixed instead. It's not so easy in this age of YouTube links in my RSS feed and DVDs in the children's room at the library. I can't shut the computer down because it's the only thing I have to play music on and going back to a paper planner isn't going as well as I'd hoped. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JumpyTheFrog Posted July 25, 2014 Share Posted July 25, 2014 Our TV requires a passcode, as do all the iDevices and computers, so they can't use them unless we enter the code. They are allowed 15 minutes of games each day on the weekend and an average of 30 min of Netflix per week. Anything more seems to cause bad attitudes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slache Posted July 25, 2014 Share Posted July 25, 2014 but putting it into practice is another matter. :( Exactly. This is a huge deal for me. This is why my television is gone and my phone and computer get turned off. I've had the computer on, like I said, for 3 weeks because we've all been sick and all I've done is play on the computer. I've watched an entire season of Friends, posted on the hive constantly, and scored more than 135,000 on Free Tetris. Don't go there if you've never been. It's a bad, bad place. I feel bad now. I'm going to turn my computer off and leave it off tomorrow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted July 25, 2014 Share Posted July 25, 2014 I usually have only one "home on the internet", which is currently here, but I see myself wasting more time giggling about baby names and cats than researching Classical Homeschooling these days, so it's really neither better nor worse than watching TV or going casino hopping. :( ds can't watch videos right now because I'm using the desktop listen to Bob Dylan, print .pdfs, and alpha test the next release of my GNU/Linux distro on virtual machine. My kiddos didn't get me a modern PC with 8 gigs of RAM and a quad core processor because they couldn't find a $5 used TV at the thrift store. :P On that note, I think I'll close this tab and see you all tomorrow morning before ds wakes up if I get my chores done in time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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