JessReplanted Posted June 7, 2015 Share Posted June 7, 2015 I am just curious. My kids don't use the computer very often. If your children do use the computer often, what do they do? Do you give them a time limit for computer use? Do you have a filter on your internet? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AmandaVT Posted June 7, 2015 Share Posted June 7, 2015 Mine is pretty little still, but he has played on the pbskids.org site, looked up trailers for kids movies on apple trailers, checked the weather. Oh and he'll use itunes to listen to songs if he wants to listen to music and his ipod is charging. He has a 30 min limit of any kind of computer/kindle time a day. No filter - he uses my laptop when he uses the computer and I'm usually in eyesight. For kindle, he uses kindle freetime, which is set up for his age group. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arcadia Posted June 7, 2015 Share Posted June 7, 2015 Their homeschool B&M class gives homework on an online platform. Their weekly homework is a multiple page worksheet that they need to print out and some readings and videos on the Internet. They are taking AoPS and CTY JHU online class. They like some of the programming/coding modules on Khan. We watch the Coursera videos together. No time limit and no filter. Their laptops and my laptop are all on the dining table (that doesn't get used for food :P ) so it's not an issue as I can see what they are doing any time. We do set Google safe search on as they mainly use Google and sometimes Bing to search for materials for their projects. ETA: Skype with grandparents though we usually use Skype on my phone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
regentrude Posted June 7, 2015 Share Posted June 7, 2015 play games, often with friends exchange information with friends/colleagues/classmates (fb groups for work, for extracurriculars, for dorm, for class...) look up information they need read blogs watch videos participate in discussion boards skype/message with friends email DD also needs to submit work for her in seat classes online 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Girls' Mom Posted June 7, 2015 Share Posted June 7, 2015 Mine are older.. I don't monitor. I did for a short time, at my oldest child's request because she was having trouble self-regulating. I did that for about a year. Anyway, they read web-comics, use pinterest, chat with friends, read some tumblr, watch YouTube vids (other people playing video games, a phenomenon I just don't understand, and YouTubers that like to eat weird things) and go on deviant art. They also do research for school, communicate with co-op and college teachers, and some DE classes are partially online. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MomatHWTK Posted June 7, 2015 Share Posted June 7, 2015 Clever Dragons/Always Ice Cream; Splash Math; Science Magazine daily news; topical research; games; school work; Netflix... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kroe1 Posted June 7, 2015 Share Posted June 7, 2015 Mine uses A Beka video streaming for school followed by her interactive gaming stream 4 nights a week. And, of course, all the research that can be done online. I would say she is on her computer or iPad most of her life. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SparklyUnicorn Posted June 7, 2015 Share Posted June 7, 2015 play games watch videos make videos and post them collaborate on game creation projects with others read news look stuff up chat with people skype use it for school work My only rule is no Internet after 10 pm or before 8 am. I had to make this rule because I'd find my kids on-line at crazy hours and I can't really monitor it at all if I'm sound asleep. I disconnect stuff after 10. I don't use filters or anything like that though. I haven't found any I didn't think my kids could circumvent. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AK_Mom4 Posted June 7, 2015 Share Posted June 7, 2015 Dd14 does research and writes papers. She will probably have at least one online class in the fall. When she was younger, she played runescape,Wizards 101, and some online pony game (until the site got hacked). These days, she plays Minecraft, dragon story, and clash of clans on her phone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idnib Posted June 7, 2015 Share Posted June 7, 2015 Online is different from computer time. On the computer they play math and a few other educational games but these are not on the internet. Online they occasionally watch Netflix, mostly educational but sometimes junk. Limit is 20 minutes/person/day. Also online, DS is taking a typing course. Over the summer he's going to take an online course in animal behavior. In the fall he'll be doing a WTM Academy course. I wouldn't count these last 3 in the daily computer time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wilma Posted June 7, 2015 Share Posted June 7, 2015 My kids are 10, 8, 5 and 3. 10: XtraMath, typing.com and allrecipes.com, occasional wikipedia for satisfying curiosity. Oh! and weather.com 8: XtraMath and weather.com 5: XtraMath w/help 3: not Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MEmama Posted June 7, 2015 Share Posted June 7, 2015 Other than school stuff, mostly DS12 researches car facts and sometimes video game info. Or, he'll do research on something he (or we) might be considering purchasing. He's a research geek. :). He also follows friends' racing stats on Strava. No specific time limit. No monitoring. No filters. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pawz4me Posted June 7, 2015 Share Posted June 7, 2015 Mine are older, so my answers may not be helpful to you. We've never used a filter. Never felt a need to. No time limits (even when they were younger). Oldest DS (19) is an extreme extrovert, and so has quite the social media life. Also, as a college student he has online classes sometimes and papers to research. His college work is mostly submitted online. He has two part-time internships this summer, both of which require extensive computer use (researching, Power Point, proficiency in Excel, etc.). Researching and registering for college classes. And of course Netflix. Youngest DS (16) is in an early college high school program and so has online classes sometimes, and plenty of papers to research. His school uses online resources extensively for communicating with teachers, submitting work, etc. He doesn't care for social media but does some gaming, including a trivia game that apparently helps quite a lot in preparing him for participation on his school's Quiz Bowl team. And Netflix. And both of them extensively use the GPS on their phones when they're out and about. I guess that counts? 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ali in OR Posted June 7, 2015 Share Posted June 7, 2015 I figure you mean outside of school stuff--what do they do for fun. They like to find American Girl doll stop motion videos that people post on YouTube. Basil Mentos's videos are favorites. They also go to the American Girl site to play games there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lady Florida. Posted June 7, 2015 Share Posted June 7, 2015 MIne is 17 and will be 18 just under 3 months. We don't monitor or limit. We did when he was younger and first started being allowed leisure time online, which at that time was on the family computer. He now has a computer in his room, which he bought himself. He's been accessing the internet for school for quite a few years to do research. He also started taking online (Florida Virtual School) classes when he was in middle school. Now that he's doing dual enrollment he needs to check for assignments, grades, emails from teachers, turn in assignments (sometimes an instructor asks for online submissions), and more. The college uses Canvas and also provides all students with a student version of Office for up to 5 devices. Instructors require all assignments to be done on an Office application (Word, Powerpoint, etc.). His leisure online activities include: -playing games -watching videos (usually but not always on YouTube) -Tumblr -Steam - a game site/application. He uses it not just for gaming but also to chat with friends. Often a group of them will be on and not necessarily playing the same game, but they all chat while playing their respective games. -Skype, when not using Steam Chat -He shops on Etsy and Amazon and some cosplay sites. -Occasionally facebook, usually to keep up with adults in the family. Teens, at least around here, aren't on facebook much. ETA: I didn't think to count tv watching but yes, he uses Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon. We don't have cable or satellite so many of our tv shows and movies are watched on our Roku. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ssavings Posted June 7, 2015 Share Posted June 7, 2015 Always Icecream/Clever Dragons, IXL, netflix, amazon streaming, Discovery Education, Mark Kristler online drawing, TenMarks Math, researching topics of interest, emailing my parents, etc. No filter; time limit at my discretion (like, they don't spend all day on it, but I also don't make them turn it off in the middle of an email). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lady Marmalade Posted June 7, 2015 Share Posted June 7, 2015 No time limits here and no filters. Computer/online time is different with each kid. DS likes to watch a lot of youtube videos- usually slapstick type comedy, dance videos or those guys who do crazy basketball shots. He also plays clash of clans with a bunch of dads at our dance studio, instagrams and chats with a couple of his friends from dance. He also visits Ninja Kiwi to play games sometimes. His preferred game device is the Wii-U though, so computer/device game time isn't as much as it used to be. DD likes to read and write fan-fiction on quotev. She spent months on her first story on there and got all kinds of great feedback from fellow fangirls. Unfortunately, it took me too long to get involved in her story writing, and I found out her "fan-fiction" was about real people- the actors instead of the characters they played. We had to set some rules then, because I am not comfortable with her writing about real people... I'm not a fan of fan-fiction in the first place, but it sure gets her writing juices flowing, and now she happily has a few different stories going in different fictional worlds. When she's not doing that she messes around with polyvore a lot, as well as facebook and instagram with her friends. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Closeacademy Posted June 7, 2015 Share Posted June 7, 2015 Mine are older, I can always view their history so I monitor a little. What they use it for: pinterest tumblr Webkinz youtube--mostly looking up OSTs for their favorite anime Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris in VA Posted June 7, 2015 Share Posted June 7, 2015 Just referring to the youngest, she emails friends and does research for school. She is in public school and they use Blackboard to post assignments and document links and things like that. She also uses pinterest and sometimes finds things to draw on image sites Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MeghansMom Posted June 7, 2015 Share Posted June 7, 2015 My daughter reads a good bit on her kindle. She likes to play Howrse, a wolf game and sometimes Wizards. She likes to write and read fan fiction. She looks up ASPCA and prays for the animals to be adopted. Some youtube. Plays some math games and such. Things pertaining to school work. She is mostly in the same room with us while on the internet. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SKL Posted June 7, 2015 Share Posted June 7, 2015 My kids are 8. They don't use the computer a lot, but maybe an average of 1.5 hours per week. Their most common activity on the internet is to watch dumb kid movies or song videos. They have also played learning games. Sometimes they do google searches to learn more about something. They are loosely supervised. We do not have a filter on any of our computers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tsuga Posted June 7, 2015 Share Posted June 7, 2015 I am just curious. My kids don't use the computer very often. If your children do use the computer often, what do they do? Do you give them a time limit for computer use? Do you have a filter on your internet? ​14 and 11 are step kids. 14 DSD uses it mainly for social media (Instagram, snapchat), funny videos on youtube. DSS 11 uses it mainly for games, some social media. These rules were set by dad and bio-mom. They don't have a time limit but they do have to keep phones out of the bedroom unless the door is open. I feel they spend a lot of time on the net on their phones (which they bought themselves), but it's not really up to me to set the rules. Access to the phones requires no more than three Bs. My bio kids had a phone given to them by bio-dad/ex-h for communication with him. The older one plays games, the little one watches video shorts. For them, no screen time if they have any 'unsatisfactory' on their report card. They get 15 minutes per day on school nights if, and only if, they finished practicing their instruments the night before. They get this before homework because I try to give them a break after school to play, disengage, and run around. 15 minutes of screen time is included in that. They get screen time on weekends until we wake up. This has worked out marvelously for our catch-up sleep and morning cuddles. ;) We don't have cable TV or anything, so this is their main source of mass-media entertainment. None of this includes school work, including videos for school, which both DSD and little DBD get. Little DBD gets books for her immersion program online, and DSD gets math videos and physics tutorials. She looks up ASPCA and prays for the animals to be adopted. That made my heart melt. What a sweet girl. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chaya Posted June 7, 2015 Share Posted June 7, 2015 my younger kids have a time limit (30-60 min) and I monitor. they play games or watch kids tv (like curious george, berenstain bears, etc). my middle schooler looks stuff up, mostly whatever his interest of the week is, this week its identifying neighborhood trees and wilderness survival. my older two can use their devices after dinner and until one hr before bed (they dont usually spend the entire evening online but I leave it up to them) and I dont monitor. mostly because I'm lazy, in theory I feel like I should but.... my dd (16) uses instagram to keep up with her friends and teaches herself to play guitar with youtube videos. my ds (14) found some free learn to code videos and has been playing around with that, but I also recently learned that he's been downloading apps to earn amazon gift cards. he apparantly has been spending hours doing this, just downloading and deleting to earn the gift cards. He's up to $25. I'm not sure how I feel about that... we dont have a tv, so computer time is all the screen time they get. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farrar Posted June 7, 2015 Share Posted June 7, 2015 Mine are 10 yo. Basic filters on, but nothing serious. I check in on what they're doing routinely and randomly. I have all their passwords. I don't watch them all the time by any stretch. They play games like Minecraft, Terraria, Poptropica, Roblox, Animal Jam, etc. They watch internet videos like music and things from Bored Shorts. There's a limit on that - we try to keep that stuff to about an hour or so per day. They do things like make little movies, program on Scratch, learn on code.org, play around on DIY.org, etc. They also check email - they email grandparents and some friends. They watch things from The Kid Should See That or look things up for school or because they're curious. There's no specific limit on that stuff. Sometimes they do a lot of that. Sometimes very little. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DawnM Posted June 7, 2015 Share Posted June 7, 2015 Play games online with their friends. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jean in Newcastle Posted June 7, 2015 Share Posted June 7, 2015 play games, often with friends exchange information with friends/colleagues/classmates (fb groups for work, for extracurriculars, for dorm, for class...) look up information they need read blogs watch videos participate in discussion boards skype/message with friends email DD also needs to submit work for her in seat classes online Yup. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.