Tech to life ratio—What does your family consider a ‘Healthy’ Balance? We often hear the phrase – ’Screen Time or Media Time’, which helps to promote a happy medium that encourages children’s use of technology for learning, development and positive social interaction, while protecting them from developing addictive or compulsive behaviours with technology. During the week we will be exploring this theme through a variety of in-house activities.
On Monday we will be having an ‘unplugged’ day at school, using no technology as part of our teaching and learning. We will be brainstorming the many positive contributions technology makes to our lives and learning, and also explore the possible impact of too much. We will think about how to make good choices around using technology and how to make sure it’s not going to take the place of all the other good things going on around us.
During this week, we encourage families to explore what they consider a “healthy media diet” for their children. Parents and children can work together to decide how much time to spend with technology every day for educational and recreational use, and to make sure good choices are being made about the quality and age-appropriateness of this media. Perhaps you will organise your own family ‘unplugged’ day.
Here are a few recent articles about screen time:
https://www.commonsensemedia.org/screen-time/how-much-screen-time-is-ok-for-my-kids
http://www.zerotothree.org/parenting-resources/screen-sense/
http://www.babble.com/tech/6-tips-for-setting-screen-time-limits-for-kids/