Welcome back Friday!
{one} Screen Passes.
{via Crib to Table blog}
We haven’t officially started screen time with Eloise (beyond FaceTime with family) & are just starting to talk about what that might look like. As much as we want her to be technology literate & know there are benefits to (some) screen time, we figure we have gone this long & why rush it? She doesn’t know what she is missing & we think she is better for it!
When Denaye posted this blog post called “My kid asks to watch TV all day long” I knew it would be good. She has set up a system for screen time that allows her 2.5 year old son four 15 minute passes to watch a show (once in the morning and once in the evening) and includes a visual timer. For me personally, this is genius! It gives your child freedom & choice in when she wants to watch TV (using the passes back-to-back or not) but maintains some structure so you don’t end up in an endless power struggle! Thanks Denaye for a great tip! What do you Mamas do about screen time?
{two} YHL Bonus Room.
{via Young House Love blog}
Even though they aren’t blogging regularly anymore, John and Sherry of Young House Love still do awesome home DIYs. (And have you tuned into any of the new podcasts yet? I haven’t but it’s on my list!) Enter their finished bonus room. Swoon! If there is one thing I could change about our current home (& the one I will live in forever!) is to add a big bonus room space. I love that this is a family-oriented space with lounging space for movie nights (which doubles as a guest bed) as well as toy storage and creative space for the kiddos. Now I will go and plot adding a guest space… by raising the roof (literally?)!
{three} Cup of Jo: City Guide Seattle.
{via Cup of Jo blog}
Does anyone else like to read thru city guides for cities they either live in or grew up in? I find city guides to Seattle fascinating because there are so many things to see in a single city & it’s hard to pinpoint just a few highlights to visit so that you feel like you have seen a bit of everything. We live in the very north side of town & don’t venture outside of our neighborhood that often (but we should!) but we have both lived here for many years, & yet I don’t recognize any of the places listed in this Cup of Jo guide to Seattle! So maybe we have a travel bucket list for our own city! (There are City Guides for Nashville, Minneapolist, & NYC here!)
What are you loving this week?
M
Be sure to check out June’s Linky Party below. And we are taking Fridays off this summer, so we’ll be back after Labor Day!
Happy Summer!
I think the passes are a neat idea for older kids who really need to understand when their time is up. With Drew, I found it was as simple as scheduling screen time each day after nap time for 30 minutes. He knew that’s when it was, that is was one show, and that was it. He rarely asks for tv during the day because he just knows it happens after nap. We have Apple TV and use the PBS channel so he gets to pick which show. I would venture a guess that little E would adapt wonderfully to a scheduled screen time each day without you having to manage passes. I will even add that now that it’s summer Drew has been opting to skip screen time and go outside instead. He never sees us watching TV so I don’t think he has been conditioned to think screen time is something that someone “needs” every day. I was fearful of introducing screen time back when he was turning 2, but now I’m realizing he has such little interest in it anyway it’s just a non-issue. We use the iPad for table time every morning and he’s learning how to use that to navigate his alphabet app, so he is getting some exposure to technology (and picks it up crazy fast! Kids are amazing!).
Steph, this is great insight! I am really nervous about introducing screen time with E but it sounds like we have a few really good options! I like the 30 minutes after nap time idea. That works with our daily structure and I know E thrives on consistency. Thanks for the tip!
Totally! We’ve also done screen time while I make dinner, when he went through a pre-dinner terror phase. I’ve also done a no-screen time week when I feel like his emotions are nuts and he needs less stimulus overall. The great thing about obedient and adaptable kids (like E!) is that they trust mom and dad and generally adapt to just about anything you arrange. So as a rule, make it easy on you as a first option, then only make it more complicated if she’s telling you she needs more. PBS has some great shows (I’m always on the look out for violence in shows – firm no go!) that teach things like: usefulness, problem solving, kindness, etc.