Given the summer holidays have begun, it's a good time for parents to plan with your children ways to find balance between screen, face and free time for both themselves and their children.
Keeping your children engaged and amused during the holidays can sometimes be a challenge.
Professor Donna Cross from The Kids Research Institute Australia advises parents to:
- Plan ahead with your children. Organise holiday schedules, activities and equipment before the holidays and let your children participate in deciding what your family will be doing. Give them things to look forward to and earn during their holiday. Rotate the planned activities rather than have them all on at once.
- Keep bored bodies busy. During school time your children are accustomed to being busy, so they will need time to plan for and guidance to switch over to self-initiated activities during their holidays that include more than digital media.
- Encourage your children to remain connected, both face to face and digitally with their friends over the summer holidays but have clear rules about what your children can do online, tech free zones (eg: mealtimes, car and bedrooms) and talk with your children about keeping their passwords private. The Smart Talk is a great interactive resource for parents to develop guidelines that suit your family
- Talk with your children regularly about what they are doing online and shoulder surf to supervise and monitor their behaviour. School holidays are also a good time to learn about the privacy settings and parental controls on your children's digital devices.
An effective strategy to teach your children to be more mindful of their media consumption is the use of a reward system that incentivises good behaviour and resourcefulness.
For example, completing a task or job around the house earns a token (eg; bottle top or or marble) that's worth 15 minutes of screen time. Consider also setting rules about when and how many tokens a child can cash in at any one time.
Most importantly, enjoy spending the time together this holiday season. The Wangle Family Insites app is one way you can help you manage your children's social media usage.
You can try it free for 30 days and keep your family safe online these holidays. Start your free trial today here.
Learn more about The Kids Research Institute Australia's relationship with Wangle Family Insites.