A couple of years ago, I made a chart that my oldest son, then three years old, would use to keep track of his television time. He was allowed to watch two, half-hour shows each day and one movie each week. Whenever he watched a show or movie, he would color in a square on his chart that coincided with the current day and type of screen time.
This system worked wonderfully until his younger brother became old enough to also want to choose his own shows. At that point, we tweaked the system so that each child was allowed to choose one show each day that both children watched, and together we would choose one movie each week.
Again, our idea worked for awhile. However, I began to grow concerned about the amount of screen time they were getting since they were following the “TV Time” rules but were now playing video games for short periods each day in addition to the original screen time. I have since developed a new, easy to follow system to keep track of all types of screen time.
I have one, small coffee can for each child. On each coffee can, I had my children attach twenty-one clothes pins. Each clothes pin represents thirty minutes of screen time, and they begin each week with all twenty-one. Each time a child watches a show or chooses to play a video game (with a timer set for thirty minutes), a clothes pin is removed. If he watches a movie, three clothes pins are removed, one for each thirty minute increment. Each child may use up to five clothes pins each day. However, once the pins are gone, they do not receive any more until the next week begins.
The first week we implemented this system, the pins were gone before the last day of the week had arrived. They were forced to endure an entire day with no screen time (which was actually a wonderful day!). This is our second week. We have two days left, and there are still twelve pins on each can!!
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Written by Laura on January 27, 2012
When my four-year-old began to express a sincere interest in completing home-school activities of his own, I figured it was time to order him his own curriculum from the same cyber school that my older son attends. At first , he was very excited to being learning like his big brother, but now I feel ...
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Written by Laura on December 30, 2011
Last week, my entire family took a trip from Pennsylvania to Oklahoma in order to visit our best friends. Although we were leaving three inches of snow in our wintry town, we were welcomed by rays of sunshine and moderate temperatures as we helped our friends get settled in their new home. My husband and I were more than ready for a break from the normal work routine, but we weren’t sure ho
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Written by Laura on November 18, 2011
It’s lunchtime, and there are four hungry children who were, just moments ago, playing blissfully outside and are now invading the quiet stillness of the house. How do you simmer the cries of, “Mom, we’re hungry!” and “Miss Laura, what are we having for lunch?” Easy. You turn the eating area into a diner.
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Written by Laura on November 16, 2011
Meal times used to be very stressful in our home. Like many parents, we had resorted to dessert bribes and a you-must-try-it policy. However, after speaking with a friend, who happens to be a published nutritionist, we have taken different approach to meal times.
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Written by Laura on September 7, 2011
According to Wikipedia, some researchers suggest that people communicate with each other using non-verbal cues as much as 80% of the time. So when you are teaching your child communication skills, it only makes sense to include some form of non-verbal communication practice.
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Written by BRWI Staff on August 24, 2011
When my oldest son was three-years-old, he attended a preschool two mornings each week. Although the teacher would encourage him to visit the art center which was filled with every supply and accessory you could possibly need to create a piece of artwork, my son would have rather played with the trains and cars for the entire two-and-a-half hours. The only artwork I received during that year wer
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Written by Laura on August 11, 2011
When children are in elementary school, it isn’t always easy to get them to write a story. You can’t just say to them, “Write me a story about anything you want.” They need more guidance and a place to start. Often, teachers will give students a “picture prompt” to get children’s minds going. The same can be done for preschool children in order to jump
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Written by BRWI Staff on August 9, 2011
Quite a long time ago, I heard a program on the radio about “putting the sugar bowl back on the table”. The speaker was describing various aspects of our daily eating habits that have contributed to childhood obesity. One of his major exampleswas that cereals now contain so much sugar, that we should be buying “plain” cereals and allowing our children to spoon on sugar fr
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Written by Laura on July 27, 2011
I can remember as a child being very excited when I won a pen that wrote with invisible ink. I believe it was because of the mystery and the feeling that I knew something my older brother and parents didn’t know. I would write a secret message on a piece of paper and watch as my parents would act perplexed at not being able to read the secret message.
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Written by Laura on July 20, 2011
Our goal is to give you the tools and confidence to teach your preschooler the joy of reading and writing.
Sponsored by Bridges Reading & Writing Institute -- teaching the JOY of reading and writing to students in preschool through 12th grade.
