Updated: Jun 4, 2020
Click here to listen to this week's podcast: ScreenTime, Chores, Habits of Blessing - Help our kids GROW, even in a Pandemic. Plus, Mom, What's Your Harriet Road? Episode 29
Two of my daughters join me on the podcast this week! Emma helps me with a SIMPLE PLAN for kids to keep themselves off of screen time until they’ve GROWN in some main areas of life EACH DAY! Let a CHECKLIST be their guide to being eligible for SCREEN TIME for the day instead of you feeling like you have to nag and harp and grouch at them to get them to do something productive with their days during this crisis-schooling or whatever it is we're doing right now! The beauty of a CHECKLIST – the kids follow it instead of mom needing to repeatedly ask them to do things or for mom to try to think of what she wishes the kids would do to be productive before they get on their screens.
Make a checklist for kids to complete each day BEFORE they get screentime! That's what you'll learn about on this week's podcast episode.
Do you ever feel like there's an invisible magnetic pull from all the screens and devices in your home straight to your child? When crisis seems to have hit home, resisting our child's constant clamor for more screen time is especially difficult when normal life has been interrupted and parents are scrambling to figure out how to proceed. This is one of the dilemmas we tackle on this week's podcast. I am joined by my two youngest daughters to bring you a checklist for cutting that magnetic pull called GROWTIME before ScreenTime. If you find yourself with your children at home in a season of crisis, they may not be at a place to handle full-time schooling, but you can at least different-school. And this is where the checklist can be so beneficial.
Mom, do you find journaling to be therapeutic? Most adults who journal feel that it reduces stress, and increases their self-awareness for decision-making, and if you journal your prayers, this is a fantastic way to keep a record of the many answers to pray that God will bring over time. All of these benefits await our children as well, when they develop the habit of journaling. This practice also increases their creative writing skills and gives them some penmanship practice, if they need to improve their writing speed. It's a great activity to include on their daily GROWTIME before ScreenTime Checklist.
Included in my daughter's GROWTIME before ScreenTime Checklist, is filling out her Blessings Calendar. Each day she is supposed to do something unexpectedly kind for one person who lives with us and one person who does not live with us each day and record what she did on her Blessings Calendar. We actually started this right before the current pandemic that has brought each family into isolation. There are still lots of ways to bless someone we don't live with - by texting, calling, sending a card, praying for them, meeting a need... A Blessings Calendar can help your child develop a HABIT of looking for ways to to be a blessing in others' lives.
Reading alone, no matter our child's age, is a valuable part of each day. Kids need some focused mental growth that comes through the imagination that is required to read a book. If your child is too young to read words, give them books to look at the pictures - to study the details, see the progression of events, recognize the similarities and contrasts from one page to the next. Reading alone is a wonderful time to quiet the soul.
Of course, you don't want to overlook the incredible value of reading aloud to your child as well. It is bonding as you take adventures together while cuddled on the couch or lying in the grass or swinging on the porchswing. No matter the setting, take time for your child to read alone and reading together. It's one of the items on our GROWTIME before ScreenTime Checklist.
It is no surprise to you, I'm sure, that focusing on what we're THANKFUL for improves our mood by getting our mind set on good things and off of "poor me and my circumstances." Help your entire family to focus on God's provision to us during difficulty! This is a small poster that we are using for each person to list something they're thankful for every day. I will say, we are going to recreate this on a WHITEBOARD so that it is easy to reuse the same board over and over again. A Grateful Board is another item from the GROWTIME before ScreenTime Checklist! To learn more about it, listen to the podcast here.