Screen Time
Email 1
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Subject Line: Screen Time, Part One
Dear Parents,
This is the digital age and the age of rapid technological advancement. We can’t run from it, so we have to make sure we understand it, are in tune to it, and most importantly, in control of it—rather than letting it control us or our kids.
This Online Parenting Class video helps you come to grips with how much screen time your preschooler should be experiencing. After you watch the video, I urge you to get in touch with me regarding any comments or questions you have.
Let’s work together to make sure technology works for the good of your family’s spiritual growth instead of against it.
https://vimeo.com/parentministry/review/149143125/89fb85608a
Signing out,
Preschool Pastor
Email 2
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Subject Line: Screen Time, Part Two
Hi,
Hopefully by now you’ve watched the video that goes with this lesson on addressing screen time and your preschooler. If you have, you know it was filled with practical and relevant information on how to make digital technology a positive for your preschooler rather than a negative.
We can’t deny the benefits of technology or the fact that our kids are going to be surrounded by it for the rest of their lives. That’s why it is important to teach them how to manage their screen time properly now and how to be discerning about their digital media. Well, as discerning as a preschooler can be, anyway.
1. Block site access to anything that might be dangerous. Even seemingly harmless searches can put you and your preschooler in places you don’t need to be.
2. Set time limits on your child’s devices. When the allotted amount of time has been spent on the device, it times out.
3. Download apps that enhance your preschooler’s spiritual growth; apps like the free interactive Bible.
4. Play educational games online with your preschooler.
5. Make sure your preschooler knows how to operate the television, computer, and phone properly. Knowing how to use these things properly makes it easier to use safely.
6. Don’t allow your preschooler to be online without you being present.
7. Don’t let your preschooler rely too heavily on technology. Teach them to play board games, play outside by themselves and with other kids, and do things like paint, play with craft dough, dig in the dirt….
8. LIMIT their time in front of a screen of any kind. Not only is too much screen time bad for their eyes, but it hinders the development of their social skills, confidence among their peers, and their ability to process situations in any number of social and public settings.
God didn’t create this beautiful world and the people in it so we can shut it all out for the sake of animation and lightening-speed processing.
“When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?” ~Psalm 8:3-4.
Serving God together,
Preschool Pastor
Video Script
Preschool – Screen Time
Our children will grow up in a digital age. That means that they are know as “Digital Natives”. They’ve grown up in a world with digital technology, the internet, and social media.
Many of us parents are more like digital immigrants. We didn’t have as much of that as children and we’ve adjusted to new technology as we’ve grown up.
That’s the heart behind this discussion we’re hearing so much about how much “screen time” your child should have.
There is a healthy fear in our society today that in a world of “digital natives” we might lose the art of personal connection.
I know that you can connect online by sending a message or “liking” a post. But the type of connection I’m referring to can only happen face to face.
So, the way we’ve responded as parents is to limit our kid’s screen time. Making sure they only watch TV or play on an iPod for a certain amount of time each day.
That is extremely important and should be encouraged. Trust me, they will get plenty of time in their life to interact with a screen, so limiting it when they’re young can only be a good thing.
But in addition to that I have another suggestion. Instead of just limiting their “screen time”, let’s also increase their “face time”.
Let’s create regular rhythms in our family life when we are intentionally have face to face interactions.
It doesn’t do much good to stop looking at a screen unless we replace that time with looking at each other.
In fact, I believe that if we fought hard for fact time, then the whole screen time thing will take care of itself.
Fighting to make time to eat together as a family around the dinner table, scheduling regular family nights, and valuing family vacations are just a few ways that you can use your energy to create more connection in your family.
From a spiritual perspective, face to face time is priceless.
It’s in these moments where we discuss the things that matter most. Faith based conversations in the home are born from face to face moments.
And faith based conversations in the home are the greatest way to plant the seeds of faith in the heart of your child. When your child asks a questions, shares a fear they’re having, or presents a struggle their facing they are also giving you an opportunity to infuse faith into that conversation.
So yes, let’s limit screen time, but let’s also fight for face time. Let’s teach our little digital natives what it means to truly connect not just with our heads, but with our hearts as well.
Texts/Tweets
TIP: Choose a hashtag for your tweets and use it consistently. That will tell Twitter to store a list of your tweets on one place for later reference.
Tweet One: Limit screen time for the sake of your family #techsavvykids
Tweet Two: There’s more to life than a computer screen #techsavvykids
Tweet Three: Social kids aren’t glued to a screen #techsavvykids
Tweet Four: There’s more to life than screen time #KidsNeedPlaytime
Tweet Five: Your kids are online-do you know what they’re viewing? #techsavvykids
Tweet Six: Smartphones don’t make kids smart #KidsNeedPlaytime
Tweet Seven: Set screen time rules and stick with them #KidsNeedPlaytime
Tweet Eight: Computer screens don’t make good friends #KidsNeedPlaytime
Tweet Nine: You can’t get social skills online #KidsNeedPlaytime
Tweet Ten: Teach your kids to be tech savvy #techsavvykids