Love this! I have felt SO much anxiety around screens with my son. But a lot of the time what he's doing is educational, related to his interests, and relaxing for him. The things he creates in Minecraft are amazing! Yes, there is also more "mindless" use of screens, because I just need a break as a homeschooling parent with very little outside support. But perfection isn't really the goal. We try to make screen time creative and social as much as possible.
Sounds like you're already doing great at using "screens" mindfully with these intentions :-) Apologies for having missed your comment, I've only just realised I can keep track of comments better using the "replies" only tab of my notifications! I'm so glad this was a useful piece for you. I have heard much about Minecraft being great for creativity, problem-solving and much more... and yes, if it's all lumped in as "screen time" and we feel negative about it, that detracts from the learning our children are gaining from it. We absolutely all need a break sometimes, and children are entitled to entertainment at times, just as we need it ourselves too! "Perfection isn't the goal" is such a valuable reminder.
Yes,100%. When my eldest is ill, he can't stand noise, and tends to hide in his bedroom watching YouTube science documentaries.
We had several days of illness this week and, the minute he was better, he said "I want to do some drawing". Sitting down on the floor with pen and paper, he embarked on a lengthy diagrammatic exploration of chemicals with different numbers of benzene rings.
Thus, a screen was definitely the best possible use of otherwise lost time, as he's not really ready for chemistry textbooks - especially not when he's ill.
That’s amazing. Unwell but still learning! Just shows that, with the right content, “screens” allow absorptive learning, something school never offers for sure. And then the kind of screen time after school needs to be more numbing because presumably the child is already pretty overloaded cognition wise.
Love this! I have felt SO much anxiety around screens with my son. But a lot of the time what he's doing is educational, related to his interests, and relaxing for him. The things he creates in Minecraft are amazing! Yes, there is also more "mindless" use of screens, because I just need a break as a homeschooling parent with very little outside support. But perfection isn't really the goal. We try to make screen time creative and social as much as possible.
Sounds like you're already doing great at using "screens" mindfully with these intentions :-) Apologies for having missed your comment, I've only just realised I can keep track of comments better using the "replies" only tab of my notifications! I'm so glad this was a useful piece for you. I have heard much about Minecraft being great for creativity, problem-solving and much more... and yes, if it's all lumped in as "screen time" and we feel negative about it, that detracts from the learning our children are gaining from it. We absolutely all need a break sometimes, and children are entitled to entertainment at times, just as we need it ourselves too! "Perfection isn't the goal" is such a valuable reminder.
Yes,100%. When my eldest is ill, he can't stand noise, and tends to hide in his bedroom watching YouTube science documentaries.
We had several days of illness this week and, the minute he was better, he said "I want to do some drawing". Sitting down on the floor with pen and paper, he embarked on a lengthy diagrammatic exploration of chemicals with different numbers of benzene rings.
Thus, a screen was definitely the best possible use of otherwise lost time, as he's not really ready for chemistry textbooks - especially not when he's ill.
That’s amazing. Unwell but still learning! Just shows that, with the right content, “screens” allow absorptive learning, something school never offers for sure. And then the kind of screen time after school needs to be more numbing because presumably the child is already pretty overloaded cognition wise.