Summer Screen Time Rules For Kids | Limit your Kids’ Screen Time

Everyone waits for summer; not just adults, kids are equally excited for their breaks. Kids can get out of their regular schedule and set themselves accessible for a while. Kids have lots of time for themselves, and if there’s no summer screen time rules for kids, they can use their devices all the time.

Things have changed a lot since our childhood. In the past, kids were all about doing a new activity every day during summer break. As a kid, swimming, camping, painting were my favorite activities during summers.

The only screens that used to be were TV and very few channel options, which is the reason for screen time to be significantly less.

But now, all kids think about is playing new games or using new and trending social media sites during their break.

Parents are most concerned about their kid’s screen time during summer, and you cannot even totally ban screen usage for your kids. Kids can spend all their time on social media if not monitored.

Parents should ensure that they do not let their kids overuse their digital devices even though it is summer break. It is ok to let them use their device for a little longer than usual but always set summer screen time rules for kids.

7 Summer Screen Time Rules for Kids

Here are some summer screen time rules for kids that you can use to limit your kids' screen time:.

1. Complete Daily Duties at First

Summer means kids try to skip their tasks and duties. Kids' daily routines change during their extended breaks most of the time. Kids of this technological age like to be on their devices as soon as they get free time.

They can get extremely lazy and try to procrastinate their daily activities during their extended breaks. Once they get up, they open their smartphones or tablets and surf the internet or play games. Even they try to delay their breakfast and meal to be online and use their device. Make sure you turn off internet access at night.

Hence, it would be best to be responsible even during their holidays. You need to set summer screen time rules for kids to complete their daily duties before they get into their device.

2. No Digital Device at Dinner Table

Even on regular days, your kids can bring their smartphones, iPad, or tablet to their dinner table, and they shift all their attention on their screen when using their devices while having food.

Summer is such a time when there are lots of celebrations going on. Adults make plans for picnics, barbeque nights, family gatherings, and many more. However, in such a celebration also

Cellphone Use During Meals Spikes Over Holidays among tweens and teens. They may not find social groups and interaction fun and instead like to be alone with their smartphones.

It is when you can help your kids develop their interacting skills. You can set a basket at the dinner table where you and your kids can put their devices on the basket, and this will ensure your kids are not using their devices during their mealtime and use the time to interact.

3. Set Time Limit for Device Usage at Night-Time

Kids' bedtime extends during their long vacation. They prefer to stay up late and be online, watch movies and series, and play video games.

If you do not stop your kids, they can binge-watch the series all night and such an increase in screens will affect your kids' sleep. It will not just increase their screen time; they can even face other problems like eyesight, depression, anxiety, and many more.

For this reason, you should set a screen time limit for device usage during nighttime. You can provide their digital device for a while during the night. If they don’t feel like sleeping or don’t get enough sleep, encourage them to read the book, and suggest some good books that can inspire them to do better in their lives.

Apart from that, you can even organize fun activities during nighttime like karaoke night, game night, painting night, and many more. These activities will help kids stay away from their devices for some time.

4. Organize Night Time Activities

As mentioned above, it is always good to organize nighttime activities and some fun activities. It would be best to organize activities that will require very little or no screen time at all.

Organizing activities for kids like quiz night, painting, guessing the spellings, etc., will help your kids enhance their knowledge. It will help kids gain new understanding and keep their brains active simultaneously.

Likewise, games and other fun, creative activities are a great way of increasing the bond between you and your kids. You can show your fun side to your kid who might think you are boring to them.

Some fun nighttime activities that you can organize are chess champion, crossword puzzle, quiz, ludo challenge, singing challenges, and many more.

Aside from that, sometimes, you can even organize family movie nights with your kids. Prepare some snacks, set comfortable living areas for watching movies, and select films that all your family members prefer to watch together.

5. Keep Track of Your Kids' Screen Time

During summers, you usually allow your kids to use their devices more than required. Sometimes, you even let your kids use their devices without keeping track of their screen time.

When you do not keep track of your kid's screen time, they can use it all day and night. Their screen time habit gets disturbed when you do not monitor their total screen time.

With the increase in screen time, kids can get lots of physical and mental problems; therefore, you need to check your kid’s screen time even during their holidays.

You can allow screen time a little more than usual during their long breaks but make sure that they are not using it. Thereby, even if your kids insist you not keep track of your kid's device activities, you should have summer screen time rules for kids to keep track of their screen time and device activities.

6. Organize Outdoor Activities

It's always best to get your kids out of the house and connect with nature. Summers are always a good season for camping, picnics, fishing, hiking, and more. You can set rules for going out at least once a month or week.

Outings are a great way of relaxing and refreshing your mind. It is an excellent way of improving a kid's physical and mental health; kids use their devices for very few minutes when they are out of their house enjoying nature.

You can even encourage kids to come out of the house and play and interact with kids of their age. As a kid, I loved playing with my neighborhood friends and organizing a picnic with them during the summers.

7. Encourage them to Join Classes of Their Interest

Long vacation means kids have more time for themselves. Instead of investing their free time on their digital devices, they can invest in learning something new. It is an excellent time for kids to join the course of their interest.

There are many summer courses that you can enroll your kids into during their break. If they do better in such classes, they can even make it their career.

Some classes you can let your kids join are painting, dance, swimming, cooking, music, or even coding classes. Ask your kids to join life skills like self-control, self-defense, time management skills, budgeting, and many more. If your kids have difficulties in their studies, you can even let them join summer school.

Encouraging kids to join summer classes will have less time to use devices and low screen time.

Conclusion

Sometimes, it can be pretty hectic for a working mom to manage a kid's screen time. To make it easier and to effectively manage screen time, I have enlisted summer screen time rules for kids. Also, fenced.ai can be a great helping hand for managing a kid's screen time habits. Have a look.

Summing up, summer is when kids can change their good screen time and device habits and develop some bad ones. You need to keep an eye on your kids' activities, and therefore, parents need to make summer screen time rules for kids to reduce overuse of their devices.

FAQ

How much screen time kids share during summer?

As per common sense media, kids can spend more than 9 hour a day.

What are the chores your kids need to complete before using their screens?

Here are the few chores you need to make sure that your kids have completed before they use their devices.

• Brush your teeth
• Make your bed
• Complete your food.
• Finish daily reading
• Clean your room.
• Do some stretching

How do I limit my kid’s screen time in summer?

Here are a few ideas to limit kid’s screen time in summer:

• Allow using digital devices only in specific areas of your home.
• Give them daily fun challenges.
• Make a device-free bedroom.
• Engage them in physical activities.
• Set a good example.

What is the average screen time for Kids in 2020?

Apart from using the device for schoolwork,kids use additional 7 hours and 22 minutes time on their gadgets. Most of the time, they spend their time on social media sites like TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, etc.