D is co n n ec t
With Spring Break right around the corner, take some time to encourage your child to turn off the MacBook, iPad, iPhone or whatever device he or she uses regularly. Have a conversation without the interruptions, unfold a board game or read a book. With this warm weather we experienced this past Monday, I rediscovered how much I love throwing the baseball with my children.
Here is an older blog post I wrote about 2 years ago that I updated with some newer activities that we do with our children. Please keep in mind that we probably won’t take an entire week off of technology with Spring Break upon us, but will go a few days at time with out it.
It is my job to love technology and I do, every bit of it. Each week I come up with a new tech tip for the Middle School’s Friday Footnotes, which I am always excited to share with all of you. My tech tip this week is: Turn It Off
As a family we decided to be tech free this past week. No computer, no iPad, no Leapster, no texting, no Words with Friends, no Candy Crush. Many kids are overcome by the excitement of technology and my kids are no exception. We have opened their eyes to interactive books on the iPad, drawing activities on the Leapster and fantastic games on pbskids.org (not to mention my son religiously watches Packer and Brewer highlights online). None of these activities are detrimental to my children’s’ health, quite the opposite, but with the excitement of technology comes the possibility of dependency. The long and short of it is that my kids want to use tech devices more than we are comfortable with. Plus, my wife and I aren’t always the best models of limited technology use. So we turned it off, all week, and it was great. We live in a technological world which I love, but what I love more is reading books, playing Zingo and Yahtzee, Tenzi, doing puzzles, building forts, playing invisible football and laundry basket basketball, being a client in my daughter’s hair salon or singing every song from the Frozen soundtrack at the top of our lungs.
Technology will always be a big part of our lives and I get excited about what it offers my children. But it is refreshing to step back, slow down and simplify. And that is why we turned it off.
Tagged: ipad, iPad and Parenting
Parenting in the Digital Age 
Love the advice. It’s hard to do as a parent. It’s hard to turn things off and limit the amount of time children spend on their electronic devices – but it’s such good advice. Children’s brains won’t develop fully if they don’t have the chance to use their brains in other ways; build with their hands, paint with their fingers, run with their feet, and converse with their siblings, parents, and friends. Fantastic idea. Thanks for all of your sharing.
Wow, some really good advice. Things are changing all the time with Technology and this article has some great tips. Here I am on the computer, while my kids are watching Frozen! It could be worse, they could be on Instragram. Ugh! I think we’ll finish off our break with no iPads or computers. HA! We’ll see. Thank you for sharing.
Here is another great article…
http://blog.famtivity.com/how-to-parent-children-around-digital-technology/