Originally Posted by polarbear
ITA with Portia - you need to determine what works for each child. I also believe it's ok to insert your own family values into decisions about screen time - while it's a wonderful tool for learning, it's not the only way to learn, and I'd be very cautious about assuming he's learning "more" via screen than he is when he's interacting with his parents or out on a walk, etc. I'm guessing there's a good likelihood that he still enjoys time with his parents smile If so, maybe one way to handle weekdays that both allows him to follow his passion as well as help alleviate concerns about too much screen time would be to let him have an hour before dinner time, and after dinner time spend some one-on-one child/parent time - could be reading together, could be playing, could be anything.

Best wishes,

polarbear


Thanks, Polarbear. No, we definitely don't assume he's learning more via screentime than any other activity. It's just that this particular activity at this particular moment in his development seems to be meeting some need of his (I think figuring out basic English spelling patterns and learning to read). It's also a very social activity for him because he loves to play with a parent, or even watch us play. Even when playing alone he'll be in the same room narrating his game play by play ("Mom, I played the word "watermelons" and now I'm ahead 15 to 4! Wasn't that a great play?") Still, we have ended up going with pretty much what you suggested - he now plays for about 45 minutes before dinner and then all screens are turned off for the rest of the day. Weekends are another story, though...