summer screen time

It is officially summer vacation.  Lance's last day of school was yesterday and so summer fun has begun.  Trying to keep the kids busy and occupied and away from electronics has also begun.  This year, like last year, we are limiting the kids screen time because both of them could easily spend the whole day on the ipad or playing video games if they were left to their own devices.  Trying to keep up with how much time they have watched as well as trying to explain to them that they are out of time is difficult so we came up with screen time tickets.  We decided that 1.5 hours of screen time a day is sufficient, watching a movie as a family in the evening is an exception to the rule.  I made each kid four tickets, 2- 30 minute tickets and 2-15 minute tickets.  When they want to play or watch they give me a ticket, when the tickets are gone, the screen is gone too.  It is a great way for the kids to understand why I won't let them watch anymore since they can see there are out of tickets and for me to keep up with what they have done.  Also the 15 minute tickets are used for discipline, first time you get a warning, second time I get 15 minutes of screen time and the next day they only get 3 tickets or less.  Having tickets also teaches them time management.  Today Lance has already used up all his tickets by 9 am, in a few weeks he will probably be saving 30 minutes for late afternoon. 

I also made extra tickets because I have a tendency to lose these especially when the kids are handing them to me at 6:30 in the morning before I am fully awake.