Today’s Guest Post is brought to you by Kasey at These Five of Mine Plus Two. Please take a moment to welcome her and check out her blog as well! She’s a sweetie!
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Electronic media has become a huge part of everyday life. For better or worse, most of us have been sucked in. Online billing and banking, email correspondence, social networking, blogging…there are many reasons why we, as adults, utilize the web. But how about our children? What are the parameters and where are the limits?
In our family, we do allow the use of certain electronic gadgets. But those privileges come with boundaries. And they are earned! Here are a few of the guidelines we follow to prevent being consumed by this media-crazed era we live in:
- All electronic usage time is “purchased” through reading. Our children are required to do 30 minutes of reading before they can start logging their time. The reading material is up to them, as long as it falls under what is considered acceptable in our home.
- Each weekday is designated for a certain type of electronic. For instance, Monday’s are Computer Day, while Thursday’s are for DVD’s. This keeps anybody from getting too wrapped up in a certain electronic source.
- All chores and schoolwork must be completed to parental satisfaction before time can be cashed in. My older boys have laptops for their schooling, but they stay downstairs on a shelf at all times that permission hasn’t been granted for them to be in use. This helps us stay on top of who is doing what and it also relieves the unnecessary temptation that arises when a child has a computer in his/her room at night.
- We have an internet guardian on each computer as well as a program which records every key stroke. A quick peek at the history recorded there clues us in to anything they may have typed into a search browser. We not only want to protect their eyes from the forbidden, but we want to be aware of what they are attempting to get access to. Our kids don’t even know we have this program loaded, and we have never had an issue with what we have found. But evil lurks around every corner waiting to bait our children and we want to be there for them if it happens!
- Each child must set a timer when they have been given permission to use their earnings. And when they have used the allotted time, they are required to log it in the book. I keep a pretty close eye on what is happening, but with a houseful of kids, it helps to have a written record. And it keeps them accountable since it isn’t too difficult to determine how accurate and honest they are being since I am right here!
Do you allow your children access to electronics. If so, what steps do you take to keep them from taking over?
