Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Computer time for kids

All summer I've been chasing my kids off the TV and off the computer. It drives me nuts. I devised a simple way to keep track of how much time each child spends online and which kid has had his online time!

I gave each child a post-it note with his name on it. I also wrote how much time each child has on this post-it. Evan (9) gets 30 mins/day. Aidan (6) gets 25, Toby (5) has 20 and Avery (3) has 15. These post-its are stuck to one side of the monitor. I also have a timer sitting on the computer desk. When the child has his time he moves his tag to the other side of the monitor and sets the timer.

No, there are no roll-over minutes. This ain't AT&T!

Also, if the child forgets to start the timer he gets booted off as soon as Mom figures it out. And if they go over their time? They lose it all the next day.

Yup. I'm so mean.

So far it's worked great!