Our school district held a Cyber Savvy Parent Workshop that was eye-opening and super helpful for my family. I wanted to share some of the tools they shared with us for other parents out there! Below are links and a PDF to create your own family electronics media plan and a calculator for recommended time your kids should use electronics.
From American Academy of Pediatrics: Media should work for you & work within your family values & parenting style. When media is used thoughtfully & appropriately, media can enhance daily life. But when used inappropriately or without thought, media can displace many important activities such as face-to-face interaction, family-time, outdoor-play, exercise, unplugged downtime & sleep.
By creating a Personalized Family Media Use Plan, you can be aware of when you are using media to achieve your purpose. This requires parents & users to think about what they want those purposes to be. The tool below will help you to think about media & create goals & rules that are in line with your family’s values.
You can also calculate the electronic media time your child should have based on their ages and your lifestyle.
Alternately, if you want to say off electronics to make your media plan, download this PDF version you can print and fill out together. This Family Media Plan Age 6-12 yo PDF is for ages 6-12 years old.
