When our boys were younger, we struggled to find a system of tracking “screen time” (aka TV, video games, computer, etc.) and a way of disciplining without getting angry & yelling. Parenting three small children in a positive way can be very difficult at times. We started using a discipline/reward chart system that solved both problems.
Reward Chart
{I’m sure this idea was inspired by something or someone,
though it’s been far to many years ago to remember who deserves credit.
If this was your idea, THANK YOU!}
I started with a piece of foam board and divided it with painters tape into 6 sections (very budget-friendly!). To attach the shapes to the board, I simply purchased a bunch of self-adhesive circle velcro pieces. I put the soft halves on the board and the rough halves on the back of each shape. {I’m sure there is a more technical name for the halves of velcro, but you get the point!}
Each child was assigned two sections horizontal to one another. Every school day (M-F), each child received 30 minutes of screen time. Every non-school day (Sat/Sun), each child received 1 hour of screen time. On Monday mornings, I would place 30 minutes in the left section and load the right section with four 30 minute shapes and two 1 hour shapes (for the remaining 6 days that week). Each morning, we would move the correct shape into the left section. This helped all of us track the time and the kids weren’t constantly dipping into the bag of time shapes {and therefore dishonestly gaining time – not that that would *ever* happen in our home!}.
The left section contained the currently available times. Each time a child would disobey, fight, talk back, etc. – they would have to remove 5 minutes of time. Unfortunately, the negative time shapes would come in handy once in a while! If a child ended the day in the negative, we would leave a negative shape up until the next morning and then adjust the time accordingly. This helped the boys not only learn math skills, but also budgeting.
If a child asked to watch a TV show or play a computer game, they could look to see how many minutes they had left that they wanted to “spend”. We would set a timer and when the timer went off, they would stop playing and remove the correct number of minutes. If they did not stop playing right away, they would remove an extra 5 minutes. {again, not that this *ever* happened with our precious children!}
This system made it very easy for me to say “Take off 5 minutes for arguing.” in a calm voice, rather than getting upset or yelling. We found that this system worked really well for our boys and our family. You could set up the times for whatever you think is appropriate for the ages of your child(ren). Our boys have outgrown the cute-sy shapes and we are constantly updating our methods of discipline and rewards as they grow older, but I wanted to share an idea with you that worked for us!
What discipline/reward chart systems have you used with your children? How do you track and monitor screen time in your home?