Screen-time reward system for kids

[jannylynn]

There's been too much tv, xbox, DS, webkins, etc. going on in this house. I decided yesterday that they are grounded from all that stuff but I agreed that they could earn back time by either reading or doing chores. And even then it's after only 3 p.m. even if we finish our school day early. But silly me hasn't put anything to keep track of this in place and my DS7 is reading to my DS4 right now with a timer next to them.

Does anyone do this? What can I do to keep track? We use timers around here religiously for school and chores, so I decided that we would need to use them for screen time too.

[ColleenSwerb]

How about a chart of some sort that you can print out? Each block of time spent reading or doing chores earns a sticker (or something) and once they earn X-number of stickers (or whatever) they get X-amount of screen time.

[jessica31876]

When my son was younger he was not allowed to play a game for longer then one hour per day because if I let him he would play four hours straight or more. So he could choose to break that hour up or do it straight through but once an hour was over he had to put the game up. Now he does not really play that much anymore so it isnt an issue.

If it was me I would give them an hour free time each day to choose one (or split the hour between two of the activities) providing they are doing the other stuff you want them to and then on weekends maybe add a half hour or hour extra per day.

[Darcy Baldwin]

Some of our good friends do it with chips. They got those laminate chips from the kitchen section of the hardware store (with permission, of course), and have a little system where they get chips for completing chores or time with whatever they have to do to earn media time. Each chip is worth 15 min media time. They also have to use up a chip if they watch with a sibling..you're in front of the media, you give up a chip

I'd definitely chart for time reading, etc...good time to discuss different kinds of charts and do a different sample for each child - bar graph, data graph, data table, etc.