Limiting the kids’ free technology time is always a battle. In the past we have allowed sixty minutes of game/TV time a day with Sundays being our screen free day, ‘No-tech Sundays’ as my kids have come to dread hearing.

Being quarantined means we are home. All. Day. The kids are bickering constantly. What helps calm the crazy and make me feel like I have a smidge of control, is having a routine. Online school does not start til next week (that should be interesting), and luckily we homeschooled last year so this shouldn’t be too foreign for the kiddos. This is what I have worked up:

Chores, brain-time and exercise need to happen first before privileges (tech). The kids need to read for 30 minutes and complete at least 20 minutes of math practice.

For math I have been utilizing arithmetic.zetamac.com for speed drills. It’s free, basic, straight forward math practice for adding, subtracting, multiplication and division with parameters and time limits you can change. It’s ideal for my 3rd and 6th graders because it does not have any frills or games and it challenges them to beat their previous times. My son has major trouble staying focused so this simple program has been fantastic.

The thirty minutes reading is with a book of their choosing, as long as the book is read start to finish and it is the appropriate age level. Because of his issue staying focused, in the past I would need to sit with my son alternating reading pages or paragraphs with him to be sure he was actually reading, rather than only flipping through the pages. This year he still needs to be supervised when he has reading assignments from school, but when he is home I can trust him to read as long as it something he is interested in. Right now he is fascinated with video games and – to the extent of paranoia – with natural disasters.. Wonderfully, we have plenty of Minecraft books that he just devours, and the school has educational material on natural disasters including a series called I Survived, fictional stories told by fictional survivors of actual events. My hope is that by learning more about tsunamis, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions etc, he will be less afraid of them. Thus far these books have spurred conversations and question aplenty.

After they have completed their chores and have exercised for at least an hour, they are allowed ninety minutes of screen time, which for my daughter, includes playing on her phone. I do not include texting and talking to her friends as tech-time; she is a social butterfly and is missing her friends terribly.

Aside from their regular chores – make the bed, clean your room, dishes, feed the animals, etc – we have optional extra chores such as wiping down the cabinets, pulling weeds and scrubbing the tub, that can be done to earn additional tech-time. Oh, I love this part. The kids actually argue over who gets to complete the easier extra chores like taking out the trash.

The kids’ current fav online game is Roblox. With multiple servers, there are countless games to engage their interest and inspire creativity while they have the opportunity to socialize with other kids. I am not a gamer myself. I have trouble relaxing when there is work to be done (and there is always work to be done!) until the end of the day when it’s time to relax on the couch and watch a show with my husband. While the kids and my husband are enjoying their game time, I usually read or goof off on my phone, but I found myself missing the pre-momdom World of Warcraft days (I loved that game!) when I could check out and enter another world for a while. I downloaded Roblox on my phone and joined my son on a server. The games are fairly uncomplicated and not super interesting to me, but my son loves it when we have that time together. And just now my daughter asked me to join in a game with her too. So although it is not productive by way of chores, it is extremely valuable time spent bonding with the kiddos doing something they love.