My boys, 4 and 7, got hand-held Nintendo game systems as a gift a few months ago. Prior to this, they rarely played video games. Now, all they want to do is play video games in all their spare time. Of course, my oldest is in school during the day and knows he must finish his homework before he can play. But I feel like they are addicted to it. I don't mind them playing, but not for hours on end. And it's hard to get them to put it down when it's time to transition to whatever the next activity is (i.e. dinner). So I want to know how much time are your kids allowed to play? Do you have specific times of the day set aside for video games?
mine have to earn video game time with chore points.
They earn points from doing chores, and good behavior and they can spend them on what they want , but 25 pts = 30 minutes of video game time.
If my kids ask to play I set the timer if they argue about shutting it off they don't get to play at all the next day.
You just limit it.
You make the rules.
You tell them, certain times they can play and for how long.
Then after that, YOU take it and put it away. You explain, that only Mommy or Daddy holds it/puts it away or takes it out.
Then when they want to play, they need to ask you.
YOU have it in a certain place. Not just letting them have it.
They are young.
So YOU take control of the devices. ONLY having it where Mommy or Daddy puts it away. And they don't have access to it.
Just like candy. You don't leave it out on the coffee table all day for them to just eat whenever. A parent stores candy, in a certain place, where a child cannot get to it. It is asked for and only for certain times/occasions.
all the best,
Susan
Mine go through phases...I don't think my older one has touched his DS in months. They also go through phases with their Wii and XBOX-sometimes you can't pry them from it and then they will go weeks with no play. Your kids games are still new so they are still having a blast with them. It should wear off after a while.
Hi, my husband an i own a game store, we see all types play.
Some kids that do bad in school, their parents still reward them with games, however i dont think that is a good idea. If your children are doing well in school and do their home work, i'd let mine play hours on end, most games such as RPG ( Role Playing Games) are very good for kids, it helps them with there reading and remembering skills. Hence the fact most kids that play the RPG's make A's in school. and they also don't realize their learning something!
I suggest no more than 2 hours at a time. due to the fact, your eyes need to reajust, and your system needs to cool down, that way you dont have problems with your system.
But know that all games are good at something,
RPG's ( reading and remembering)
Shooters ( hand and eye cornation)
etc.
If the child is doing poorly in school, then i'd take them away. until their grades inprove.
but if not i dont see a problem.
Its just the next generation, like you use to go see your friends, then you would call them, then it went to texting, and no people talk on games.
Its just the next generation. No biggie.
We let our kids play for as long as they do learning/reading for the day, not to exceed an hour. So, if they do learning/reading for 45 mins, they can play for 45 mins. You can set a timer so they know when it goes off it's time to turn off the game.
My boys are 6 & 9. They are on a points system. They earn points for completing life skills, chores and manners. Those points are saved and used for DS time, going out somewhere, and other different rewards that isn't in the normal daily plan. During the week they must finish their homework and chores first then they can have 30min video game/tv time for every 30min they go outside and play. If they fight or argue over the game OR give me any attitude when it is time to turn it off they lose it for the rest of the day. If we have the same problem 2 days in a row they lose it for the rest of the week.
We limit video games to when the weather is nasty outside, when we are in the car for long car rides or when it is nap time and the younger kids are sleeping. These were the rules from the get go so my kids have never had any problems with them. I do believe in limiting how often and for how long they play because I do not want them staring at the same thing for hours.
During the week my son (da8) is allowed to play after chores until school starts, and then after dinner until bathtime, and if he's working on design for up to an hour during school. On the weekends he's allowed to play whenever, but we still have stuff scheduled on the weekends. If he doesn't pop off with good attitude each and every time he loses it for the rest of that day and all of the next. He can *ask* if he can : finish a level/ have a few more minutes/ etc., because the respect goes both ways... I don't like being interupted in the middle of something exciting when 2 minutes will get me to a place where I can give my full attention... but he usually doesn't he usually just pauses things, and comes back to them later.
We do sometimes do "days". Tuesday of last week we had a Halo Reach day. We just planned on it being an all day thing. Made superbowl type food (chicken wings, etc) and spent all day shooting aliens :) Which was a fun treat. Sometimes on a super rainy day we'll do something similar. But it's like having a movie marathon day... not the norm.
Typically he's playing or working on the xbox a couple hours a day, or on the computer a couple hours a day. It's not a big deal to me for several reasons, but probably the biggest reason that we lead very active lives. Another is that he is REALLY into videogame design. As a matter of fact FORGE, some kid style basic programming games, and Adobe movie editor stuff all counts as "school" time in our house.
This is also a really interesting TED http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/jane_mcgonigal_gaming_c...
my daughter has a chore chart, and homework, when that is all done she can have an hour of computer game time.
My sister in law used to give them minutes based on how many minutes they read. If they read for 20 minutes, they got 20 minutes game time..
I nanny for a family. The kids are 6yr old boy and 9 yr old girl. They are allowed 1/2 hour of "screen" time per day. that includes tv, video games, computers, handheld games etc. 1/2 hour total.
I agree with everything Mallory P. said....it should wear off. We don't really limit our kids and we have found we don't really need to either...like you, I was worried when they were all new but now it's just like any other toy. The only "limiting" we do is during the summer, when it is a rule that "No Electronics" after breakfast and then not again until after dinner...I would prefer they be up and out doing something else:)
Our rule is during the school year: Only on the weekends /no more than an half an hour.
during summer: only on the weekdays/ only an half an hour
Everything in moderation.....I limit it the same way I limit candy, soda, tv, etc... my 4 year old's day goes something like this....6:30 awake, breakfast, take sister to school, 8:00 home to work on learning games...like jumpstart that are specifically for learning. I have him work on that for an hour, he will take breaks and play with toys during the time. 10:00 Then I have him do something physical, weather permitting, if not he gets to do wii with balance board, like obstacle courses or running. 11:00Then I have him do craft play like playdo, colors, paint, scissors, glue sticking, markers, & puzzles or stickers. 12:00 lunch, during lunch I allow him to watch 2 cartoons that is about 1/2 an hour. I then sit with him & I go over about 6-8 worksheet pages. 1:30 he plays quietly in his room & he usually falls asleep playing on his bed. 3:30 pick up sister, and when we come home he plays just for fun video games while his sister does her learning games or homework for about an hour, then they play togetherin room still dad comes home at 5:00. They then are allowed about an hour of tv, dinner, then bath, books, & bed by 8:30pm. I just try & moderate everything so that they are well rounded. Hope this helps you.
No video or tv unitl weekends and then only if chores are done or we are in the car. I also homeschool and my 9 year old usually finishes his work by 3 every day. For the rest of the day he reads and plays outside.
We only allow video game on non-school days. We also have a 'Family currency" system that allows them to earns "dollars" base on behavior at home & wether they do chores etc. on non-school days they can cash in the dollars for video game time $4 is 1 hr. $6 is 1 1/2 etc. They can buy other stuff too, like silly bands, or a cookie. But that's how we do it & it works wonders!
By not buying them for my 4-year-old.
yes - after homework is done my son is allowed to play video games - he is allowed 2 hours of screen time a day, he plays my ipod for 20 mins on the way to school and back, then the rest after his homework - he is totally addicted to video games - I know some people only allow 15 mins etc, but you can't really get into a game in 15 mins, and he needs down time too, so I let him play a good while, after that he has to read or play outside.
lone day a month he has "whatever he wants to do" day he can play for as long as he wants - he looks forward to that!, and generally self regulates and plays for a couple of hours then has a break
I have a 5 and 7 year old and we don't allow video games to be played during the week. Only on Friday, Saturday and Sundays and NOT all day. Just 60 minutes on each of the three days.
My kids (6 & 8) have the Wii. They are not allowed to play at all during the week. On the weekends, I'm pretty flexible. If it's nice I make them go outside and play, but I've also been known to let my 8 yr old son play Mario Galaxy for like 4hrs straight especially if it's raining. You do what's right for your family. If video games are getting in the way, then something needs to be done. I restricted to only weekends after relizing that the only thing my son talked about was video games!!!!
dont limit them. they will get bored. My brother and I use to pplay alot of computer game. Especially one summer we were playing 8 hrs a day. we got bored with it and didnt play the game again for months, and I agree what Rachael B says about RPG games. I played alot of RPG games as a kids and made mostly As in school.
I set up a system with my son because I was realizing that's all he wanted to do too. For every 1/2 hour of video games he'd owe me 1/2 hour reading time. It taught him to think about how long he's on the Wii, DS, PSP. ...
This is simple... No video games are allowed in my house.
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We try to enforce a 2 hour screen time rule in the summer--with varying degrees of success depending on the weather.
During school, he (6) has to have snack, chores done, and homework done first. We're backing up to 1 hour on school days.
For our 4 year old only Friday nights and weekends and it is dependent on good behavior. The max on any given day is 2 hours and lately we've been able to get his mind off the subject by riding bikes/razors outside, going to the park, etc. I will always try to do outside activities before we allow video games, but dad is more reluctant in giving in to the video games since he likes them as well-Lol. In fact, because the novelty of playing has worn off some, in the past month, I think he's only played a couple of times. It will go in phases.
