4th grader screen time hour limits

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think people BS a bit about screentime.

My child does reading and hw nightly,
he does 5 different sports (including 1 club) for a total of about 12-15 hours or more a week.
Plays with friends every single day in the neighborhood riding bikes or walking around for at least an hour up to 3-4 hours a day and our screentime is about the same. I am not worried with how active and how much socializing he does. 4th grader

When does he have time to do all that and watch 2 hours of TV a day and all day on weekends? Because mine does far fewer activities than you describe and there just isn’t time in the day for that screen time unless he cuts out books and friends.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: Saying his grades are good is meaningless

+1

Parent of teens here. OP your DS needs to be able to occupy himself without a screen, both inside and outside. He needs to hang out with other kids, maybe find someone his age to play chess with, make things, be bored, ride a bike somewhere, learn how to handle unstructured time, walk to a park to practice shots on goal, lay ups, etc, develop social skills that can't be developed while watching a screen. For 4th grade, I would also cut back or cut out weekday screen time. If you have to offer screen time, long form is better than short form.

Read The Anxious Generation. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/171681821-the-anxious-generation?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=xzr6hMvfMm&rank=1

+1

The people talking about "enrichment" are missing the point. He needs to be able to live life in a three dimensional world.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think people BS a bit about screentime.

My child does reading and hw nightly,
he does 5 different sports (including 1 club) for a total of about 12-15 hours or more a week.
Plays with friends every single day in the neighborhood riding bikes or walking around for at least an hour up to 3-4 hours a day and our screentime is about the same. I am not worried with how active and how much socializing he does. 4th grader

OP's kid is getting 5.5 hours on Friday, 9 hours on Saturday, and 9 hours on Sunday. That's 23.5 hours of screens over three days. On weekends he's literally only either watching screens or engaged in an organized sport activity -- no free play with friends, reading, or other screen free activities. And then in addition he's getting 2-4 hours a day each of the other days.

That is too much and way, way, way more than I'd ever allow my kids of any age to get. That's too much screen time for an adult, frankly. Imagine if you had a friend who watched television from 9am to 9pm every Saturday and Sunday except for a few hours going to the gym. Would you think "cool, sounds healthy" or would you wonder if they had a mental health issue or at least were just a very boring person? It's not healthy.

[Anonymous]

I know this doesn’t help, but this post makes me so sad. My kids are now in college but when they were in 4th grade they literally got maybe 4-5 hrs of screen time max per week, which includes one family movie night on Fridays and the some iPad on the weekend as quiet time. They spent most of their free time reading or playing with legos or blocks or dolls, or making art (unsupervised) or making up songs or weird dances. Even when they were toddlers, when I cooked they entertained themselves. This was not long ago. It is very much possible for kids to live happily without so much screentime.

[Anonymous]

1hr Mon-Thursday
2hrs Friday-Sunday

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would limit it to an hour after all homework is done, M-F. If he goes to one of those schools that assigns very light homework I would make him read a book or do some academic enrichment before screens. Saying his grades are good is meaningless because some schools are very weak. I would go by standardized test scores, if his school administers such tests. 95th percentile and up earns more liberal screen privileges.

Op here. He finishes his homework at aftercare, so no homework needs to be done at home. He is in CES, and 99% for both map M and map R. I could give him academic enrichment, but I can only rely on app which are screens unless I send him to private tutoring which is costly. I hesitate on math enrichment unless I want to introduce higher level pre algebra/algebra and I am not a teacher material on English subject.

You can do enrichment that isn't on screens. Especially as he gets older. You might also be surprised about tutoring options. For instance, there is a writing tutor in my neighborhood who teaches composition and short story writing to kids in a class once a week (former school teacher, this is her retirement job, she just loves kids and loves writing). It's not expensive because they are group classes. The kids do some writing in class and also get fun assignments to do at home and bring to class and share with the group. It's a bonding experience and she also exposes the kids to interesting stories and essays they don't see in school. I know this is a specific thing to us but I bet if you looked you could find similar options. Also while it's screen based, Outschool also offers enrichment classes and they are at least engaging with another human via screen rather than just using an app.

I also wouldn't get hung up on the idea that he can only do academic enrichment or sports. Check out your local library -- ours offers things like chess club and Lego building clubs. A local music store offers beginner ukulele classes, if your kid enjoyed that he could then take guitar, which is a relatively inexpensive and accessible instrument to learn. You can also do group piano classes and get a keyboard for practicing at home -- my kid likes screwing around with all the presets on the keyboard at home after finishing the required 10 minutes of practice.

His current scores are not as important as the habits and interests he is developing now. You are setting him up for being a teenager who spends 80% of his waking hours online. You don't want this, trust me.

[Anonymous]

My 4th grader is also like this. My idiot spouse doesn't believe it's a problem and it's very difficult for just me to enforce.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: Saying his grades are good is meaningless

+1

Parent of teens here. OP your DS needs to be able to occupy himself without a screen, both inside and outside. He needs to hang out with other kids, maybe find someone his age to play chess with, make things, be bored, ride a bike somewhere, learn how to handle unstructured time, walk to a park to practice shots on goal, lay ups, etc, develop social skills that can't be developed while watching a screen. For 4th grade, I would also cut back or cut out weekday screen time. If you have to offer screen time, long form is better than short form.

Read The Anxious Generation. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/171681821-the-anxious-generation?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=xzr6hMvfMm&rank=1

+1

The people talking about "enrichment" are missing the point. He needs to be able to live life in a three dimensional world.

The people talking about enrichment know that public elementary schools do not prepare kids very well for a more rigorous high school. If you want to send your kid to a selective high school and have them succeed, you need to get your kids acclimated to more challenge academics at an early age. And it's easy to get them to do the enrichment if you dangle their beloved screens like carrot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know this doesn’t help, but this post makes me so sad. My kids are now in college but when they were in 4th grade they literally got maybe 4-5 hrs of screen time max per week, which includes one family movie night on Fridays and the some iPad on the weekend as quiet time. They spent most of their free time reading or playing with legos or blocks or dolls, or making art (unsupervised) or making up songs or weird dances. Even when they were toddlers, when I cooked they entertained themselves. This was not long ago. It is very much possible for kids to live happily without so much screentime.

No need to be sad, this is how I'm raising my now elementary schooler. Non-lazy parents are still raising kids with minimal screens.

[Anonymous]

Not OP. Even when we have play dates, the kids want to be on screens. They will play with toys, etc. but it is not their 1st preference. 1st preference is always screens.

I don't know why that is. My kids would also be on screens all the time if they could.

[Anonymous]

NGL, this is an unhinged amount of screen time.

Pediatricians recommend less than 2 hours per day. I would follow that guideline.

Having good grades does not factor into limiting your child's exposure to screens as you would limit anything else. If he was skinny you still wouldn't let him eat an entire pint of ice cream each day, right?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:NGL, this is an unhinged amount of screen time.

Pediatricians recommend less than 2 hours per day. I would follow that guideline.

Having good grades does not factor into limiting your child's exposure to screens as you would limit anything else. If he was skinny you still wouldn't let him eat an entire pint of ice cream each day, right?

+1

We are a pretty screens-moderate to high family and this schedule is blowing me away.

[Anonymous]

I think the most alarming thing is that except for the times someone plays a game with this kid or takes him somewhere he is spending (or is able to spend) 6 hours watching TV on a Friday and 12 hours on a Saturday or Sunday.

Not to be harsh but do you not spend time with your kids on weekends? You're good just letting them zone out for up to 12 hours on a screen?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think the most alarming thing is that except for the times someone plays a game with this kid or takes him somewhere he is spending (or is able to spend) 6 hours watching TV on a Friday and 12 hours on a Saturday or Sunday.

Not to be harsh but do you not spend time with your kids on weekends? You're good just letting them zone out for up to 12 hours on a screen?

It’s really sad sounding for sure.

[Anonymous]

What do you mean by “screens?” That’s a broad term that includes tablets, computers, TV, and video games. There’s a huge difference between letting a kid watch TV and letting a kid play on a tablet scrolling through YouTube videos or online gaming. Not all screen time is equal. Study after study has shown that regular TV-watching has less of an injurious effect on kids than the other types of screens. It’s the instant gratification, scrolling, and the constant attention-diverting that is problematic.