Earn Your Screen Time Free Printable
As the kids get older I have a harder time getting them motivated to do their chores. We recently moved over to the earn your screen time method to help motivate and encourage them to “earn”.
Kids are being brought up in such a technology-driven world. All they see are people are on their phones, tablets, playing video games, etc. I need them to know that you have to work to get the things you want.
I think this mindset needs to be shown to them early in life. This way they know there is work to be done, like school work and chores, before playtime as they get older.
I also want them to know that there is life outside of electronics! We do a lot of crafts (recently, we did a few of these superhero crafts) and outdoor games in the Summer.
Don’t get me wrong.. some technology isn’t bad…
I will admit that we often use technology in our homeschool routine. There are a lot of educational videos out there that will help teach important skills. I even created a huge list of educational YouTube channels for kids.
You definitely need to check out these educational online games for kids.
Our neighbor has a child just a tad older than my two. I was shocked to hear that the family does not own a t.v. or video game system. They have a tablet and a computer, but that is only used for learning purposes. Stuff like schoolwork or any kind of business that needs to be done is what the computer is used for. Nothing else.
We use YouTube Kids a lot for various activities and educational purposes. The kids enjoy the videos and I like that I can block specific YouTube Kids channels if I want to.
I got to thinking that limiting their screen time wasn’t such a bad idea. They could earn their screen time by doing their chores around the house. Extra screen time can be earned by completing extra chores or acts of kindness.
We even made up a summer bucket list to keep them entertained and to get them out of the house for a bit and off the electronics.
Here are a few other educational activities and ideas to get the kiddos off the screens:
- P.E. Activities (includes a daily exercise tracker)
- United States flashcards
- Family fun night activities
- Collecting rocks
- Science experiments
It really brought us all together. We did so many fun things we did as a family because of the bucket list. Because we did so many things together, it brought us all joy. I was glad to see that we all could have fun doing activities outside together.
I created a free printable of the summer bucket list version we had, you can head over to the printables to grab it if you want. The kids will love participating and completing the activities and you’ll love the quality time you get to spend with them.
Included in some of the free printables I’ve shared are Christmas activity packs, a Valenetine’s Day I Spy printable, wish lists, and more.
This is our Earn Your Screen Time checklist and chore list.
It’s not fancy by any means. As the kids get older and get more responsibilities, I will update the chore list as needed. To start off with, the items listed on the chart are more for learning natural life skills.
Life skills like getting dressed, brushing their teeth, eating healthy, etc. These are things I want them to get in the habit of doing each and every day, no matter what.
Some of these are done in the morning before we start our daily chores. Others can be finished after our homeschool routine. In addition, I put in a few bedtime chores with a couple of extra “bonus” things they can do throughout the day to them some extra screen time.
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I can’t find where to download the printable. Is there a link on this page that I’m missing? Thanks.
Hi Andrea, the link is located just above the Free Library graphic. The link is in the sentence..
“Don’t want all the other free printables? No worries, you can still download the Earn Your Screen Time printable here.”
I hope that helps!
Honestly, I grew up in a strict household with minimal TV watching allowed. I went the exact opposite direction with my kids and they are creative, adventurous, and very responsible adults. Balance in everything is key. Just my two cents.
Balancing is definitely key. I wouldn’t go to any extremes just for the fact of that possibility of rebellion. We like to limit the screen time to help them enjoy the outdoors. As they get older things will be adjusted, but I know families who have kids that don’t ever go outside or ones that have no access to electronics. So I definitely agree that you have to find a good balance.
I love the clear rules on how one can earn screen time I am also always a big fan of tracking. The visua helps so much.
Haha this is a fab idea. Earning screen time is a great incentive for sure. I am sure many kids will learn to earn xx
We limit our kids screen time to approximately an hour a day. Occasionally more if we do a family movie night or something. I think it’s important to teach kids healthy habits and staring at a screen all day is definitely not healthy so I think this chart is a great idea.
An hour a day is perfect in my opinion. We usually do around that time frame as well. It really helps because it gets the kids outside more, especially in the summer, where they can plan and enjoy the outdoors.
This is a great idea! I do limit a lot the screen time of my children, but I never thought to make them earn that time!
This is such a great idea! I absolutely loved it ???? I am going to share this post and the ideas with my sister who has a cute little daughter. I am sure she is gonna love this idea and will find it helpful too!
Thank you! I hope she enjoys it and I definitely appreciate the share.
This is such a great idea for kids. It’s important for them to learn the value of earning things.
This is a very cute and fun idea! Often times my son will just immediately turn the TV or iPad on, I’m thinking of using this for the summer!
It’s perfect for summer and hopefully, it will help them want to go do more things outside!
This is great. So do they get a certain amount for completing or more openended?
I usually do a certain amount on time for completing. I left it open so you can choose the amount of time you think is right.
Great ideas! The need to control screen habits for kids is a must. As adults, people are too glued to their phones & this brings so many issues.
While waiting at the hospital the other day I pulled out my tablet to reply to some emails for work. A little girl commented, “I wish I could play on that,” indicating that she wanted to play on my device. She couldn’t have been more than 8! I am so glad that we didn’t have all these screens when I was raising my kids.
Oh I know! The kids these days are learning on computers and tablets in 1st grade! It’s crazy!
I love this idea! My boys have chore charts that they can earn money but I like the idea of earning their screen time with it. My youngest is addicted to electronics so I’ll need to try this with him.
This is such a good idea – my daughter is older now but I still might do something like this but with more age appropriate chores!
As they get older it seems like it’s harder and harder to get them away from electronics.
This is absolutely brilliant! Thanks for sharing!!
I am so curious as to how my son is going to act when he gets older. Right now he’s only 5 months old. We shall see what he’s like when he’s five YEARS old!