Using CM in the "Modern"World

It sounds like you are considering stricter media/screen time rules at your house and expect a rebellion. Been there, felt that! And one I thought would lead the rebellion was my husband once upon a time…LOL.

Here is what I suggest. Separate your media rule changes from beginning homeschooling! Fight one battle at a time. So now is the time for you and your spouse to come together and agree upon new family rules for all media. Then dive right in and enforce them. Yes, your kids are going to be unhappy about it at first most likely, but between now an next fall it will become the new normal if you stick to your guns.

And I am sure there is a wide range of media rules in each family here. Don’t think there is only one right set of rules.

For example we don’t allow video games except once a week (Saturday mornings for 20-30 minutes per child). That is one of our stricter areas and we’re very particular on what games are in the house…we don’t have ‘games just for daddy’ and games for the kids. All must be family friendly.

However on the watching tv end of the spectrum we watch pretty much daily using our dvds or Netflix. We just keep it to set times (after all school is done) and limit how much we can watch (the length of one movie, and we’ve got 7 kids so they don’t get their own pick very often!). We also have summer rules that are different – with nicer weather we set specific days as no screen time completely.

Find what works for you!

Oh, and we lump computers and any other screen like an ipod/tablet under video games, the kids don’t use them except Saturday if they choose that in place of a video game for their short time. Computers do get used to practice math facts here, but no games.

((HUGS)) Remember you don’t have to change your whole life at once. Just work consistently on changing things and over time it will make a huge difference!

I have a 4.5yo DD, and a 4-month-old baby. SO, from the end of my pregnancy, thru having a newborn, then starting back to work, the TV has been on WAY more than I want, just due to exhaustion. Granted, we control *what* she watches, but it’s how *much* she watches that’s getting to be a problem. And also now, I don’t want the TV on 24/7 because the baby just stares at it :). Plus the grandparents gave her a Leapster for Christmas, so that just adds one more ‘screen’ into our home.

Now, we only have 1 screen-watching child at the moment. But we’ve been successful in her discipline using a ‘ticket’ system (she knows the rules and is aware of what behaviors lose the tickets and require consequences). So I”ve just been thinking lately of using a similar ‘ticket’ system for screen time. Because right now, she’s constantly asking “can I watch a kid show? can I watch a movie? can I play the leapster? etc etc” and I”m always saying “no” or “later” or “not now”.

By giving her X screen tickets a day, it will give the choice to her of what she wants to watch and when. Since she’s too young to really grasp money or time, I also think this is a good way to teach her management of resources. Or maybe I”m just nuts and this will fail miserably 😀

But I like the suggestion above that said to separate out beginning homeschooling from screen restrictions.

I don’t think all screen time need go by the wayside. There is quite a lot that could be good or useful. Charlotte of course never had to address such issues but I like to think that if she had seen TV and movies she would have deemed some of it worthwhile and even “living.” And some things are very useful in homeschool as well. We use the computer for geography and my dd’s French for example. And DVDs for Spanish. So it’s not like it’s 19th century or 21st century. The key is to set limits and choose what you want to use (instead of letting everything in).

I think the biggest problem with all those little boxes with pictures and sounds is that they squeeze out time for other things. I would make sure and carve out plenty of time to be outside for instance. Perhaps say kids can’t look at a screen till 3pm or so so even if school work is done by noon, they have to play outside or do something else before TV or computer games.A related topic is that masterly inactivity is very hard these days. Kids are way overscheduled and they have too many things to entertain them. Sometimes they need to be bored for a while. They need to have to find their own thing to do.

Nebby

http://www.lettersfromnebby.wordpress.com

I was in the same type of situation that you are in before we started homeschooling. My girls were in PS and we did the all-too-common thing of using the TV as a babysitter sometimes. I think a lot of people do that when kids are little, though I wish I hadn’t. So they were used to watching TV, especially since my last pregnancy resulted in me being on strict bedrest for 3 months.

After we took them out of school I really wanted things to be different. So the first thing I did was turn off the cable. It was great, for all of us! That was 3 years ago. At that point I allowed one movie a day. They got used to that. After a couple of months I took a big leap and forbid any TV during the week. They could watch one movie on Saturday and one movie on Sunday.

This is still how we do things, though if you can believe it they are so used to not watching TV that on the weekends they get so wrapped up in their books and play that they forget to ask for their movie! 

They have never had access to video games so that’s not a problem.

Good luck! My advice is just to wean them off it all slowly, and when you make a rule don’t relent. They’ll get used to it and it will be the new normal. 

Reading the book, “Endangered Minds” by Jane Healy pushed me over the edge regarding screen time for my kids.  We had always had limits on screen time, but that encouraged me to limit it even more.  The book confirmed my own observations that the more screen time my kids had, the more they became lethargic, whiny, argumentative and bored.  The less time they had in front of the TV, the more they found imaginative ways to play.  That didn’t happen overnight, in fact it’s been a process of many years.  

Great ideas!

We probably have more technology in our home than I’d like to admit, too, but dh is the one that can be thanked for that .  I do like my pc and iphone, and have to admit, I have to limit myself just like the kiddos.  I don’t actually use any tickets or systems like that, but more of just a feeling of, “Okay, this has been on long enough.” Or, “You can watch one Wild Kratt, then turn off the tv.” Or, “Let’s wait to turn on the tv until dad gets home cause you know he’s going to want to watch something with you.”  Currently, my grade school aged boys have very little computer time (geography/study island), but do watch tv w/ dad and play video games maybe 2 times a week.  They have a Wii but it’s been disconnected as they rarely use it.  It’s my oldest ds/8th grade who really enjoys his computer time and is not as interested at being outdoors as my younger two.  He needs a lot of encouragement to be outdoors (he’s a lot like I am, but once outdoors, he enjoys it, like I do).  I don’t necessarily limit him, but I do pull him away if I feel it’s too much.  My dh and I would not agree 100% on how to handle the situation so I just use a balance I feel comfortable with.  And, I address any behavior issues with him that I feel are a result of the pc time.  DH is on board with that, too.

As far as “why” did we take our ds out of ps….hmmm, that’s a good question.  We did as soon as my dh was comfortable with the idea.  I had thought about it for a few years but just couldn’t see myself doing it (although my ds wanted to hs).  Then, when I really wanted to try I needed to know my dh was behind the idea and that came when he heard of another tragedy happening at a ps. He thought we could at least give it a whirl and just see what it would be like.  I had other reasons than my dh (we probably still do, lol).  I had just starting feeling a disconnect from the teachers at a time when I thought we’d still be “connected”, whatever that means.  I started to feel as if I was completely left out of one of the most important areas of my ds’s life and that I was coming to a near stranger asking how my ds was doing.  That started to feel weird.  I felt I should know more than her/him.  Now don’t get me wrong, I love to have my dc taught by others (music, sports, tutors, etc.) but I started to feel as if the majority of what they were going to exposed to/learn I should know more about.  I guess I’m a bit controlling…I started to want to be the one that made the choice of books/texts, etc.  I do not necessarily feel “led” to home school, I did feel the Lord telling me that I could trust Him with the process and my concerns.  I did not choose to for religious reasons (although we are Christians) or fears (shootings, drugs, etc.), but more of the need to be more involved. Now you could say that I am more “involved” than the average mom probably even wants to be, but I like it like this and wouldn’t change it, neither would my dh. And I don’t believe my dc would, either.  It could be that they have so many opportunities that I support 100% and that they have freedoms they know their ps peers do not have.  And I mean freedom in taking their time to master a topic/historical time period, read through a lit book, change out a book that is not working, take community classes just because, read a book that they just want to read and we can call it “school”. You get the idea. They don’t have freedom to do sloppy or incomplete work, but they do have time to get it done.  They do not have homework so they do have more free time to pursue their interests. 

OK, that was long.

I definitely do not feel that using the CM method has taken us back 100 years, but instead has given us the best of the past to be better today.  Some of her ideas people would poo-poo about and not see any relevance but when my dc are around the “older” crowd and can say they know about “such and such” they are really impressed.  Those are the poeple whose opinions of what we do seem to matter most to me.  I have to admit that even some younger folks have commented that they didn’t read (and other things, of course) as much in high school as our kids have in grade school.  They do think that it’s great and some wish they had been “schooled” in the same way, or something like it.

Gotta run. Hope that helps.

I am new here and new to hs and CM. I just wanted to share my reasons for homeschooling.

The PS has failed my children(11 yo and 17 yo).

My children do not know how to tell time very well(without me working on that they would have graduated high school not knowing how)

My children do not know how to count money very well(they are amazed when I can pop off how much change I am due or whatever)

My children do not know their multiplication facts(partially but not fully)

And the list goes on and on.

I don’t like the fact that the teachers can tell my children their opinions of things that go against my religious beliefs but cannot mention God in school.

I don’t like the idea that morals are not taught in school.

Things are so different than they were when I went to the same school K-12 even thought it has been 25 years the things I feel are important for my kids to know are gone.

I am constantly having to correct things that I don’t agree with that they have been told in school.