St. Simon The Apostle Primary School

Creating positive habits with technology over the summer holidays

Dear Parents/guardians, 

 

With Christmas and the summer holidays almost upon us, it’s important to reflect on how we use technology in our homes. No doubt Christmas wish lists will be filled with all sorts of gadgets and devices, with children eager to spend their time on a myriad of apps and games. However, it’s important to ensure that you have healthy digital guidelines in place. These allow everyone in your home to understand the expectations around technology and create a positive balance between screen time and green time. 

 

To assist in this, here are some tips from St Simon’s; 

 

  1. Create a family technology agreement; have everyone in your family discuss how they can positively use technology and what this looks like. It’s important to involve children in this process to instill responsibility to how they use technology. 
  2. Access, not ownership; If you have younger children allow them to experience digital technology in a supervised way, gradually transitioning to independent use of devices. Make sure they understand what it means to correctly use technology and how to be safe when doing so especially before allowing independent use. 
  3. Together Time; Share digital experiences with your children. This can look like playing games together, watching videos or even just having them explain what they are up to on their devices. This helps foster an open and supportive environment where children can feel confident to discuss any negatives of technology that may come up as well. It also helps give you a better understanding of what they may be playing or interacting with. 
  4. Technology breaks; When using technology this is always paramount but especially over the extended holiday period when there is more free time than normal. Decide at the start of the day/week what time periods are acceptable and when there needs to be breaks put into place. Give children reminders of these and reinforce the expectations if they attempt to go over these periods. This can sometimes be tricky to stick to but having another activity planned they can transition to can help avoid challenging behaviour. 

 

Good luck over the summer holidays and good gaming! 

 

Mr Fitz