How to Develop Healthy Technology Routines This School Year
It is time for bells to ring, lockers to close and children to return to school. This year will be filled with learning, extracurricular activities and technology. Parents need to establish routines and schedules to help manage all household activities, including work and school obligations. Pavlov Media is here to assist you while you are working on creating this plan to improve your tech habits with your daily activities.
Pavlov Media’s high-speed fiber network provides Internet that you can depend on for a fast, reliable and secure connection. With our Internet, you can receive up to 1 Gbps for uploading and downloading, making all online activities even quicker. Since you won’t have to worry about the lag of other providers, your family can focus on all the plans away from devices. We have made a list of 5 healthy habits to implement this school year to help your family prioritize just that.
1. Let’s Chat: Starting a Two-Way Conversation
As parents, we are aware of some of the risks posed by the Internet. The first thing you should do to help your children develop good tech habits is have open and honest two-way communication with them. By doing so, you’ll be able to promote all the fantastic things the Internet can access while still establishing certain restrictions.
With these boundaries, you can express concerns revolving around the quantity of screen time and some of the risks of technology. You should also make sure that you give your children a chance to voice their opinions throughout this discussion. If you open this door, you may find out more about how they use technology and even what kinds of technology they are interested in. After all, the Internet has a lot to offer in terms of fresh ideas, interactions, hobbies and more.
Overall, you want to make the most of their online experience by framing this dialogue from a team setting. Your relationship with and trust in your kids will improve as a result of their use of technology. By practicing this skill, children can learn to manage competing duties, interests, and Internet activity.
2. Set Healthy Limits: Manage Screen Time Consistently
You will be able to collaborate to establish definite screen time limits during this open and honest discussion on technology. This might take the form of daily weekly times when technology is “off limits.” Of course, your kids will utilize technology for critical tasks like learning and schoolwork as part of their regular schedule.
You must establish this timetable based on what will work best for you and your children because every family’s needs will differ. This may also have to be modified, resulting in yet another discussion about technology. There are applications and device settings that may help you measure how much time is spent on the device and which apps are used the most if you opt to implement time limits for your children’s devices.
3. Make Time for What Matters: Prioritizing Your Schedule
In addition to a technology schedule, remember to plan for other activities within your schedule. The objective is to assist your children in finding a healthy balance between technology and the rest of life because they are growing up in a heavily tech-saturated society.
Some plans you can make are learning, in-person interactions and outdoor experiences. You can set out a few hours of your learning time for pursuits like reading, assignments, or certain games. Another idea is to plan in-person interactions, including spending time with friends or family, having a game night, or even taking a family vacation. Planning outside activities like physical activity, stargazing and gardening is the final suggestion. Organizing these kinds of events can give your family some downtime from technology.
Setting up a routine is crucial for using technology and other activities as well, and it may help a balanced lifestyle emerge. This schedule will enable online and offline communication, exercise, outdoor activities, learning and the use of technology. After doing this for a little while, your family will be able to find the healthy rhythm that works for your household.
4. Take a Break: Turn Off Notifications
Consider turning off all – or at least most – notifications on your children’s devices. In the world of constant notifications, the dings from notifications can draw attention away from the most focused students. These notifications also pull people back into their devices for emails, texts, social media, or updates. When notifications are silenced or limited, this distraction goes away to allow your family to enjoy all their other activities.
Something as simple as establishing a specific timeframe with limited or no notifications can make activities drastically different. Allowing for the connection between friends, families, or activities to occur. With no notification, this might be just 2-3 hours between school and dinner to help students focus on homework, reduce distractions and have a family discussion at dinner.
5. Be a Tech Role Model: Practice Healthy Online Habits
The final piece of advice we wanted to share is to remember that your children are modeling your behaviors. Even if they disagree with you, they follow your lead and analyze your relationship with technology to shape their own. This makes it crucial to create a routine that you can follow too. This will enable your entire family to continue to build these healthy habits this school year.
Your child will have to be on their devices a lot more during the school year, but with these tips, they should be able to balance their screen time and all other aspects of their lives. Just remember to keep the door open for conversation, make a schedule, stay consistent and model the behavior you want to see.
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