To ask what do your kids do without tech?

Small screens up close are not good for their eyes, optician suggested no more than 20 mins in one go. 2.5 hours is a crazy amount, def cut back, your child will find a way to curb the boredom - that’s the point!

No screens apart from TV. Gets 2 hours a day. However, lots of clubs and playdates. Plays out or calls for friends ( country living) and listens to his Yoto player a lot.

Embrace it a bit but not so much. 2.5 hours 5 days a week is 12.5 hours plus say another 6 at the weekend is 18 hours a week. That is more than a whole waking day. It actually a bit crazy where we have got to where anyone thinks this is OK.

Lego
Gravitrax
Reaxion
Board games like monopoly junior
Uno
Drawing, tracing, colouring
Reading - library books especially graphic novels
Play with the cats
Plant and grow seeds
Make birthday cards / Xmas cards
Listen to audio books
Build dens in living room or garden

Get out of the house as much as possible , get him interested in nature , i have a 10 year old who still loves going out and finding pretty leaves, stones that are heart shaped, sticks...
She also loves bug hunting, listening to and identifying bird song.we use the free merlin app to record birds and identify them in our area but shes that good now she can tell me what they are just from stopping and listening to them
If its times when you need to be in the house while your working etc..... jigsaws and craft sets. Making home mafe slime and putty, drawing,writing stories keeps mine occupied aswell as cosmic yoga vids on youtube they even do minecraft and super mario yoga its really good
Or how about helping around the house or garden? Money is always a good incentive 50p or £1 per chore done well will keep him occupied for a while and maybe he can save for something he wants

His tablet time is limited to 2.5 hours a day in the week

> IS the WRONG method
By limiting ( 2.5 hours a day) you ARE encouraging - the use of
WILL always try to, get away with MORE
> UNLIMITED tablet time IN the week OR

time for tokens

Jobs around the house = tokens
tokens = tablet time

Work out your own token scale
vacuming = ??? tokens
cleaning = ??? tokens
jobs - takin the garbage out = ??? tokens

??? tokens - ??? online time

Work your own system out

It IS more than - just a GOOD idea
> it WILL work

Read
Lego
Craft
Music practise
Play outside
Build really bloody irritating dens
Listen to podcasts
Make up songs

My DC completely lost all screens for some atrocious behaviour a couple of months ago and I'm not giving them back. They had a limited amount in the first place but after about a month they started playing together properly, being inventive with games and crafts, voluntarily practising their instruments, etc. After 8 weeks they are completely different children. Behaviour has improved massively and life is actually so much easier without screens.

2 hours of screen time a day is considered excessive OP… for ADULTS. Let alone an 8 year old.

It literally thins part of the brain that is used for memory, problem solving and decision making.

Reduce his screen time and maybe he will become more creative and find fun things to do.

Source: https://lifestylemedicine.stanford.edu/what-excessive-screen-time-does-to-the-adult-brain/#:~:text=Cognitive%2520Enhancement%252C%2520Mental%2520Health,behavior%2520can%2520take%2520a%2520toll.%E2%80%9D

Feel your pain op, I really do. It's tough.

We do:

Board games - cluedo, Monopoly, cards

Painting/ crafting

Jigsaws

Lego

Den building

Putting on shows to music

2.5 hours is an incredible amount a day. I have an almost 10yo and we don’t do screens M-T and Fridays are movie night. I do think it’s bad your ds is using such a crazy amount of time on screens daily

Does he do Scouts? He can work on some badges at home? Or he can pick some badges from Paw Print badges to work on at home which are same sort of idea as Scouts badges but not a group you attend and flexibility. My 8 year old spends a lot of time working on Brownies badges!

Draw, write stories, play board games, jigsaws, science experiments, instrument practice.

I'm a big fan of kids making their own fun. Usually:

1. Tell DC if she doesn't find something to do she will be allocated chores (like tidying her room)

1. Tell.DC of she doesn't have anything to play with I will donate something from her room because she doesn't need toys she doesn't want to play with

1. Allocate a bedroom task like tidying the sock drawer. Inevitably she procrastinated and plays for an hour.

Often she gravitated towards doing actual activities like drawing, hama beads, reading etc rather than playing with actual toys like dolls or cars.

Age 7.

Oh and TV is usually on a Sunday and something specific like a film or a few episodes from the same show. I don't accept flicking between or YouTube as ots terrible for concentration. The rul is also that you must actually be watching the TV, not just have it on while doing something else.

1. Send them out to play and tell them to come in when the street lights come on.
2. Game of British bulldog.
3. Send them to the shops for you to buy fags with a note from you.
4. Take them to the pub and get them a coke and some crisps. After 9, they can wait in the car.

Forgot to add board games to our list. Started young with the orchard board games and built from there. We love family board games.

Look the reality is - if they are addicted/ used to the easy dopamine hit - you are going to go through an adjustment period.

Im not saying. its easy but I promise you - Iit is MUCH MUCH harder when they get older.

I wish so much I could go back in time and have a child your age - my son is 14 and its so much harder to undo bad habits now. If I was given time back when he was 9 I would just be so hardcore anti screens.

2.5 hours a day is a lot.

Mine have 3 hours per week and are 9 and 13.

They play Minecraft or Switch.

We don't allow it before school.

That could be a good place to start OP?

We do drawing, reading (comics), building dens, playing with Lego, Warhammer, boardgames, older one goes out with his mates and does active stuff mostly.

Mine argue

2 ½ hours per day is too much. We don’t do tablets at all.

However. If he’s into drawing and art I’d lean into that. Allow tablet time to watch art tutorials on YouTube and he can learn to draw his favourite characters. Stock up on art supplies. If he’s into video games there are Lego Mario and Minecraft sets. There are also magnet blocks designed like Minecraft that kids love to build with. Recently there was a comic workshop in our local area. The kids went along and learnt how to create characters and storylines to make their own comics. You can also use an iPad to do stop motion animation with Lego figures or plasticine.

In our house the things that occupy our son the most are Lego, his Hornby train collection, various arts and crafts, magnatiles, and reading.

I am old enough to have grown up without the internet, and I mostly read.

My 7 year old has never had a tablet and won't for a long time, most likely until high-school at the earliest when we won't have a choice due to homework etc.
There is a lot of research that shows excessive screen time just isnt good for their brains and if we're honest, we didn't have them when we were kids and were just fine.
My DS uses my Husband's computer for homework only with supervision and watches an hour or so of tv every other day.
As a household we've made a concerted effort to stop uses screens as much, even we have stopped social media use and doom scrolling which have been revolutionary for our wellbeing in all honesty!
I should add my husband is a software developer and his industry as a whole seem to have a widespread understanding that humans especially children, are not meant to stare at screens as much as we do!

In between this, he plays games, reads, we go on walks and bike rides, plays in the garden with his brother, makes dens with blankets and loves imagination play.
We used to try to fill every minute with fun activities, but we soon realised that he expected fun all day every day, which wasn't achieveable or normal life! Now we find a bit of boredom is healthy and encourages him to seek self led activities. We're at a point that him and his little brother will play for hours together making up games, which is lovely to see!

for the morning, has he got a yoto or an alexa? my 8yo has both and listens to them a lot, either for music or audiobooks/ stories/ the kids news/ puzzles etc...

My head in

I tend to fall somewhere in the middle - I spent silly amounts of time completing Sonic the Hedgehog over and over as a kid. I used to resist my daughter using phones and tablets and gaming but ultimately had to compromise as she has a tech-minded dad with a different outlook. I am definitely the more strict of the two of us over it as well which has a knock-on effect on downtime for each of us but it is what it is. I can tell when she's tipping into 'too much' screen time so don't let it get to that point any more. I also monitor what she's watching. Tiktok-type videos like YouTube shorts are very restricted to certain times only. Absolutely hate them. I watched her once watching them and she was literally watching 2-3 seconds of a video before swiping up and we KNOW that incessant, constant, fast scrolling is far more damaging than Sonic ever was!

My kids are 7 and 3, we don't own a tablet and they've never used our phones other than for video calls. DD (7) does drawing, piano practice, reading, they run around and play daft games, she helps her little brother set up his train set, she helps me make dinner, we spend about an hour sat around the table chatting while we eat dinner, she writes stories, does sticker books, she puts on fashion shows. Tbh I can't really tell you exactly what she does, sometimes we just hang out and chat.

We've got a TV in the lounge, we don't restrict it and she'll watch a bit of it most days but she actually did a screen time log last week for school and it averaged less than 30 minutes a day. She watched the whole of Wicked on Saturday afternoon though.

By the time we've got home from school, done any homework, done some reading, gotten her ready for and out to ballet or swimming or brownies or whatever it is on that day there isn't really that much time for anything other than dinner, bath and bed anyway. And that's without adding playdates into the mix, she quite often brings a random friend home. Weekends we're usually out most of the day, if we're home she might veg in front of the telly for a bit.

So I guess, we just keep them busy 😂🤷‍♀️

At 8 mine played out with his friends mostly.