aibu to be worried about childrens eyes with so much homework on screens

[grannyinapram]

My children's school is fantastic and I am certainly not knocking them- what else can they do?
That being said, the whole timetable is based on videos and a video call each. This means that My phone is monopolised solely by the children ALL day and if one is on it, the other is waiting to finish their work.

I have cut all the unnecessary (in my opinion) apps/ game websites from their new timetable but their teacher is asking why they haven't done any games on them.
-there isn't enough time as we are sharing one phone.

• id rather them spend this time as a break from screens.

I got a printer and print similar stuff to whats on some of the videos from the twinkl website. its not matching exactly but at least its paper right?

I'm not sure if I'm doing the right thing as at the end of each week the teacher sends out a special announcement for the children who spent the most time on the educational apps and my kids have spent 0 time on it. so they're missing out, but surely its not good for their eyes to be on a screen all day long.
my eyes hurt with the extra time I'm spending on email , the school website and twinkl and YouTube trying to find short videos to answer questions I don't know the answer to and Google looking up random definitions for their work. plus mumsnet

I've actually stopped watching TV in the evening as my eyes are just so tired!

YABU to change the children's work and not let them on the apps
Yanbu -print off sheets and say no to extra app time

It is difficult as schools are stuck between a rock and a hard place, but what you say about the screen time being bad for their eyesight is true and is something I'm also worried about. DD already has glasses so her eyesight is already compromised but she is now spending 6-8 hours a day at a screen because of home schooling. Her school were originally getting the children to do their work on paper and send the teacher a photo of it, but now they have to input it directly online, which is probably more efficient but I think it will have cause a decline in eyesight and that's a worry.

Talk to the schools about best practices working on screen

They should be standing up and looking long distances for a minute or two every 20. Minutes

I'm glad I'm not the only one worried about it. No glasses in this house but I have noticed I've been getting bad headache this year which I can honestly say i think is caused by eye strain

I'm surprised I haven't seen more people talking about it anywhere.

Can school help with providing technology ? It's got to be hard sharing one phone .

We haven't completed a full day yet either

@x2boys

Can school help with providing technology ? It's got to be hard sharing one phone .

They called and asked if we had a device, I said yes

we are in a very deprived area though and quite a few haven't even got WiFi at home apparently so unlimited data on a smartphone is good enough.

Our optician has said recently that he has seen many more children with shortsightedness this last year. He recommended a break every 20mins with looking to the bottom of the garden/ street, and plenty of time outside in natural light when able.

There is almost zero evidence that screens cause harm beyond the correlation that more time indoors on screens harms eyes, similarly the same correlation exists against more time spend on other close work such as working on paper or needlework.

There is very strong evidence that outdoor daylight time protects against myopia - ie the harm that is caused by the correlation.

So if you're actually concerned about eyesight, a couple of hours a day of outdoor daylight time is the thing to focus on, it's well evidenced, and disgusting that our CMO isn't bothering to inform people.

@sirfredfredgeorge
oh my goodness if this is true then I am actually outraged.
we have been spending so much time inside trying to finish their work.
also trying to catch up on the weekends
right I'm logging off after lunch and heading out