A Strategy for Allowing Children Access to Digital Media

Knowing full well the need for our kids to be digitally conversant, yet fully aware of the dangers, we came up with a few rules as our boys became preschoolers. First, my wife and I divided digital experiences into categories. Two of the categories involved things necessary for school work or for learning about computers: word processing and graphics programs, web-based research projects, programming, and so on. The boys were allowed to do these as homework required.

Recreational experiences�digital games, certain types of web surfing, and our Wii gaming system�we called Category I. They were off limits except under one condition. Our sons could �buy a certain amount of Category I time. The currency? The time spent reading an actual book. Every hour spent reading could purchase a certain amount of Category I time. This was added up and could be �spent� on weekends after homework was done. This worked for us. The kids picked up a reading habit, could do the digital work necessary for their futures, and were not completely locked out of the fun stuff.

Notes:

Categorize media into constructive and fun and allow the children to earn "fun digital" time money they can spend on games or other activities.

Folksonomies: parenting child rearing video games digital media

Taxonomies:
/hobbies and interests/reading (0.658553)
/finance/investing/day trading (0.499890)
/education/homework and study tips (0.486269)

Keywords:
Digital Media Categorize (0.979915 (positive:0.851582)), web-based research projects (0.888232 (positive:0.327558)), Wii gaming system�we (0.888108 (neutral:0.000000)), Recreational experiences�digital games (0.863960 (neutral:0.000000)), digitally conversant (0.712318 (positive:0.419217)), certain types (0.670763 (neutral:0.000000)), Children Access (0.651299 (positive:0.851582)), digital experiences (0.624541 (negative:-0.505277)), word processing (0.621973 (positive:0.234813)), graphics programs (0.621520 (positive:0.234813)), web surfing (0.616757 (neutral:0.000000)), actual book (0.615126 (neutral:0.000000)), school work (0.613583 (negative:-0.394846)), reading habit (0.600593 (neutral:0.000000)), fun stuff (0.585589 (neutral:0.000000)), digital work (0.581659 (neutral:0.000000)), Category (0.525764 (neutral:0.000000)), time (0.523045 (neutral:0.000000)), homework (0.469586 (negative:-0.463433)), boys (0.413151 (negative:-0.463433)), categories (0.408407 (negative:-0.450062)), kids (0.407777 (positive:0.419217)), dangers (0.373186 (neutral:0.000000)), weekends (0.361444 (neutral:0.000000)), Strategy (0.360866 (positive:0.851582)), limits (0.360789 (neutral:0.000000)), money (0.360183 (neutral:0.000000)), activities (0.359965 (neutral:0.000000)), wife (0.359506 (negative:-0.505277)), need (0.359341 (positive:0.419217))

Entities:
Digital Media:FieldTerminology (0.841771 (positive:0.851582)), word processing:FieldTerminology (0.553849 (positive:0.234813)), web surfing:FieldTerminology (0.543890 (neutral:0.000000))

Brain Rules for Baby: How to Raise a Smart and Happy Child from Zero to Five

Books, Brochures, and Chapters>Book: Medina , John (2010-10-12), Brain Rules for Baby: How to Raise a Smart and Happy Child from Zero to Five, Pear Press, Retrieved on 2011-07-27

Folksonomies: parenting pregnancy babies child development