A Parent’s Guide to Helping Your Child Kick the Small-Screen Habit This Summer

By Terra Wellington

Oh, the lure of the newest XBOX game! Or maybe it’s the Wii. Or iCarly and Hannah Montana reruns. Perhaps it’s a handheld, thumb-numbing game. Or maybe it’s of the YouTube nonsense variety. No wait! There’s 145 episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer to discover from streaming Netflix for your high schooler.  

Whatever gravitates your child or teenager to the small screen this summer needs a bit of parent pull the other direction. And that means alternatives your kids will accept. Here are some suggestions:

• Compete with an event: Take a cheap monthly calendar and write in
  a fun activity for each day. Give them creative, curious names to grab their
  attention – without giving away the full details. All kids love being surprised.
• Don’t despair if you work during the day: If you only have evening
  time with kids, take into consideration time constraints and also maximize
  weekends.  Try to include hands-on physical exercise, the outdoors, and nature
  whenever possible. Make sure kids have outdoor experiences during the day
  while you are away so that they get needed sunshine.
• Don’t reinvent
  the wheel: Places like zoos, aquariums, and arboretums are ready-made nature
  attractions with year-round events and special exhibits.  Buy a family membership
  and take advantage of free admission all year, plus most memberships are
  connected to other nature centers for discounts. 
• Make it simple: Go
  back to the basics with water, dirt, or rocks. Any activity incorporating
  one of these three items are a child’s natural playground. Water gun anyone?
  Sand castles? Rock hunting?
• Pair with food: Trim the costs of eating
  out by making a picnic from home and taking it to a nearby park, along with
  a Frisbee or basketball.  Whenever you can use food as a lure to get out
  of the house, do it. It’s an easy way to get young and old up off the couch.
• “Sherlock Holmes” it: Having a summer full of discovery doesn’t have
  to break the bank. As you plan activity days, find fun and free places to
  visit that your family hasn’t yet discovered – science centers, regional
  park trails, geocaching sites (geocaching.com), letterboxing hunts (letterboxing.org),
  museums, historical sites.
• Dangle a carrot: Most local libraries have summer reading programs
  with rewards. But you can also do your own with goals on a calendar and a
  reward for finished books. 
• Find your inner Julia Child: Summertime
  is the perfect opportunity to teach your older children how to cook. Plan
  menus together, work on kitchen skills, and grocery shop. Children who learn
  how to cook healthy have less weight issues.    
• Get hands on: For teenagers,
  help them find summer work. If not a job, then volunteer. It looks great
  on a resume and you make friends. Nature centers (like zoos) will often train
  teens to volunteer over the summer. Many environmental groups welcome teenage
  volunteers. Three helpful websites are: handsonportland.org, handsonnetwork.org and volunteermatch.org.

Above all, realize that it a parent’s responsibility in this wired age to help your children discover joy in things other than originating from a computer chip. When you show interest in the world outside of a screen, this balanced happiness will also rub off on your child. An example is worth a thousand words.

Terra Wellington is the author of The Mom’s Guide to Growing Your Family Green: Saving the Earth Begins at Home (St. Martin’s Press). As a “city parent,” she is always jumping at ways to get her kids to rediscover something other than the newest video game.

July 5th, 2010 | Category: Parenting, Past Articles, Summer