GUILT FREE SCREEN TIME

Kids can be full on! They are a full time job in themselves. Throw in general life admin, part time work and everything else that comes with life and it can all sometimes be too much!

There are days where my kids get 100% of my attention and I still manage to get 2 loads of washing done, dried, folded and put away as well as having the house spotless by the time hubby rolls in from work with dinner in the oven.

Then there are those other days where I am drowning in work and to do lists, have washing coming out of my ears (or it’s been sitting in the washing machine too long and now we have musty smelling clothes), have zero patience with the kids and they are playing up just to get more attention from me and by 5pm I realise I haven’t got anything out for dinner. I would like to think that these days are few and far between but they are actually a regular occurrence, especially at the moment as we have all been so busy and haven’t had much down time in a while to just catch up on life admin!

I was the mean mum this year who chose not to buy a BYOD for Kylan for school. I mean I was at Uni before I bought my very first laptop so I don’t see why an 8 year old needs his own one! I’ll just add it’s not compulsory yet for his year however it was recommended but after doing my research I found out he would get allocated a school one to use for the year and the only thing that would be different to the kids who have their own would be that he couldn’t bring it home to use. FINE BY ME!

I try not to encourage much screen time at all at home (especially for Kylan)! after being inside learning all day I want him to come home and climb trees, jump, run and get rid of as much energy as physically possible! In saying that there is a time and a place for everything and as a ‘reward’ for great behaviour or when I can see he is running on empty and needs some down time I am more than happy to let him sit in my office and have a play on my laptop.

The TV babysitter certainly has its place around here but where I can I have been trying to make sure that when I need a babysitter for the boys it is something educational. There are a few sites that Kylan loves which he uses at school, but after using them all day he generally doesn’t want to come home and use them again, he wants something new.

His latest discovery is the use of Rosie’s World where he gets lost in educational games and moovies! His favourite is the mini game on Rosie’s Big OE called “Cooper’s Hill”. I mean rolling cheese….HELLO who doesn’t love cheese!

I always check out the websites that I allow the boys to use first, and I am not going to lie…I SUCK at this game! I don’t know whether I am just a complete amateur or just need some more practice but I don’t know how Kylan does it! He absolutely nails it and here I am getting big red “OUCH” messages as I am slammed by the red cheese balls! But on a positive note I am learning new things too! My history and geography knowledge isn’t up to scratch anymore and as I haven’t had the chance to have my big OE yet (yes I said yet…the up side of having kids young is that they will be leaving home while I’m still young too and hubby and I can leave them here while we jet off and travel the world!) so as well as Kylan increasing his general knowledge I AM TOO! #winning

So if you need some guilt free screen time for the kids in order to get on top of life’s admin or even if its just to have a 5 min sit down in peace to recharge your batteries so that you can tackle the rest of your day then head on over and check out Rosie’s World. I dare you to take on those cheese barrels yourself…hopefully it’s not just me that absolutely sucks at that game! Even the 3 year old beats my score!