Screen Time

Are Kids Reading less? You might often hear adults tell you to pry your eyes away from the screen and read a book. Recent studies have shown that kids screen time is getting crazy.Usually, kids in the U.S.A. spend only 25 minutes a day reading.SAY WHAAAAAAA?Here's something even more crazy: almost 1/3 of children UNDER TWO have a T.V. in their room, and an average Canadian kid spends 6 HOURS in front of screens a day, when health officials only recommend two. But screen time isn't always bad. Screen time does have benefits. As quoted by Andrew Sykes in OWL magazine"The potential of the Internet to teach and educate is amazing. It holds such promise. And student are going to have to engage with this information if they are going to take jobs on in the future." Andrew Sykes is a school district psychologist from Revelstoke, B.C.

In the end, it all comes down to balance. You MUST play outside and read, because if you start just relying on electronics, then you'll forget the most basic skills and the minute your gadgets are taken away from you, you don't even know what to do with yourself. But you do need screen skills, because in the future your ability to skip rope really well won't get you a job.

I encourage you to take part in Screen-Free week (April 30 to May 6) and read a book, play outside, and just live the way they did in the olden days (The 1950's).

I also think you should visit Screensmart.ca to find out more(The website is currently down, sorry!)