Everyday, Adam gets 3 tickets. He gets to decide when to use them, but when they’re gone, the tv stays off. I have to admit, the first few nights were probably harder on Bart and I than they were on him. We had to work pretty hard to entertain him after he’d used all of his tickets. But after a few days, he figured out he should “budget” his tickets so he had one left in the evening.
I designed the tickets in Creative Memories StorybookCreator Plus, print them out, and make them into this little booklet. Each colored page is for one day of the week. Adam tears off a ticket when he wants to watch something, and he puts it in an empty tissue box.
Right now, the tickets and box are on the TV console, but I’ve stored them on his toy shelves in the dining room before, too. I found that if he had to walk by all of his toys to deposit his ticket, half the time he got distracted and played instead, anyway.
We use the TV Tickets off and on…when TV time seems to be getting out of line, a week of tv tickets helps us reign it in again. Three tickets a day works for us, but maybe your family needs more or fewer tickets.
Click the picture below to download a printable PDF of our TV Tickets for yourself.
How do you keep TV time in check?
We only allow TV during certain hours. Since we don't have cable anymore and only some channels come in without an antenna, we rarely have any requests to watch TV anyway. They're more likely to ask to play PS3 or some other version of screen time (which includes computer). They are allowed an hour each (and watching someone else counts as their hour), period. No screen time on Sundays as that is family day.
ReplyDeleteOnce a week or so we watch a movie and that doesn't count towards their screen time limit.