Hello everyone and welcome back for Term 3 at St Patrick’s.

The wellbeing room has been a hive of activity already this week. We are focusing on fine line drawing, rock painting, finger knitting and puzzles.

As always, we are open before school, recess and lunch, for those in need. Our Therapy dog Zahli will be joining us each Monday and Wednesday. Please feel free to pop in and meet her. She has plenty of love to give.

All students are being encouraged to reach out and utilize the ‘wellbeing warrior tags’ available in their classrooms if needed. Although all staff keep a close eye on the wellbeing of each student at school, this system is an added wellbeing process to help students take responsibility for their own mental health.

We see the importance for all students to develop their own understandings and recognition of personal feelings and emotions. This way, they begin to develop lifelong intrinsic tools to help them when times get tough.

Students will have access to the tags at any time they feel they would like to visit the wellbeing space to have some quiet time, chat through some issues they are facing or regulate some big emotions.

This week I’d like to chat about screen time.

Screen time – the big issue! But how can you help your child?

I’ve spoken about the online resource https://raisingchildren.net.au/ before. In this week’s newsletter I’ve provided some of their helpful information. The site is well worth a look for every parent.

1. You can help your child balance screen time and digital technology use with other activities. One of the best ways to do this is by working together on family rules or a family media plan. Your rules and plan will work best if they apply to everyone in the family, including you.

You and your child could talk about family rules that cover things like the following:

• Where your child can use digital technology – for example, this might be only in shared open spaces like the family room, but not in the car or bedroom.
• When your child can use digital technology – for example, mealtimes are free of TV, computers and phones, or no screens before school or until chores are finished.
• How your child can use digital technology – for example, this might be for making animations or checking a netball shooting technique, but not for playing Candy Crush.
• How you handle digital technology use for children of different ages – for example, there might be some games that your older child can play only when their younger sibling is out or has gone to bed.
• How your child can stay safe online – our articles on internet safety for children and internet safety for pre-teens can help you with inappropriate content, privacy and location settings, personal data safety and more. 

It’s OK if your rules include time limits to help your child balance screen time with other things like physical activity. For example, it might help to know that Australian physical activity guidelines say school-age children should have at least one hour a day of moderate to vigorous physical activity like running or jumping.

2. Aim for short screen time sessions

It’s good for your child to have short screen time sessions and take regular breaks, especially if they’re sitting or lying down while watching or playing. This is important for your child’s energy levels, development, sleep, and overall health and wellbeing.

Before your child starts watching or playing, you could talk together about options for keeping screen time short. These might include:

• using a timer to set breaks
• doing something active when the timer ends, like playing outside
• using natural breaks – for example, doing a victory dance when your child finishes a level in a game.

3. Get your child moving, especially outside

It’s a good idea to encourage your child to play outside several times a day.

At this age, outdoor play can include:

• building and creating with equipment, furniture or other things they find outside
• playing tiggy, chasey or tag
• playing with balls, like kicking or shooting goals
• climbing trees.

Active play and physical activity for school-age children can happen indoors too. It can be simple things like dancing, doing star jumps, shaking their body, or throwing and catching balls.

4. Imagine and create

Creative activities like telling stories, dressing up or drawing are good for your child’s development. Activities like these help your child learn how to experiment, think, learn and solve problems.

Reading and storytelling with your child promotes brain development and imagination, teaches your child about language and emotions, and strengthens your relationship with your child.

5. Encourage play and friendship with others

When children play face to face with others, they develop important life skills. These include getting along with other people, making and maintaining friendships, being independent and learning how to sort out conflicts and problems. Face-to-face play also helps your child feel a sense of belonging.

You can support your school-age child’s friendships by arranging playdates and sleepovers.

6. Avoid screen time and digital technology use before bed

School-age children need plenty of sleep – 9-11 hours a night.

Screen time and digital technology use before bed can affect how quickly your child falls asleep and how well they sleep. If your child avoids mobile phones, tablets, computer screens or TV in the hour before bed, your child is likely to get to sleep more quickly and sleep better.

7. Keep digital technology out of bedrooms at night

If you keep mobile phones and other devices out of your child’s bedroom at night, your child won’t be able to stay up late playing games or messaging friends. This can also stop your child being disturbed in the night by messages or notifications.

When you help your child choose good apps, games, TV, movies and online videos as well as balancing screen time with other activities, your child will learn to make good choices about using free time when they’re older.

How screen time and digital technology use affects sleep

Your child needs enough good-quality sleep so they can play, learn and concentrate during the day.

Screen time and digital technology use can affect how quickly your child falls asleep and how long your child sleeps. This happens for several reasons:

• Screen time in the hour before bed can stimulate your child.
• Light from televisions, computer screens, phones and tablets might suppress melatonin levels and delay sleepiness.
• Your child might be tempted to stay up late to chat with friends or play games.
• Your child might be disturbed in the night by notifications, messages or calls.

Reducing the effects of screen time and digital technology use on sleep

Here are ways you can reduce the negative effects of screen time on your child’s sleep:

• Suggest quiet activities for your child to do in the hour before bedtime. This could be reading, listening to music or a podcast, doing a mindfulness activity and so on.
• If your child wants to use a device in the evening, encourage them to choose relaxing content and put the device away well before bedtime.
• Limit and monitor violent or stressful content at any time of day. This can affect sleep regardless of the time and length of use.
• Encourage your child to connect with friends during the day rather than late in the evening.
• Encourage your child to do outdoor physical activity or play during the day.
• Have a family rule that mobile phones and other devices are left in a family room overnight.

How much sleep do children need?

If you’re concerned about how much sleep your child is getting, it can help to know that children need less sleep as they get older, but teenagers still need more sleep than adults:

• Preschooler sleep needs: children aged 3-5 years need 10-13 hours of sleep a night.
• School-age and pre-teen sleep needs: children aged 5-11 years need 9-11 hours of sleep a night.
• Teenage sleep needs: teenagers need 8-10 hours of sleep a night.

Have a wonderful week, go gently with yourself and others.

Kelly Wilson.