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My kids are 7.5 and 10. Here are our weekday summer rules:
Electronics are allowed (if you haven't had them taken away) until breakfast at 8:30am
At 10am you're dressed, rooms are clean, and you're outside
Lunch is served on the porch at noon
You may come inside and read or play in the afternoon but I'd rather you ride your bike to the park
At 4pm you have a snack and then some math work to do. (Our daughter struggles in math so she has to keep up with it in the summer)
Electronics are allowed from 5-6pm when dinner is served
Back outside until showers and bedtime
We did something similar last year and it worked great. Our kids also spend time at the beach and sleep away camp so it isn't the whole summer. But if we're home, you're not plugged in most of the time.
Love reading some of the replies. I grew up in the 60's as well. Never a lack of things to do. Some of my favorite things to do were drawing, exploring (lived in a very rural area), daydreaming and looking at clouds, fishing interesting bugs out of my grandparent's pool, collecting rocks, etc. When I did get bored, there were always books to read. I can entertain myself very easily and still have a very active imagination.
I do feel a bit sorry for kids growing up these days...my kids included. They are never far from an electronic device and seem to get bored very easily. During the summers I would sign them up for summer camps to keep them very busy. Gone are the days of just roaming around and finding fun things to do. In our area, these seems to be a lack of kids even outside. The garage door goes up, the cars go in, and you don't see anyone come out of the house. Now everything is so structured with play dates, activities and many parents shuttling their kids around from one activity to the next.
My kids are 7.5 and 10. Here are our weekday summer rules:
Electronics are allowed (if you haven't had them taken away) until breakfast at 8:30am
At 10am you're dressed, rooms are clean, and you're outside
Lunch is served on the porch at noon
You may come inside and read or play in the afternoon but I'd rather you ride your bike to the park
At 4pm you have a snack and then some math work to do. (Our daughter struggles in math so she has to keep up with it in the summer)
Electronics are allowed from 5-6pm when dinner is served
Back outside until showers and bedtime
We did something similar last year and it worked great. Our kids also spend time at the beach and sleep away camp so it isn't the whole summer. But if we're home, you're not plugged in most of the time.
Love it. The last day of school is tomorrow, so this is very timely.
Before the advent of TV, internet, and console gaming, how on earth did our ancestors keep their kids from nagging them every constanst second.
When I look at myself, if I had no TV when I was kid, I dont know what I would have done for a large portion of the day. Maybe I would have been outside more playing.
What did kids in the 60s, 50s, civil war era, and before do to keep their ADHD occupied?
When we were very young we would go down to the local playground and go on every single piece of equipment over and over again. And if it was summer we were always at the ready to play in the public sprinklers and eventually the public swimming pools. We never had swimming lessons but we learned on our own and became competent swimmers often competing with one another for speed and diving.
We grew up with fields behind our home which we used as a 'softball' field for the summer and a football field in the fall. In the winter we had industrial areas near our home where we could go sledding and ice skating.
This trend continued into our teen years so as we got older and stretched our proverbial wings we explored our Chicago neighborhood (went to the library, the bank (we all had savings accounts), & movies for 25 cents, the Woolworth & Neisners (Five & Dime) stores, as well as the City of Chicago, the downtown area; the huge library, the Chicago Board of Trade, along with all the theaters, stores and restaurants.
From my perspective, I believe it to have been an utterly idyllic childhood (circa 1950-1968); I would not change having been raised in that era for anything. We had such a curiosity about life and we were never, ever afraid of anyone or to do anything or go anywhere; we were fearless and all of this in an urban landscape. We were very blessed and we know it!
P.S. Throughout the years, all of this play time and miscellaneous exploratory trips were allowed once we had completed our daily and weekly chores (age appropriate throughout the years).
Before the advent of TV, internet, and console gaming, how on earth did our ancestors keep their kids from nagging them every constanst second.
When I look at myself, if I had no TV when I was kid, I dont know what I would have done for a large portion of the day. Maybe I would have been outside more playing.
What did kids in the 60s, 50s, civil war era, and before do to keep their ADHD occupied?
We played outside from just after breakfast until dinner time.
We rode our bikes EVERYWHERE (without a helmet!) Probably 4-10 miles a day - and none of this sissy 10-speed stuff :-)
We went swimming -- some of us were on a swim team, but others just hung out at the pool.
We played in the creek
We spread a blanket under a tree and played dolls all afternoon
We walked down to the 7-11 and bought a Slushie.
We read
We played games . . . all the time! Scrabble, Monopoly, Parchesi, checkers, card games
We had chores -- we mowed the yard, we pulled weeds in the garden, we dusted the house, we vacuumed.
We turned on the sprinkler and played in it!
We had lemonade stands
We walked down the library and spent delicious hours picking out books
We chased fireflies at night
We were usually in bed by 9 pm.
In other words -- we were active, active, active! And it wasn't our parents job to entertain us, and they didn't have to know where we were every second of the day. (No cell phones -- if they wanted us, they just poked their head out the door and yelled, or they phoned a couple of friends until they found us.) Oh, sometimes we'd beg for a parent to play a game with us if it was a rainy day and we were bored. That's when my parents started to teach me how to cook -- first cookies, then working up to meals. :-)
ADHD wasn't an issue -- if a kid didn't pay attention in school, the teacher called their parents and their parents made their life a living hell. :-) In retrospect, there probably WERE some kids who had some form of attention deficit, but no where NEAR the levels there are today. Some of those kids that were "trouble-makers" ended up in private schools after being kicked out of public schools. My parents were horrified when we made the decision to send our kids to a private school (common in this city), because to them, a private school was for "problem-children".
Love reading some of the replies. I grew up in the 60's as well. Never a lack of things to do. Some of my favorite things to do were drawing, exploring (lived in a very rural area), daydreaming and looking at clouds, fishing interesting bugs out of my grandparent's pool, collecting rocks, etc. When I did get bored, there were always books to read. I can entertain myself very easily and still have a very active imagination.
I do feel a bit sorry for kids growing up these days...my kids included. They are never far from an electronic device and seem to get bored very easily. During the summers I would sign them up for summer camps to keep them very busy. Gone are the days of just roaming around and finding fun things to do. In our area, these seems to be a lack of kids even outside. The garage door goes up, the cars go in, and you don't see anyone come out of the house. Now everything is so structured with play dates, activities and many parents shuttling their kids around from one activity to the next.
We decided a year or two ago that our kids would be the ones roaming the neighborhood, even if they're the only ones out there. Now that they're a little older we let them go to the park down the street together or with friends. A lot of the time they're the only ones there. I don't care. I refuse to have them inside during our beautiful summer (we live in the PNW, possibly the nicest weather in the country in the summer) playing Minecraft for hours on end or watching episode 534 of iCarly. None of the stuff that we "feel sorry" about changes unless we start to change it. Boredom is easily fixed...the threat of scrubbing toilets usually works.
We played outside from just after breakfast until dinner time.
We rode our bikes EVERYWHERE (without a helmet!) Probably 4-10 miles a day - and none of this sissy 10-speed stuff :-)
We went swimming -- some of us were on a swim team, but others just hung out at the pool.
We played in the creek
We spread a blanket under a tree and played dolls all afternoon
We walked down to the 7-11 and bought a Slushie.
We read
We played games . . . all the time! Scrabble, Monopoly, Parchesi, checkers, card games
We had chores -- we mowed the yard, we pulled weeds in the garden, we dusted the house, we vacuumed.
We turned on the sprinkler and played in it!
We had lemonade stands
We walked down the library and spent delicious hours picking out books
We chased fireflies at night
We were usually in bed by 9 pm.
In other words -- we were active, active, active! And it wasn't our parents job to entertain us, and they didn't have to know where we were every second of the day. (No cell phones -- if they wanted us, they just poked their head out the door and yelled, or they phoned a couple of friends until they found us.) Oh, sometimes we'd beg for a parent to play a game with us if it was a rainy day and we were bored. That's when my parents started to teach me how to cook -- first cookies, then working up to meals. :-)
ADHD wasn't an issue -- if a kid didn't pay attention in school, the teacher called their parents and their parents made their life a living hell. :-) In retrospect, there probably WERE some kids who had some form of attention deficit, but no where NEAR the levels there are today. Some of those kids that were "trouble-makers" ended up in private schools after being kicked out of public schools. My parents were horrified when we made the decision to send our kids to a private school (common in this city), because to them, a private school was for "problem-children".
Pretty much nails it.
I love the part about ADD/ADHD/BI Polar, etc. You didn't pay attention you got in big trouble at school--it could be in the corner, in the closet, or a severe spanking from the principal. It was REALLY embarrassing in front of your 'peers' and you didn't do it again! VERY effective. And then you had to go home and face your parents! That was where the heavy punishment came in, and you dreaded it. "You want to whine? I'll give you something to whine about!"
Private schools were where the 'bad' kids who couldn't assimilate into public schools went. It was a stigma; not something to be envied. How things have changed, at least from the bragging that some parents do!
"In or out" ! Remember that? You could come into the house once, or go out once. After that, you lived with your decision. Home to make lunch for yourself at noon. Home for family dinner at 5 pm. God help you if you rode your bicycle on the main road, or "fell in the creek" that ran through town. Aside from that, the world was there to explore and learn. Swim, baseball with six guys!, football in autumn, basketball out of doors in winter!, ice hockey, camping overnight in the hills, sledding, tree houses from scrap wood, and a host of "scientific" experiments (like catching flies on hot gum!).
Life was different then, for sure. (We had a TV after a while....three stations. Watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, and the Mercury Space launches! And Disney on Sunday night with the neighbors...and Car 54!)
Before the advent of TV, internet, and console gaming, how on earth did our ancestors keep their kids from nagging them every constanst second.
When I look at myself, if I had no TV when I was kid, I dont know what I would have done for a large portion of the day. Maybe I would have been outside more playing.
What did kids in the 60s, 50s, civil war era, and before do to keep their ADHD occupied?
as a child of the 60's, we played outside, we used our imaginations, we did chores, we rode our bikes around the neighborhood, we read books..... ADHD was not nearly so prevalent .... or maybe not nearly so diagnosed because we were certainly FAR more active than most children today....
Before the advent of TV, internet, and console gaming, how on earth did our ancestors keep their kids from nagging them every constanst second.
When I look at myself, if I had no TV when I was kid, I dont know what I would have done for a large portion of the day. Maybe I would have been outside more playing.
What did kids in the 60s, 50s, civil war era, and before do to keep their ADHD occupied?
Back in the days before video games, when there were only four channels on television and cartoons only on Saturday mornings....
We stayed the heck outdoors and preferrably out of line of sight and earshot of our parents, and at nobody's house that our parents could call.
If there wasn't school, we were long freaking gone all day long. Came home at supper time or when it got dark (whichever was the latest we could get away with).
One thing we absolutely did not do: We never, ever told our parents, "I'm bored."
No way. There were always chores that even a kid could do around the house. Stuff always needed dusting or mopping or sweeping or washing or waxing, and it all involved more low-level elbow grease than adult expertise.
Before the advent of TV, internet, and console gaming, how on earth did our ancestors keep their kids from nagging them every constanst second.
When I look at myself, if I had no TV when I was kid, I dont know what I would have done for a large portion of the day. Maybe I would have been outside more playing.
What did kids in the 60s, 50s, civil war era, and before do to keep their ADHD occupied?
We were outside riding our bikes or playing ball. Our mother locked us out of the house and we'd get our butts whooped if we woke her up from her nap. We wouldn't dare.
It's this thing a lot of kids don't understand these days: respect.
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Thanks for the memories...
