I recently received an email from Common Sense Media with a list of resolutions for 2015.
Common Sense Media is my go-to resource on all matters related to technology, education, and parenting, so I read on with interest. The truth is that although I’m evolving, absent their informed advice, my default instinct would be to worry more than may be necessary about technology’s impact on family and education.
Their first resolution was to “focus on the content quality, not the screen-time quantity.” Given the fact that we are dialed in to our devices a good amount of every day, this is good advice indeed. It was their second resolution, however, that really struck me: “Play a game with your kid.”
Such a simple directive – everyone knows that kids love to and need to play– but still, it took me off guard. Do I play enough games, computer or otherwise, with my students and my own children? And is playing a game on a computer or device the same as sitting on the floor with a board game?
When I was little, I always wanted someone to play a game with me. I am the youngest of four and both of my parents were academics, so it was rare that anyone actually said yes to my pleas. But I wasn’t completely relegated to games of Solitaire. My grandmother and I played cards after school sometimes, and to this day those memories are some of my best.
So while I still worry about technology and “screen time,” I have resolved to play more games with my kids and students – the old kind and the new.
Your entry takes me back to those busy days of having so little time, given career, family, community. Playing more games with others you can actually look at across a Scrabble board makes eminent sense today, as it always did.