Vol 4. It Takes a Village: The Ultimate Newsletter for 21st Century Parents
In a world that’s changing constantly, it’s not easy to raise a child. In fact, it takes a village, now more than ever, to do it successfully. We at fREADom will be that village, and help you navigate the 21st century, and raise curious and confident learners.
Every online parenting community, including ours, at one point or another over the past year has grappled with these questions:
Is screen time bad for our child? How much of it should we allow?
Soon after the nationwide lockdown was first announced last March, most schools, determined to ensure students’ learning continued without interruption, did their best to shift their entire education system online.
The complete shift online also brought with it the societal pressure on parents to curb the amount of time their children spent in front of screens. They resigned themselves to seeing their children interacting with their friends and teachers through little boxes on their devices. At the same time, they were being bombarded with news articles, WhatsApp forwards, and unsolicited advice columns all declaring the same thing—increased screen time spelled DOOM.
But how can you curb your child’s screen time when they eagerly look forward to meeting their English teacher on Zoom everyday at 11:30 am? Or when they excitedly play Minecraft with their best friend every evening?
If this is the only way children can learn or socialise, it’s apparent that we can’t simply slot screen time into neatly defined wholly ‘good’ or wholly ‘bad’ boxes anymore.
Some experts argue that as long as you don’t let our child’s screen time replace exercise/play time or family time, your parenting is on-point.
So instead of focusing on curbing your child’s screen time, it would be more productive to make sure the time they do spend in front of screens actually counts.
If you’re looking for productive screen time activities for your child, then you only have a million different online classes and websites to choose from.
So how do you choose the best option for your child?
This much is obvious: parenting is hard. There are no secret guidebooks to help you hack it. And parenting during the crippling second wave of a global pandemic is much much worse.
At a time like this, it is important to remember that there are no right or wrong answers.
Being a part of a community of co-believers, who are also navigating the same parenting path as you, could offer the support you need.
Parents On Duty, fREADom’s very own community, by and for hard working parents like you, is here to help you raise the next generation of confident English learners. We’ve built this interconnected network of diligent parents to ensure you have access to all the learning resources your child will need.
Whether it’s unique tips from other Freadom parents, or updates on the latest English workshops, this tight-knit community has it all.
Interact with other parents to exchange resources and build a system of support you can truly rely on.
Click here to join fREADom Parents on Duty!
