How Kids Spend Their Time (And How They Should)

How are our kids actually spending their time — and is it aligned with what we value for our families' lives and for our children's well-being?

This week, Amy and Margaret discuss:

• How sleep too often loses out to homework and activities

• Time tracking and the sobering truth it can show about how many hours a week our kids actually spend on screens

• How outdoor time and free play, too often in short supply, affects creativity, independence, and self-regulation

• Strategies for families to audit time, realign priorities, and invite kids into decision-making

It's worth the effort to track how our time is actually spent. As Annie Dillard said: “How we spend our days is how we spend our lives.”

Here are links to some of the resources we mention in the episode:

• Gretchen Livingston for Pew Research Center: The way U.S. teens spend their time is changing, but differences between boys and girls persist
• Cleveland Clinic: How Much Sleep Kids Need: Recommended Hours by Age
• Dahl KL, et. al: Time Playing Outdoors Among Children Aged 3-5 Years: National Survey of Children's Health, 2021.
• Yeshe Colliver et. al for Early Childhood Research Quarterly: Free play predicts self-regulation years later: Longitudinal evidence from a large Australian sample of toddlers and preschoolers
• Our Fresh Take with Christina Martin on How Children Learn Through Play
• Our Fresh Take with Lenore Skenazy, author of FREE-RANGE KIDS
• Our Fresh Take with Ginny Yurich, host of the 1000 Hours Outside podcast
• Our Fresh Take with Laura Vanderkam, time-tracking expert

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