Get Screen Smart!

Worried about the amount of time your kids are on screens? Would you like your kids to learn to better manage their screen time?

The Childhood Obesity Foundation recently launched a new program called Screen Smart! Screen Smart is a program for elementary schools, designed for children in grades K-7. It aims to:

1. Increase awareness among students (and their families) of how much time students spend in front of screens
2. Reduce students’ recreational screen time to less than 2 hours per day (or maintain that level if already achieved)

Reducing inactive screen time has many benefits from better grades and school performance to improved health and well-being. To increase this awareness Screen Smart asks students to think about their screen choices and how much time they spend in front of these screens. Then students are asked to think of alternative activities such as biking, swimming, reading, music etc. They are given the experience of trading 30 minutes of screen time for 30 minutes of physical activity or another fun activity that they have chosen…TRADE30.

Screen Smart does NOT ask students to give up screens altogether as they are a part of daily living and will continue to be in the future. Instead the program teaches children and their families to learn how to manage screen time.

The Screen Smart program was carefully designed to take only 10-15 minutes per day of a teacher’s time. Each Screen Smart activity supports a BC-prescribed learning outcome. The program is most effective when used as an annual event at school. Over time, schools can build a culture that encourages and supports active lifestyles.

Screen Smart will is available to Canadian schools, free of charge, on the Screen Smart website which is a micro- site of the Childhood Obesity Foundation. Visit us at: www.screensmartschools.ca

This post comes to you from SCOPE’s partner organization, the Childhood Obesity Foundation. For more on this great Canadian non-profit organization, click here.

Related posts:

1. How Much Exercise is “Enough”?
2. Prince George Citizen: City targets Childhood Obesity
3. Dr. Shazhan Amed from SCOPE on Global Noon News
4. The sky’s the limit for physical activity
5. Policy change alone not enough to curb childhood obesity: Brooklyn

Tags: COF, experts, media, partners, Programs, screen time, tips

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 5th, 2011 at and is filed under 2 hours or less of screen time, Educators, Families, Prevention. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.