My almost 5 year ls son has a bit of a screen addiction. Since her was quite small he has always loved movies, TV and now video games, When he was three he carried around a little DVD player so a movie was always close at hand.

I lean toward unschooling and try not to get bent out of shape over it. The last couple of weeks I will admit i have been mildly concerned. I do not restrict the time the kids spend on TV, computer or video games and have no intention of doing so. I will however re-direct or engage with them if I think its because of boredom. They will almost always say yes to the park, a swim or a hike.
I don’t think the concept of unschooling is to disengage with your kids an leave them on their own ( at least when they are small) to flounder. You need to expose then to stuff- even if it means put out some paints and paper on the table and hang back.
Anyway- I digress- would be too difficult to put all my thoughts about unschooling and children into one post.

I was starting to get a bit worried about the amount of time my son is spending playing video games. When I get doubts like these it helps to read information by othre unschoolers. I particularily like Joyfully Rejoycing ( Joce Fetteroll) who writes a an article, My son plays Nintendo all dayabout just this dilemma.

The article is very long and worth reading even if video games are not an issue here are a few quotes:

A guess would be that games make him feel powerful and competent. The world is not a friendly place for wee little kids. They want to do so much and rules and society and even their 4 yo bodies prevent them from doing what they want to do. But games they can do. They can beat the bad guy. Or get the car around the track faster than anyone. Or collect hundreds of gold coins.

Some kids have desires that are in keeping with what they can do physically and socially. Some kids don’t. For instance some kids are perfectly fine accepting the pace at which they learn to ride a bike. Some kids want to be able to ride well before they have the mental and physical development to be able to do it. And it’s frustrating to them.

Isn’t Joyce great?