Hello,

Happy Friday to you.

How’s your week been?

We’ve been having fun in the sun, and rain, playing with friends and reading piles of books.

A favourite of Iris’ this week is Put on Your Owl Eyes by Devin Franklin - it's an invitation to explore the natural world through all your senses. You're called to get to know a tree, put on your deer ears and learn a fox' habits.

I got The Reading Adventure: 100 Books to Check out Before You're 12, curated by We Need Diverse Books out of the library this week - inside there are author interviews, recommendations and reviews to help you find your next read with your kids. It's brilliant!

I just heard about a new exhibition opening in London this week World of Wasps, and their importance for pollination. It's at the Grant Museum for Zoology and you can look inside wasp's nests, learn about the social skills and experience a wasp's eye view. Did you know that wasps purr? Or that they wag their bodies and tap their antennae to communicate? Find out more here.

Here’s What We’ve Been Up To:

Learning About Screens and Kids

I went to a talk about Smartfree Phone Free Childhood this week and it was brilliant, and shocking. Iris doesn’t have much screen-time – once a week she watches an episode of a show (usually Brambly Hedge or Charlie and Lola, as everything else is “too scary”). But she’s wanted a phone since she could talk. She’s made tablets and phones out of wood, carries a dead Nokia around in a handbag and often ‘chats’ to her cousin for ages, ear pressed against a stone!

Attending this talk gave me so much to think about. My main takeaway was that I have to change up my relationship with my phone. Now!

Here are some other tidbits from the talk (if you can get to one in your area, I REALLY recommend). I remarked to a friend before I went that it was probably a bit early to be worrying (Iris is not yet six), and yet, the message at the talk is that it’s never too early.

Screen are insidious and it’s pretty tricky to escape them.

So here’s some of my notes for further research on smart phones and kids:

No-one else is coming to sort this out for us - we have to do it for the sake of our children's childhoods.

Recommendation is to delay smart phones until at least 14 years old, 16 for social media.

Choose a brick phone to be used as a communication device, definitely for our children, perhaps also ourselves!

Watch Channel 4 documentary - Swiped.

Find out more about Smart-Phone Free Childhood.

Read The Anxious Generation - Jonathan Haidt says that we've given children "a portal in their pockets that calls them away from people into an alternative universe that is exciting, addictive and unsuitable for children and adolescents."

Watch - It Was the Damn Phones by Kori Jane.

Remove phones in at least 3 places at home - the dinner table, the bedroom and the bathroom!

Have screen free Sundays.

If you want your kids to get off social media, get off it yourself!

Screens may give us what we need in the short-term - what's the long term impact?

Carla, a parent on the panel of speakers shared her experiences after her seven year old son saw a disturbing video at a sleepover - she recommended teaching kids the 3 Ts.

If children see something that scares them, teach them to:

• Turn away

• Turn it OFF

• Tell Someone

Carla also recommended the books by Kristen A Jensen - Good Pictures, Bad Pictures and the junior version for younger kids, aged 3-6 years.

She spoke about how the internet is like a big city - we wouldn't let our children wander around unsupervised in a city, so we need to have firmer boundaries online.

She suggests telling your kids to only speak to real-life friends online.

And to help children learn to trust and listen to their bodies - your tummy/gut will tell you if something isn't right.

She also said to set playdate expectations before the event. Explain to the parents of your children's friends that you have a no phone policy in your house. A basket at the door to collect devices sounds like a good idea!

Go to internetmatters.org to get info on internet security.

If your kids have phones, consider installing parental control app Bark.

Sign the Parent Pact - there are loads of other families out there who are choosing a low-tech or screen-free childhood.

Ping me a message if this resonates for you... I'd love to hear your thoughts.