Screen time at OSHC     

Last Friday morning at OSHC, our TV wasn’t working. The children who arrived at 6am were so worried - “What are we going to do!? I’m bored!”

Miss Jodie asked the children, “What do you do at home when you’re not watching TV?” To which the replies were, “I play my iPad”, “I sleep”. 

We were excited to show the children some of the simple games we used to play as children, and when Miss Jodie suggested Mr Squiggle, a few children showed interest, but no one knew what Mr Squiggle actually was! 

As the game started, it took a little while for the children to find their creativity. What was first a “square”, then turned in to a duck, a fridge, an alien. Tyler’s creativity was so impressive! By the end of the morning, we had 10 children playing Mr Squiggle, teaching the game to other children and creating some VERY challenging squiggles! 

Another group of children who usually watch TV, asked Miss Rachel if they could make cubbyhouses with boxes - Miss Rachel was so excited, and the boys had an absolute blast. 

Lots of the children went to the hall and spent their morning doing just dance challenges, with lots of laughter. 

Miss Rae, cooking eggs for breakfast, went through THIRTY eggs and two loaves of bread, with our very active children loving their breakfast (and they didn’t need a reminder!) 

At the end of the morning, Miss Jodie spoke to the educators about their morning, “This was the best morning ever! I didn’t have to follow up on behaviour once!” The children agreed, it really was the best morning... the difference? No TV!

This is the start of more screen free mornings at OSHC, as the new Guidelines for screen time in OSHC recommendations encourage a maximum of 30 minutes screen time during BSC. 

We can’t wait to teach the OSHC children some new games and crafts that they may not have seen before.