This post is sponsored by Disney. The opinions and text are all mine.
My kids are obsessed with video games and YouTube, and prying them away from the screen is always a huge struggle. As a mom, technology is one of my biggest enemies… until I found Circle. Circle with Disney is a little device that syncs to all of the wifi capable items in the house. TV’s, iPads, laptops, you name it. I now have complete remote control of every wireless device in my house from the click of a button.
With features like “Pause,” I can turn off the Internet for JUST MY KIDS. Yes, I can keep pinteresting and blogging while the Wi-Fi capabilities on my kids devices temporarily turn off. I can set this up to happen on a schedule, like every day from 4:00-5:30 for homework time. Or, I can turn it on and off as I please. For me, this works super well because we don’t have cable at my house, everything we watch is via streaming. So if I tell circle to turn off the Wi-Fi on the boy’s playroom T.V., it just turns off. There is no arguing or bargaining for T.V. time, which is a huge relief.
You can also set a “bed time” and an “awake time”. Sometimes the kids will wake up at 5:00 in the morning before I even get up and go watch YouTube.
The circle doesn’t allow them to do that, so I’m really into that because they are supposed to get ready for school before they do anything else.
With the “Filter” setting, I can restrict them from using certain apps or websites. So if they do get grounded from something like YouTube, I can take it off and they wont have access to it. Or I can even make a time limit, like 2 hours of YouTube time per day. If they use it all right after school, they can’t use it more later. And this totally helps me with the “Mom that’s not fair,” fight. Everyone gets the same amount of game time, end of story!
What I love the most is that Circle is going to improve the quality of family time so much. When the kids get used to the idea of having a set amount of Internet time, it will become more of a habit for them to have certain restrictions. Essentially, Circle is helping me discipline my kids and monitor their Internet usage without having to stand over them like a hawk. Now I don’t have to worry about what content they are consuming and if its too much, because it’s all literally in my hands.
I can even reward the kids for good grades or good behavior by adding extra online time to their schedules. For example, if the boys do their chores all week, maybe on Saturday’s their bedtime is a little later and Netflix has an extra hour of screen time so they can watch a late movie together.
Circle is literally making my life so much easier already and I can’t wait to see how much it really changes my family’s relationship with technology.
Check it out for yourself here! Circle is on sale right now through August 29th! Get your back to school deal on Amazon! Buy it here!
