Cell phones. Small, flat rectangles that easily fit into our hands, whether nested in Otter cases or cute pink, plastic unicorns made in China; these devices are thieves of time like no other. They are simply the laptop or desktop dwarf that holds… what? Messages, Zoom, YouTube, videos, books, movies, social media, photo apps, games, ride-sharing and dinner-delivery options, restaurant rewards apps, music, weather, news, email, and random bits and pieces of cyber detritus, like this app that finds stars and identifies planets.

But winter has fallen and the White Walkers of the Northlands are out there. In the North, children are sitting in houses. Many of them will not go back to school when winter break ends. They will not go anywhere. Maybe they will visit a friend or two in their bubble or pod, but how many children did not see grandma and grandpa this break?

For years now, education and child-rearing articles have warned about the dangers of too much screen time. Too much screen time is bad for kids? One might as well say water is definitely wet. We know that staring into screens creates trouble — short tempers, unfinished projects, and disconcerting zombie-like stares for starters.

But I want to flag those phones today. Cyber burn-out is the enemy for online teaching and learning. Phones eat into children’s limited attention spans, sometimes aggressively. And those limits are real, even if they vary greatly from child to child.

Parents, have you relaxed on the issue of phone time? A lot of us are stuck inside of Mobile with the Memphis blues right now — or wish we were, because Mobile and Memphis at least sound warm. In January in the Northlands, it’s natural to pick up the phone to play a game or work on music lists. It’s also natural to look at our kids and decide not to interrupt their games or forays into social media. We don’t want the kids watching endless Hulu and Netflix. We intuitively sense how sick some are of hour after hour on their laptops, no matter how good their teacher may be. Even when the cobbled-together curriculum for remote learning seems relevant and useful, kids and adults have secret off-switches for electronics — that place where the zombie stare kicks in and a simple question nets a snarl rather than a helpful answer. Minecraft may engage the brain, but too much Minecraft can make Jayden a snarly kid.

Ironically, as electronic minutes accumulate, it’s easy to let the phones go right now. Who want to fight? Kids deprived of phone time push back in the best of times, as parents struggle to find the app or strategy that can rein in the monster. By a certain age, apps to restrain phone time often seem futile.

Eduhonesty: Stuck in the house? Kids and everyone else going stir crazy? Or at work and worrying about what’s happening at home as grandma or the sitter supervises — or does not supervise? Worried about your kids’ mental health, whether you are home or out in the world? When the schoolwork is out of the way, one strategy that will help children maintain balance is to get those kids off the phone.

Here is a starter site: 40 of the Best Art Projects for Kids – Left Brain Craft Brain

A search on craft projects will yield many sites. I’d ask my children what they wanted to do. Learn the guitar? This can be done in online classes, although you should consider masking up and venturing out early to buy the guitar. Purchasing first-time musical instruments requires a fitting process unlikely to work without making comparisons and holding the instrument.

I get together with a group of friends to sketch and paint throughout the week. We look through a series of pictures and decide on a favorite. Then everyone tries to create their own version of the octopus, door, tree, of whatever whim strikes at that moment.

If crafts are not catching on at home as you hope, I recommend exploring online learning. Online options abound. Some will stimulate conversation instead of inducing the zombie stare. Here’s a useful link:

Free online courses you can finish in a day | Coursera

The Coursera courses in this link might fascinate a high school student or academically-strong younger sister or brother. Yes, Coursera takes a student back online but “Feminism and Social Justice,” “Psychological First Aid” and “An Introduction to Consumer Neuroscience and Neuromarketing” might prove perfect for the right kid. These courses are guaranteed to engage the brain productively.

(Teachers, if you don’t know Coursera, please check this link out!)

Fight back, reader. Yes, the snows are falling. The children (and many adults) are sinking into lethargy as ice covers the sidewalks, and onscreen minutes proliferate.

Maybe your child needs a guitar or ukulele. Or you both do. Or a set of 24 watercolors and a starter pad of watercolor paper. You might melt some crayons to make the tried-and-true stained glass window. The whole family could participate in cooking lessons with the kids helping to plan the week’s menus. (I believe Coursera has a course on child nutrition 😋.)

Reader, start looking for those phones. They fade into the background, almost becoming invisible. The world mostly goes quiet when the phones come out and right now, with the stress of COVID, politics, and work, quiet may seem desirable. But life with children, whether parenting or teaching — that life was never meant to be quiet. Children should not be staring. They should be dancing. Or mixing flour with sugar. Or massacring chords over and over on their musical instrument of choice.

Hugs and Good Luck to All in the New Year.

P.S. Watch out for violins. They make amazingly awful sounds at the beginning of musical instruction. If you don’t have a basement or attic for practice, I recommend keyboards or guitars instead.