Screen time for kids in autumn rarely starts with an argument. It starts with a window. In early September it is light after dinner and the children run outside. Three weeks later, same clock, same dinner. But the window is blue, and the wool jumper is out for the first time. It is easy to think the child suddenly wants more screen time. Something else has changed, and it is on the clock.
What happens to evenings in autumn?
Daylight shrinks faster in September than at almost any other time of year. Around the autumn equinox, on 23 September this year, day length changes most quickly. In Oslo each day is more than five minutes shorter than the one before. In Tromsø it is nearly nine.
On 1 September the sun sets in Oslo at around 20:25. On 30 September it sets just before 19:00. In one month the evening loses almost an hour and a half of light, and the whole day loses about two and a half hours.
Here is the twist: evenings do not get longer in autumn. Outdoor evenings get shorter. The child has the same free time, but a glowing screen easily fills an unplanned gap.
A plan in three parts
When children understand why the evening goes dark, screen time becomes a shared project rather than a rule from the grown-ups. In the Norwegian curriculum, pupils explore the seasons after year 2, talk about health and well-being after year 4, and describe how day, night and seasons arise after year 7.
The plan does not have to be strict, and it can make screen time more meaningful too:
- Move outdoor time earlier, straight after school or nursery while it is light.
- Give screens a fixed slot the family has chosen together.
- Make the dark an activity: torches, reflectors, the first stars.
Try it at home: the darkness calendar
Suitable for: 5–12 years
Draw a square for each remaining day of September and hang the sheet by a window. At the same time every evening, say 19:30, look outside and colour the square: yellow for light, purple for dusk, dark blue for dark. Add a small symbol for what you did that evening. Before you start, ask: if the evening loses about five minutes a day, how much earlier is it dark in a week? After a week, pick three things to do in the dark, then try one with a torch and a reflector. For more ideas, see the autumn outdoor laboratory. An adult comes along outside, and everyone wears a reflector.
What happens if you stand far from the reflector and shine the torch from different spots?
Questions to wonder about
- Why does it get dark earlier in autumn than in summer?
- If you moved to Tromsø, how early would it be dark in a month?
- If the dark comes a little earlier each evening, when does it turn around, and how could you find out yourselves?
Every child is made of good atoms. At Good Atoms we help them discover it. See how Good Atoms builds on this topic.