solving mysteries or puzzlesand codingencourage your kids to find inspiration in the world around them as they make art on their tablets when your kids look for game to playhelp them find game that uses problem-solving skills "he actually gets to use the skills that like to see him work onlike sharing artistic talentmusicartas well as math laurenfeatured maker noah' mother try having your kids program connected toys like drones or robots they're hugely popular for good reason kids get to use screens to createthen see the physical effects of their hard work and creativity in real-time it' entertainingof coursebut it also provides great feedback loopdistinguish between playing and making we all love little bit of mindless screen time now and then social media is to you as gaming is to kids but kids have an immense capability to learn and create that needs to be explored creativity is one of the most important skills your children can develop in facta recent forbes article cites creativity as the most important skill for future of aia good rule of thumb for leveraging your child' screen time is to find ways to focus on "makingrather than simply "playing when kids are playingthey're following predetermined paths when they're makingkids pave those paths here' an exampleyour child is playing gameclicking and draggingfollowing predetermined path she' enjoying herself and relaxingbut she' not as engaged as she could or should be when she switches to building her own gameshe' interacting with the platform in new way she' entertained by the prospect of challengeand pushes herself to learn new things in order to figure out how to create what she wants to make "my husband especially is very anti-screen timeso he doesn' like the kids just watching tv but this kind of activity is something [maxcan do where he' actually being productive there' difference between passively just absorbing something and then actively engaging with it stephaniefeatured maker max' mother