Twenty minutes is the number most families settle on, and the number Slate suggests. Here is how to make it hold.
Pick the same twenty minutes
After the snack, before homework. Before dinner, while it cooks. The slot matters more than the length: a routine a child can predict is one they stop negotiating.
Hand over the phone, not the choice
Start Slate Time yourself and hand the slate over. The shelf has the books at their age and nothing else, so the only decision left is which one.
Let it end
When the day is done the slate says so, with a sleepy owl and “See you tomorrow.” Do not open it back up. The ending is the part that makes tomorrow easy.
The sibling
Each child has their own space and their own minutes. Two children, two slots, or one slot and the older one reads first.
