Ready Kids › First Screens › Badge 3 › Lesson 3.3

Grades 4–5 · First Screens · Badge 3

Telling without losing it

Get a parent to promise that telling them about something bad never costs you the phone, and know why that promise matters.

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Step 1 of 10

1Watch

The thing she does not say

Film

Dinner

A kid at the dinner table, phone in her pocket, something on it that has bothered her all afternoon. A parent asks how the day was. She glances at her pocket. It ends on her opening her mouth.

24 seconds

Watch what stops her. It is not the thing on the phone.

2The idea

The only reason kids do not tell

Ask any kid why they did not tell a parent about something that went wrong on their phone. It is nearly always the same answer: they thought they would lose the phone. So the bad thing kept going, for days or weeks, and the parent who could have ended it in an evening never knew.

The promise fixes that. Telling a parent about something bad never costs you the phone. Not ever. It is line five on the deal, and it is the line that makes every other line worth signing, because it means the deal is on your side when something goes wrong.

3The idea

The promise, the words, and how you tell

The promise has exact words, and a parent has to say them out loud. Getting it:
1. Say to a parent: telling you never costs me the phone. Can you say that back?
2. Stop talking and wait.
3. They say it back, in their own words.
4. It goes on the deal, and you both initial it.
If they hesitate, show them this page. It is written for them too.

Then, when something happens, telling is simple: show, do not describe. Hand them the phone with the thing on the screen. They see it, not your summary of it. You do not have to explain it well, or explain it at all. You just have to hand it over.

4The idea

Dinner, worked through

Back to the girl at the table. A message about her got screenshotted and half the class has it. The promise is on the fridge, initialled. Her parent asks about her day. She takes the phone out, opens the chat, and hands it across without saying anything. That is the whole telling.

Her parent reads it. They ask who sent it round, which she knows from the last badge. They talk about what to do tomorrow. The phone goes back in her pocket. It was never going anywhere else, and she knew that before she took it out, which is why she could.

5Say it

Say it to them, then wait

Say this to a parent, then stop talking

“Telling you never costs me the phone. Can you say that back?”

They should say it back in their own words, out loud. If they hesitate, show them this page. It is written for them too.

6Your turn

Three would-you-tell scenes

Interactive

Would you tell

Three short scenes, each one a chat revealed a message at a time. A screenshot of you going round. A game friend who will not stop asking for your number. A message that puts you on Twitchy on the Feeling Dial and you cannot say why. After each: would you tell tonight, and what do you think would happen if you did?

Be honest on the second question. That is the one the promise is for.

7Decide

A message about you got screenshotted and half the class has it. Your parent asks what is wrong.

Right. Show, do not describe. The parent sees the thing itself, not your summary of it, and can help with the actual problem. With the promise in place, the phone stays yours.

The thing on the phone is not the worst part. Carrying it alone is. “Fine” and “wait” both mean you handle it by yourself tonight, and tomorrow, and it is still there. The promise exists so you do not have to.

Pick one to carry on.

8The idea

What the promise covers

Everything that went wrong on the phone. Something someone sent you that you did not want. Someone asking you to move somewhere private. A chat that left you on Twitchy or Scared on the Feeling Dial. And your own mistakes, including things you posted and wish you had not. Telling about a mistake never costs you the phone either. That is the point of it.

What it is not: a way to get things. Wanting a newer phone, or more time, or different rules is a conversation, not a telling. The promise is for when something is wrong, and it is there so that nothing stays wrong for longer than one evening.

9Find them

Which of these does the promise cover?

Tap the ones that count.

Find all 4.

10Do it

Before you leave this page

Get a parent to say, out loud and in their own words: telling me about something bad will never cost you the phone. Then write that line on the deal and both of you initial it.

Tick it when you have done it.

Lesson done.

Telling never costs you the phone. Get it said out loud.

Take the Badge Challenge

Badge 3 · Your Phone Deal

3.1What the phone is for 3.2Where it sleeps 3.3Telling without losing it ★Badge Challenge

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