I was wondering, honestly, how much time your little ones watch tv during the school day. Even educational television? I find myself feeling guilty when they are in front of the tv...even if they are watching an educational cartoon.... I know the kids at ps aren't watching tv.
my 4 and 5 yo get to watch 1/2 hour of educational cartoons in the morning before lessons (while I'm getting the day ready), and they can watch 1/2 hour of educational cartoons in the evening (while I fix supper). That's daily, though we do a lot of learning through movies and programs so I'd guess in an average week they get to watch about 10-12 hours of television but I don't let them watch just anything...it has to have educational value!
I let DD2 watch one show in the AM while I do more focused school with DD7. Typically this is 30-45 minutes max. That is all. DD7 watches about that much every 3-5 days.
I don't turn the t.v. on until we are done with our lessons. So far I have only used it once to go along with what we were learning and it was for 40 minutes. I'm not opposed to it, rather I haven't had the need for it yet. My kids do watch pbs (pbs sprout) for about an 1 1/2 -2 hours throughtout the course of the day. So again I have nothing against it, I just don't fit it into our lessons for the day.
I am not one who believes everything a kid watches has to be educational. I don't limit my tv time to only educational stuff so why shoudl my kids? We do not have cable so we are very limited. Grace likes to watch Calliou and Dragon Tales and in the afternoon both my kids like to watch Cyber Chase and Word Girl. Oh wow funny - most just happen to be educational shows! LOL! However they also like King of the Hill and at night when we get home from dance we like Dancing with the Stars, Kitchen Nightmares and Don't Forget the Lyrics.
My TV is on most of the time. I know that many people are totally against TV, and there are those who say kids can not learn from TV.. but I can tell you this.. My oldest can watch Dirty Jobs or Myth Busters and totally understand what they are talking about and tell you about it so it makes sense.. I can teach him something, give him some worksheets or reading to do and he is so clueless when he is done that it was totally not worth my time and effort. We watch a lot of the little kids educational cartoons (Nick, PBS, Disney), we also watch lots of Nat-Geo, Discovery, TLC, Travel, History etc. It is what fits us... but it may not fit everyone. ETA.. We do watch plenty of fun TV also.. right now my 2 and 3 year olds are ruining their brains and giggling themselves silly watching Sponge Bob.
My son LOVES Mythbusters! He gets it for his iPod. Otherwise - my kids can watch TV in the morning until 9am which is when school starts. Then the TV is usually off now. There was a point I wasn't worried about it - but I'm trying to get their butts outside more 1 hour reading + 1 hour outside = 1 hour TV or internet time for my son. 1/2 hour reading + 1 hour outside = 1 hour TV or internet fo rmy daughter I don't think my kids were "harmed" in any way by watching all the PBS shows they watched growing up - or the nickelodeon shows they watch now - even with me (I think I've seen almost all the sponge bob shows!)
Crazymama--I'm with you on my t.v. being on all the time---Just after lessons. Nat-geo, discovery, and tlc are some of my fave channels. And my ds loves watching Bizarre Foods just to see what disgusting things Andrew Zimmern will eat!
I also should have said that they watch much more tv in the summer than they do in the rest of the year so the times I quoted are for fall, spring, winter. In AZ it's too hot to be outside playing in the summer so they watch a lot more tv. probably 2-3 hours a day not including educational stuff we plan for our curriculum.
Lets see.... On a normal school day when my son does bible and Math, I'd say it's on for about an hour. My oldest barely watches TV. My son and youngest would watch it nonstop (and have on weekends when dad was in charge of them). I probably don't use the TV as much as I should/could for schooling. I often forget about Discovery, Discovery Kids, etc. I need to tap into that stuff more as a resource. I did just find an educational viewing log. I thought that would be neat to keep track of. My son learns best through audio visual stuff like that, though. So....I tend to look for DVD/Computer based things. Now...all that being said, our TV is on from about 7 until 3 a.m. (hubby). Cannot stand it. I get sucked in too. I try REALLY hard not to. Sigh. makes me wish we had DVR b/c then we'd only watch what we WANT to really watch and not all the filler crud.
Is he the guy on the Travel channel? I have seen this guy eating some of the strangest stuff!!! I have only caught it in the middle of channel surfing and almost always stop to watch him... but right now everything is making me sick, so no watching people eat things that look yucky.. the Food Network is definately out here for now..lol
Yep, thats him! It makes my tummy turn too, and I'm not Preggars!!! Best to not watch that until June!
I dont have a limit but when we are doing work the tv goes off. I think tv can be very educational I did a whole webpage on it hahaha Love Discovery channel! Sam
Our TV is on alot. I don't mind any of the shows the kids watch, but I do think that they should be watching less and playing more. I do know they pick up a ton of stuff from TV (and alot of it has been good, LOL). Luckily my kids still like the little kid show: Playhouse Disney, Nick Jr. and anything on PBS. My oldest's favorite show is Fetch, with Ruff Ruffman. The whole family enjoys Dirty Jobs and Myth Busters.
I am struggling with this issue also. We don't have cable/sat. so at the moment we can watch pbs. We also watch football (just dh and I, the boys don't like it) and Survivor. (we just love that... we did a survivor b-day party...another story) I can not decide if we should fork over the money for TV or just do netflix. (which you can get most of those shows from.) and it doesn't seem like it would be worth it without the dvr. The boys have figured out they can watch Cartoon Network on the computer... so I have to keep an eye on that, I will leave them playing timez attack and the next thing I know it is some horrid cartoon. grrr. I want all the ed. shows, but I am not sure about, MY level of discipline both for myself (hgtv is my favorite) or them...am I willing to stand strong against the evil cartoon network?! All in all, I think ed. tv is great. I have no problem encorporating video into school... the schools would do it more if they could afford it... and like was said before, if he remembers the info better from the show, than from a text...who cares where it came from. We are currently watching Insectia (it is canadian) I got these from the library...very cool and much more intersting to see this guy going all over and catching bugs...as opposed to reading a black and white text.
Me personally, I can't stand for the tv to be on during the day. I might watch the news in the morning and then it's off. My kids are the type if they watch it in the morning, they are whiny the rest of the day, so they might watch it a few times a week in the afternoon. We watch it at night after hubby's home and we've had supper. We watch it more in the winter, than any other time. I would rather my kids play, do legos, look at books, play a game on the computer, be outside than be a little zombie in front of the tv. McKinsey
We tape all new episodes of Sesame Street and our TV stays on the PBS station throughout most of the school day. I admit that it is on specifically to attract my 16 month old so she will leave me and my 6th grader alone to get some work done. She doesn't really watch it all the time, but sometimes she is distracted by it. She loves Sesame Street. And the 6th grader really prefers to start her day by watching an episode of Monk.
I recently got a mini trampoline and put it behind our sofa (it faces the tv). My son now gets up in the morning and bounces on it while watching his favorite shows. I am getting him to exercise now! I am really excited about it. I plan to go on it too while watching my hgtv. I think if you do 20min you lose 100 calories Sam ps I waited till it was on sale for $24.99
I'm at odds with this subject at the moment. I've been reading the well trained mined. I have to agree with her on alot of things, but the idea that kids don't learn from tv has got me shaking my head. my daughter watches sid the science kid everyday and that's our jumping point for our science lesson everyday. she loves it and retains the info. they also watch alot of other pbs shows and nick and disney. but on the other hand, i do know that too much tv makes my kids misbehave more. they become more unruly and more aggressive. they disobey more. btw, i have just made this connection. BUT, because we homeschool, i feel like tv gives them a change to be exposed to pop culture. so that when they are at extracurricular activities or playing with friends, they can relate to what everyone's talking about. what to do? what to do? the questions that plague mothers. One wrong decision and you may just ruin them forever!
Jill, read "The Plugged-In Drug". It's a fascinating book! When Rachael was little, we did little-to-no TV during the school day. We would go grocery shopping on Monday, and if she could watch Sesame Street while I put away the dishes and got lunch. But that was it. Faythe saw a little more of SS, but not much. With Phillip, I added "Between the Lions" for him daily. But that was pretty much it! My kids currently watch two or three shows on PBS sometime between 3:30 and 5:30, but that's all. And Wednesday is TV Free Day.
