Alan & Brenda Leonard

> I know my son usually always chooses reading to stories to watching TV, but
> sometimes I say know when he's already spent two hours in the mornings
> watching his programmes and then want to watch a video later.

So let him. I have been trying to look at my unschooling one day at a time,
as far as the choices, and one month at a time, as far as how it's going.

Let me restate that. When my son asks, "Is it okay if I....", I might
figure, well, sure, why not. I mean, is it going to ruin him to have
another whavever? But I wait until the end of the month or more to
evaluate.

If you tried withdrawing all tv limits, then you might have days where your
children watched a whole lot of tv, but looking back over a month, would you
feel like all they did was watch tv? Probably not.

Also, consider your own habits. You've said nothing about your own tv
viewing, so I have no idea what you do. My husband and I don't watch much
tv and don't pay for cable. TV isn't part of our son's habits, either, at
least now (he's 6). If the adults watch a lot of tv, or have the tv on for
background, then maybe your concerns about what your young children see or
how much they watch are different than ours.

I do suspect that some of the studies that have been done about TV viewing
habits do not take into account that in many, many homes the TV runs
constantly. Whether or not the children actually watch it may be debatable.

brenda