About TV
Julie Bogart
One last post about this.
I was with a group of 7-8 year olds at a camp last week as a counselor.
We are the only homeschool family I know at that camp who has an
unlimited TV policy. I was struck my my dd's vocabulary in that
context. She was witty, articulate, and often savvy to what the
counselor's were about, especially when compared to her peers. She
repeatedly cracked up all up.
Now perhaps she might have been that way just from being read to.
But her love for sitcoms on Disney has been the primary source of her
education this year and I'm amazed at the dividends I see in her.
She totally "gets" plot, characterization, acting skill, writing and
more. She uses adult language and imitates what she hears on TV and
uses her language in context.
I would not have known that this was possible a year ago.
I do watch with her and my other kids quite a bit and now have my own
favorite shows that we share together: That's So Raven (the I Love Lucy
of the Disney channel), Boy Meets World, Whose Line is it Anyway and
the usual round up of reality shows (Survivor, American Idol, The
Swan...)
Julie
I was with a group of 7-8 year olds at a camp last week as a counselor.
We are the only homeschool family I know at that camp who has an
unlimited TV policy. I was struck my my dd's vocabulary in that
context. She was witty, articulate, and often savvy to what the
counselor's were about, especially when compared to her peers. She
repeatedly cracked up all up.
Now perhaps she might have been that way just from being read to.
But her love for sitcoms on Disney has been the primary source of her
education this year and I'm amazed at the dividends I see in her.
She totally "gets" plot, characterization, acting skill, writing and
more. She uses adult language and imitates what she hears on TV and
uses her language in context.
I would not have known that this was possible a year ago.
I do watch with her and my other kids quite a bit and now have my own
favorite shows that we share together: That's So Raven (the I Love Lucy
of the Disney channel), Boy Meets World, Whose Line is it Anyway and
the usual round up of reality shows (Survivor, American Idol, The
Swan...)
Julie
christy_imnotred
I wanted to give more specific information since my son is 4 like the
child of the person who asked the original question.
TV has led my son to his 2 biggest passions. When he was 3 he
watched Lion King A LOT! Somedays he would watch it multiple times,
sometimes we would have weeks were he watched it everyday. I watched
it with him as much as I could stand and we talked about it a lot.
I'm still not sure of all the things he got out of it, but I do know
it led to an interest in African animals. So we did a study of
African animals, using books, videos, computer games, trips to the
zoo etc. It started out with him just being interested in animals in
the savanna like in the movie. Then we read about rain forests in
one of our books and he got interested in that. Which led to a study
of all habitats and the animals that live there. He knows more than
most adults about habitats, adaptations, animals etc. This interest
has lasted over a year for him.
His other passion is robots. He found that passion also through TV
and a show called Battlebots. We watched it all the time and have
many episodes on tape. He has a few Battlebots books that he looks
at everyday (and has for almost a year), he is learning to read from
these books. We are now building our own battlebot (his idea, but
I'm doing most of the work LOL). He is learning about design,
construction, electronics, physics and who knows what else because of
this passion.
Without TV, my son may have still discovered these passions but I
can't imagine what our life would have been like without them. Just
something to think about before limiting TV, you may be limiting your
child from finding their passion.
Christy O
child of the person who asked the original question.
TV has led my son to his 2 biggest passions. When he was 3 he
watched Lion King A LOT! Somedays he would watch it multiple times,
sometimes we would have weeks were he watched it everyday. I watched
it with him as much as I could stand and we talked about it a lot.
I'm still not sure of all the things he got out of it, but I do know
it led to an interest in African animals. So we did a study of
African animals, using books, videos, computer games, trips to the
zoo etc. It started out with him just being interested in animals in
the savanna like in the movie. Then we read about rain forests in
one of our books and he got interested in that. Which led to a study
of all habitats and the animals that live there. He knows more than
most adults about habitats, adaptations, animals etc. This interest
has lasted over a year for him.
His other passion is robots. He found that passion also through TV
and a show called Battlebots. We watched it all the time and have
many episodes on tape. He has a few Battlebots books that he looks
at everyday (and has for almost a year), he is learning to read from
these books. We are now building our own battlebot (his idea, but
I'm doing most of the work LOL). He is learning about design,
construction, electronics, physics and who knows what else because of
this passion.
Without TV, my son may have still discovered these passions but I
can't imagine what our life would have been like without them. Just
something to think about before limiting TV, you may be limiting your
child from finding their passion.
Christy O