How to Raise your Child without Television

Raise your Child without Television

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Yes, that’s right, I said without television. Even if you can’t see yourself completely cutting out the idiot box (as my parents were wont to call it,) you can significantly reduce their viewing time. You’ll be surprised by the results.

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Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

Things You’ll Need:

No TV
Kid, preferably more than one, but one is okay too
Determination
Imagination
Activities

Step1

Excessive TV viewing makes people lazy. I’m not saying that all television content is bad, PBS has some great educational programs. I’m talking about the nearly 30 hours a week the average child watches television. All those hours wasted in a passive activity that does little to stimulate creativity or imagination.

Step2

So here’s a little experiment. For one week (I was going to offer a 30 day trial originally, but thought it might be too big a step for newbies,) turn off the TV. No cartoons, no viewing during the dinner hour, no Dancing with the Stars or any of the other weekly shows you watch.

Step3

I’m warning you, this will be hard at first. You’ve let your imagination skills go stagnant. You and your kids are going to have do some thinking on how to effectively fill the time that has been freed up now that the TV is off.

Step4

Here are some ideas to get you started:
Board games
Go to the library, pick a book to read aloud to one another
Listen to music, or better yet, play your own version of Name that Tune! (it’s hilarious, trust me.)
Make cookies from scratch, or whatever strikes your fancy.
Write letters to faraway relatives.
Write a letter to toy manufacturer telling them what you like or don't like about a product of theirs.

Step5

Okay, now it’s your turn. Have each family member come up with five different non-electronic activities. Do them.

Then watch a transformation come over your kids. They’ll start to have fun. Their imaginations will blossom, their creativity will sprout, they’ll get excited to learn and do something new. You may even find that they’ll behave better, be more polite, and you’ll wonder why you didn’t shut off the TV sooner.

Tips & Warnings

Visit the resource link below. It has all sorts of scary TV statistics.

Resources

Scary TV Statistics

Comments

Fike said

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on 1/25/2008 We try to mix it up. Of course, as movie reviewers, we do have the idiot boxes around. We like to think of what we do (my wife and I) as unraveling the creative process deployed by the writers, directors, and actors, but we agree with you that if you were to watch TV on "another level," it could just substitute for quality time to exercise one's *own* imagination. But those TV programs *are* the product of imaginations (some better, some worse, some horrifically stultifying), so watching them *can* be an homage to the creator's own creativity (I recognize you're not "bashing" TV - that's not the point of what you wrote, I don't believe). Cards, board games? Certainly! Even trick dice and magic tricks are ways to get our little sprouts to think creatively. Yay!