Okay, this post might make me seem like a horrible parent. There are times when I feel like I am not a good parent because my kid LOVES TV. I mean, really loves TV. So much so, that he insists on having a video running in his room at all times. We put the Baby Einstein DVD's on repeat in there. Then the TV in the living room is tuned to PBS Sprout all day. I told you this was going to make us sound bad. The TV is on all the time. If we turn it off, Andrew will stand and point to it and tell us "TV on". In our defense, we do impose some limits. He doesn't get to watch it in bed. Sleeping time is for sleeping.
Now, I need to explain some things. He does not sit there and watch TV all day. We play with cars and balls, we color, we sing, dance, play Daddy's bass guitar, we read books. In short, we do a lot of stuff that has nothing to do with the TV. But it is there, in the background. Sometimes, he will grab his juice and go sit in his beanbag chair or the couch and watch TV for a little while. So, on the average, he probably watches about a hour, maybe two hours a day.
So, we are eating dinner last week and Andrew starts playing with his corn. He picks up a piece and tells me "1", so I think cool he is learning his numbers. He picks up another piece and says "2". This continues all the way to 5. I am stunned and so is Justin. We didn't know he could count to 5. Recently, we switched the Baby Einstein DVD in his room to the counting one. He has been enamoured of the tiger in it. Absolutely loves the tiger. Looks like it worked. I will say that we read him books with numbers in them. We tell him the names for everything. In general, all the things you are supposed to do.
Although, after 5 he told us the next piece was 8, so there is work to do.
2 comments:
Ahhhhh yes.
Me too. TV is the one thing that ruins my entry into the crunchy club. I eat organic, but my kids watch way too much tv!!
Gracie learned the ABC's and how to count to twenty by the time she turned two. I totally give all the credit to Sesame Street.
It's funny you talked about tv today because we are *hopefully* going tv free for December. It's my plan, I still have to get James onboard. The worst part about tv for me, even pbs, is the stupid commercials. And with Christmas coming and all the extra kid focused advertising I am going to try to go without. Today was actually the first day without any tv at all since I have no idea when. I am very proud of myself!! We'll see if I can keep it up.
He pays attention to everything. I am sure that he knows more than we think he does.
I totally feel for you, Alice. Last year my babysitter's son was obsessed with Dora's Talking Kitchen because of the commercials. I do like PBS Sprout because there aren't as many commercials. I might consider switching to DVD's for Christmas time next year. The advertising is insidious.
Good luck with going TV free. I think TV has it's place, but at this time of year, the kids programming becomes a vehicle for the toy companies.
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