The No-Television Experiment, Day 7

Sebastian (age 4) and Serena (age 2) are having their supper at the picnic table in the backyard; they've been playing outside for hours, ever since we got home from running errands this afternoon.  Kai (7 months) is sitting on the living-room floor, playing happily by himself with a crow sounder.  The only other sound is the whirring of the fans in the living room and the kitchen.  Have I missed the television during our first TV-free week?  Not a bit.  Have the kids missed it?  Not much, as far as I can tell.

Sebastian has asked to watch TV perhaps four times during the week but without much conviction.  There hasn't even been a single "pleeeease?" when I've said no.  I didn't think it would be that easy; Sebastian is a persistent and goal-oriented kid, normally, and doesn't give up easily when he wants something--which makes me think that he doesn't really want to watch TV so much after all.

So what has he been doing instead, all week?  Well, we've been getting out of the house a lot more than usual.  Sebastian and Serena have been seeking entertainment in the backyard when they get bored with whatever they've been doing in the house, and even I've been getting out for more exercise and fresh air; when the kids start to get whiny, I'm more likely to get them all out for a walk than I was when I could count on the TV to keep them mesmerized for an hour or so before suppertime, naptime, bathtime, or storytime.

The kids have been more creative indoors, too: drawing and painting much more than usual (is it a coincidence that their drawings have suddenly gotten much more sophisticated in the last six days?), building, and inventing elaborate games of "house."  Sebastian's laziness has practically disappeared.  He's only once complained that it's too hot out, and he's been hiking happily for an hour or more at a time.  He always wants to go out when I ask him.  He even cleans up after himself with significantly less grumbling, and he doesn't get angry or grouchy as easily as he used to.  Is it my imagination, or has he actually become happier in such a short period of time?  Can television viewing really have such a strong effect on a person's whole life?

Both Sebastian and Serena have, as I'd hoped, started requesting stories during the day--reading is not just for bedtime any longer.  This has been especially beneficial for Serena, since she gets tired early in the evenings.  In the last week, she has read about three times as many stories as she did in the week before (Sebastian has read about twice as many)!  What makes me even happier is that they're both sitting through longer books and more books in French and Chinese.

As a bonus, I've somehow been getting them to bed noticeably earlier every night since we shut the TV set off.  It's easier to get them settled away for the night when you don't have to wait for a show to be over before you serve supper or put them in the bathtub, when they've already read plenty of stories during the day, and when they're actually tired because they've gotten plenty of exercise.

My concern that keeping the TV off would be bad for the children's Chinese seems to have been unfounded, too.  I no longer have to wait for the current show to be over in order to talk to them, and their brains are not filled with silly one-liners from their favorite programs.  I've noticed that we've actually been talking to each other more in French and Chinese and reciting more French and Chinese nursery rhymes and songs during the day.

My days haven't become any harder without the electronic babysitter.  Although I've been forced to pay more attention to the children, my interactions with them have been less stressful, so my energy levels have increased a bit, and, besides, I can think better without the constant chatter in the background.

I hope I continue to see improvements as the no-television experiment continues.  In the meantime, I am already fantasizing about throwing the TV set away forever (or at least locking it in a room where it can only be watched a couple of hours a week).  I haven't taken it out of the living room yet--mostly because it's too heavy for me to lift by myself--but I've been greedily eyeing the corner that it occupies, thinking about all the extra space I'd have if it were gone.

The No-Television Experiment, Day I

Sebastian, our four-year-old, has been gradually sneaking in more and more TV time every day since preschool let out for the summer in May, and to make matters worse, he's less interested than before in the educational (mostly French and Chinese) DVDs that I went through so much trouble to find for him and more interested in the loud and sarcastic Disney movies that we had planned to let him watch only once.  

At the same time (coincidence, or cause and effect?), he has become less and less inclined to exert himself: he's "too tired" to put away his toys after he plays with them, it's "too hot" to play in the backyard, and he needs to be carried because riding his bicycle is "too hard."  He wanders around the house repeating obnoxious phrases from the films such as, "You're biting my butt!" (Madagascar) to himself--and sometimes to me.  This morning, for the first time in his life, he didn't want to go out for a walk when I invited him--preferring, he explained, to stay home and watch TV.  

We went for the walk, and the television is now officially off until school starts up again after Labor Day.  Who knows?  It might even stay off longer than that--I might put it in storage or in our bedroom and bring out my grandfather's old electric organ to occupy the place of honor in the living room--but a month and a half should be long enough to show whether no TV will make a positive difference in my children's lives and behavior.

I grew up without a television set in the house until I was eleven years old, and when my parents did break down and buy one, they put it in their bedroom, where we were allowed to sit and watch it for an hour a day.  Most of the time my choice of program was Square One TV on PBS.  

Because of that lack of early exposure, I have never had much patience for television.  I have no tolerance at all for commercials and the other mindless chitchat and sensationalization that seems to occupy most of the time slots on most television channels, so I'm glad my husband hasn't insisted on getting cable.  

We do have a DVD player and a VHS player because Steve didn't want to do away with the television completely when Sebastian was born four years ago (he now watches "television" only on his computer--the news and a couple of sci-fi shows, which he downloads from the networks' websites).  As soon as Sebastian figured out what they could do--when he was less than a year old--it became a constant struggle for me to keep the set turned off most of the day.

Until this spring he watched the French and Chinese and other educational videos that I chose for him almost exclusively, but then I let him watch Stuart Little and 101 Dalmatians in French, thinking that it would be good for his French to hear more complex conversations than he had heard before.  When Steve saw that, he got him the English versions of those two movies, and then we let him watch a couple of classic Disney videos that someone had given us for free at a garage sale.  When he couldn't stand to watch those one more time, Steve got him some of the more recent animated blockbusters--Toy Story, Finding Nemo, Madagascar--and it all went downhill from there.  These films are cute enough in some ways, but I also find them loud, hyperactive, and sarcastic, as well as chock-full of gratuitous violence passing itself off as comedy (or even normality).  And of course they are all in English; every hour he spends watching them is an hour that he is not getting any exposure to French or Chinese.  I am not going to miss them much.

My one concern is that I won't be able to keep up the kids' Chinese without TV.  Since my own Chinese is very limited, I've been relying to a large extent on educational shows to teach Sebastian and Serena Chinese vocabulary and to help keep the words and phrases fresh in my own mind.  Will they end up with less exposure to Chinese over the next month and a half, or will the lack of TV time as good for their Chinese-language skills as I suspect it will be for some other aspects of their lives?  Will we, perhaps, finally get around to reading those Chinese books we have lying around, and will we find more time to actually speak with each other in Chinese?

Although he has always loved reading, Sebastian only wants to sit through stories in the evenings after supper, and I'm hoping that will change.  I want to introduce him to longer books with fewer pictures such as Winnie the Pooh and Peter Pan and to substitute audiobooks for some of his former TV time.  Since last fall he has enjoyed listening to some of his favorite stories--Curious George, Madeline, The Polar Express--on tape when he goes to bed, and for the last few days we have already been listening to Winnie the Pooh on CD in the car and Little Bear on tape at home.  

It may be harder for me to find appropriate audiobooks for him in French and Chinese, since his comprehension level in both languages--and especially in Chinese--is much lower than in English.  I might have to get creative and make my own recordings for him to listen to at night and when I'm busy doing laundry or cooking supper.  That could even become a project for the whole family.

I will try to make posts on the progress of the No-Television Experiment at least once a week until school starts in September.  I'm sure there will be plenty to report!

LANGUAGE LEARNING IS NEVER WASTED, by guest blogger Francie Gow

When I was 22, I spent a year teaching English conversation classes in the French town of Armentières, nestled on the Belgian border. I had specifically asked to be sent to that region so that I could be as close as possible to my Dutch relatives.

Although I had not moved to France with the specific intention of learning Dutch, the circumstances turned out to be ideal. I only had to spend 12 hours a week in the classroom, leaving me with lots of spare time to study and listen to my new Teach Yourself Dutch tape. The lycée where I taught happened to offer Dutch as a language option, so I introduced myself to the teacher (a native speaker) and obtained permission to sit in on her beginner, intermediate and advanced classes. My frequent visits to my relatives provided natural contexts in which to practice and plenty of motivation.

By the end of that year, I could communicate effectively, if not fluently, with my few Dutch relatives who could not speak English (the very oldest and the very youngest). The biggest rewards came from finally getting to know my Oma better and being able to go out and run errands with her without necessarily needing my Opa around to translate. Naturally, she was as thrilled as I was with this development.

Of course, once I was back in Canada, I stopped using my Dutch. A year later, Opa and Oma flew in for a visit, and I went to meet them at the airport. When Oma began to tell me about their trip, I was horrified to discover that I had no idea what she was saying. I simply couldn’t follow her anymore. She, too, looked crestfallen, and I wondered whether all my efforts had been futile.

I needn’t have worried. When I returned to the country a few years later, it took only two or three days of real immersion to “unlock” most of what I had absorbed of the language. It had simply gone dormant in the interim. What a relief!

I once stumbled on a blog post by Tim Ferriss called “Reactivating Forgotten Languages: How to Catch Up.” His premise is that it is not necessary to “keep up” with languages that you use only occasionally; you can always “catch up” by giving yourself a shot of exposure just before you need it. This certainly reflects my experience.

I now know that most of my Dutch will come back on
its own a few days into a trip to the Netherlands.
However, sometimes it’s nice—or even necessary,
depending on whom I see when—to hit the ground
running.  Partly inspired by Ferriss and partly by Susan,
I have picked up the habit of buying a new
Harry Potter book in Dutch translation every time I visit
(generally once every two to four years). I don’t read it
right away; instead I wait for the month before my next
trip is scheduled. I already know the story, so I don’t
struggle with the narrative, and the process of reading
“wakes up” all those useful verbs and prepositions,
allowing me to start stringing sentences together upon
arrival. I still improve over the first few days, but I
get to skip that feeling of paralysis. I have twice put
this technique into practice successfully, and Harry Potter en de Gevangene van Azkaban is now sitting patiently on my shelf, waiting for me to book my next ticket...

Blogging Carnival on Bilingualism

My post about my year abroad in Istanbul is part of the most recent Blogging Carnival on Bilingualism, hosted by Sarah Lafayette on her blog, Bringing Up Baby Bilingual.  The Blogging Carnival is a wonderful way to connect with other parents, educators, and students of languages.  For more information on the Blogging Carnival on Bilingualism and upcoming Carnival topics, please see founder Letizia's Bilingual For Fun blog.